You're showing your age

Everyone knows the first rule of etiquette - never ask a lady her age. Problem is, in these modern times, where whole world's your gynaecologist (especially if Perez Hilton's on the case), age is the least of your worries.

Nonetheless, some folks in Hollywood are getting hot under the collar about the fact that audiences might get wise to the chicken neck it's hiding. As a consequence, one of the world's most popular websites, IMDb.com, is coming under fire for showing artists' birth dates.

Performers and behind-the-scenes talents are up in bingo-winged arms about their true ages being revealed, not only to fans but also other industry bigwigs. It's a fair point - Lancome might be able to make Julia Roberts look younger than her niece Emma, but it's much harder to airbrush a birth certificate.

In essence, sites like IMDb are holding up a figurative mirror to these glamorous stars, and they don't like what they see in it. Interestingly, the Huffington Post chose to illustrate their coverage of this story with a screen grab of Demi Moore's page on IMDb - which lists her birthdate as '1962'. Although it's not clear whether that's BC or AD.

Age discrimination legislation is now commonplace around the world, and was introduced to safeguard workers against agist hiring policies. Technically, employers aren't supposed to ask prospective employees their age, and candidates are advised to leave their birth date off the CV.

According to the various film-making guilds, Hollywood's workforce suffers from an industrial prejudice that favours 25-year olds. The way they see it, listing someone's age on their profile page exacerbates the problem and makes it easier for unscrupulous producers and casting directors to disregard talent that's the wrong side of forty.

It's a particular problem for writers, who are expected to convincingly convey the lifestyle of people several decades their junior. One writer, Paul Levine, commented "Not that anything ever overt was said, but not one time was I interviewed by my someone my own age. I was always interviewed by people 20 to 30 years younger. It could be a problem if a show runner or his or her first lieutenant has scripts piling up, and they were trying to figure out who to interview. Looking at a credit list, if one writer is 35 and the other is 52, they're going for the 35 year old."

Unfortunately, the talents could get their own way and have their birth date expunged from IMDB, but it won't really change the underlying problem. They say you're only as good as your last job, and if your last job involved Abbott and Costello, you're going to be hard pressed convincing anyone that you're still in your flirty thirties.

More more Moore

You've got to hand it to Demi Moore, the woman is looking good for her age. And although she seems to get fewer bookings than Anne Widdecombe's stylist, her age-defying looks have at least managed to snag her a hot boy-toy in the form of gormless prankster Ashton Kutcher.

However, it's not all happy sailing on planet perfect. Demi is distressed about the constant speculation concerning her Dorian Gray-like refusal to age. Despite the fact there are whole websites devoted to the fact that she seems to regenerate herself more often than Doctor Who, Demi insists that she's never been under the knife.

In a new interview with French Marie Claire, Demi maintains that she has never had 'it' done, responding to the ongoing rumours that she underwent a full body overhaul in 2004. Anyone who saw her in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle will have an idea as to how this rumour started, as well as my sympathies for losing almost two hours of their life to that staggeringly awful eye-piss of a movie. In one notable scene, she emerged from the ocean in a bikini like a taut-skinned cross between Ursula Andress and the T1000.

Of course, you'd be forgiven for raising a botoxed eyebrow at the idea that Demi is as yet untouched by the surgeon's scalpel. When she appeared in GI Jane after a rumoured boob-job, viewers had trouble trying to figure out which of the three spheres was supposed to be her shaven head (it was the one in the middle).

Thankfully, the ever truthful Hollywood housewife hasn't ruled out a little cosmetic collusion later in life. Speaking from the silicon-shielded heart, she says "...the day when I start crying when I look at myself in the mirror might be the day when I'm less adamant about not having it done. But for the moment I prefer to be a beautiful woman of my age than try desperately to look 30." So it's good that she's retained her humility throughout all this.

The good news is that she's working again, and her sinister, inflexible visage has nothing to do with her success. Her new role in forthcoming TV show The Beautiful Life was won on talent alone - I'm sure that exec-producer Ashton Kutcher had absolutely no say in the casting. However, a word of caution to the fresh-faced forty-something. Relying on nature for your youthful good looks is all well and good, but when your husband (15 years your junior) casts you as an 'ex-model obsessed with plastic surgery' you need to start reading between the laughter lines.