Meg Ryan’s 'New Look' Proves Plastic Surgery Shame Is Alive and Well

Why is plastic surgery shrouded in shame? (Photo: Gallery Stock)

Social media is buzzing about how different Meg Ryan looks after she presented at Sunday night’s Tony Awards. Many people took to Twitter to express their shock by tweeting, “What happened to Meg Ryan’s face?” while some harshly criticized Ryan for allegedly having plastic surgery.

Others quickly came to the 54-year-old actress’ defense. Twitter user @blakedan wrote: “Let’s all drag Meg Ryan for having tried to keep up with the youth-worshiping world we live in and then talk about how badly she did it!” Another user, @SteacyC, wrote: “Meg Ryan can do whatever she wants to with her own damn face. Get over it already. Put that energy into something far more useful.”

However, despite the fact that several plastic surgeons have said Ryan clearly had work done — “It looks like she’s had multiple laser resurfacings, as well as way too much Botox and heavily pumped filler, especially in her overstuffed cheeks,” plastic surgeon Lyle M. Back, M.D., told Radar Online — Ryan has never publicly admitted to having plastic surgery. In fact, she told Porter magazine that she “loves” her age and doesn’t fret about getting older, according to the Mirror. “I love my life right now,” she said. “I love what I know about. I love the person I’ve become, the one I’ve evolved into. In my life I’ve been scrappy as hell, but I feel easy with things now. I think that comes with age.”

Actress Meg Ryan created a social media stir with her new look at the 2016 Tony Awards.

Ryan is far from the only actress to be bombarded with plastic surgery rumors. Renee Zellweger, Courteney Cox, Mary-Kate Olsen and Uma Thurman have all faced similar speculation and criticism. If any of them have gone under the knife, it’s understandable why they wouldn’t fess up to it — beyond it not being anyone’s business. That’s because even though plastic surgery is more popular than ever — the American Society of Plastic Surgeons reports that 15.6 million cosmetic procedures, including both minimally invasive and surgical, were performed in the U.S. in 2014, up 3 percent since 2013 — there’s still such a stigma attached to it.

“I think plastic surgery still feels very private,” Dendy E. Engelman, MD, a board-certified dermatologic surgeon and partner at Manhattan Dermatology and Cosmetic Surgery, tells Yahoo Beauty. “Some celebrities don’t even admit to a little ‘tweaking’ with Botox, fillers or laser, which are so less invasive and becoming much more accepted as tools to age gracefully.”

But the desire to keep cosmetic surgery under wraps may lessen with age. “I think as celebrities get older, they may feel more comfortable with sharing their secrets,” Engelman says. “Think of Jane Fonda. She’s in her 70s, looks fabulous and is less shy about how she has beat the clock.”

Engelman adds: “I do think the stigma is far less than [it] used to be and will be because the work of plastic surgeons is so much more natural now. It is not as obvious as the ‘wind-blown tightness’ that it once was. We are all looking to increase [facial] volume, which is what we lose as we age. The key is to restore volume as it is lost and to correct lines and wrinkles right when they start to appear, so that we maintain a youthful look rather than having to undergo drastic measures later, which are then quite obvious.”