Meryl’s tip for good skin: Don’t touch your face
WITH her youthful glow and blemishfree skin, she does not look like a woman approaching her 70s.
And although you might assume Meryl Streep’s porcelain skin is the result of using expensive lotions and potions, the actress’s biggest beauty secret doesn’t cost a penny.
The 68-year-old just refrains from touching her face to maintain radiant skin, according to journalist Fi Glover.
Miss Glover said she was at a dinner party with the three-time Oscar winner. She told her BBC podcast, Fortunately: ‘She said that her one beauty secret was never to touch her face.’
And the experts agree. Dermatologist Dr Nicole Chiang said: ‘When you touch your face you are transferring germs which can potentially cause infections on the face.
‘And if your skin barrier function is impaired, such as with dry skin or eczema, it can allow organisms to get into the skin.’
AN OPERA singer is locked in a High Court battle with her former boyfriend over her claim that she helped him write a hit movie starring Meryl Streep.
Julia Kogan says she helped Nicholas Martin with the script for musical comedy-drama Florence Foster Jenkins while they were in a ‘loving relationship’ in 2013.
The 46-year-old says she was initially scared to speak up about their ‘closely intertwined collaboration’ over fears Mr Martin would dump her. She is now seeking a shared writing credit and a slice of what he was paid for the 2016 movie which also starred Hugh Grant and earned £33million at the box office.
Mr Martin insists he was the sole author of the film, while she was simply a supportive girlfriend. Her contribution was mostly ‘guff’, he says.
The film directed by Stephen Frears was based on the true story of Florence Foster Jenkins, a New York socialite with a notoriously bad singing voice who achieved her ambition to become an opera singer and sold out Carnegie Hall. It earned Miss Streep, who played Jenkins, a best actress nomination at this year’s Oscars.
Miss Kogan, from Fulham, south-west London, says her ex could never have written the story – which dealt with the world of opera in 1940s America – without her help and experience, garnered from her career as an award-winning professional opera singer who has herself appeared at Carnegie Hall.
Mr Martin left school with no qualifications and worked as a bouncer and a croupier before training as a TV screenwriter.
He wrote episodes of Midsomer Murders and The Bill during a 20-year TV career before the disputed screenplay landed him Hollywood success.
The court heard the couple met in 2011 with Miss Kogan moving into Mr Martin’s south London flat in February 2012, and their ‘romantic relationship’ lasted until October 2014.
Miss Kogan’s barrister Simon Malynicz QC said the script was born out of ‘two highly literate and creative people exchanging ideas and words freely’ during that time. The barrister claimed Miss Kogan was ‘looking over Mr Martin’s shoulder as he typed out the script’.
He told Judge Richard Hacon: ‘It was always co-written and always done as a collaboration.
‘She always said in public that it was Mr Martin’s project because her expectation was that, if she confronted him with what was happening, then she would lose him.’ Mr Malynicz added that Miss Kogan ‘brought an insider’s view of how opera singers perform and rehearse, as well as a detailed knowledge of opera music which forms a critical part of the film’.
He said: ‘Actual text written by Miss Kogan ended up almost verbatim in the final draft. Mr Stephen Frears, the director of the film, clearly acknowledged her influence on the film and her input to the script.’
Miss Kogan is defending Mr Martin’s bid for an order declaring he is the sole author of the script. She also wants an injunc- tion against three film production companies to prevent them publishing the script without her being jointly credited.
Tom Weisselberg QC, for Mr Martin, told the judge Miss Kogan had contributed only ‘guff’, criticism and musical advice to the process of creating the script. He said: ‘She acted as a proof reader, a critic, a supportive lover and a sounding board. None of these things promote her into an author.’
Lawyers for the film companies told the judge: ‘Miss Kogan offered ideas. He used them, or not, but she did not do the writing of the text.’
They pointed to an email Miss Kogan had sent her ex about the film, telling him: ‘This is totally your baby.’
Judge Hacon will give his ruling at a later date.
‘A supportive lover’