JUDI AND HELEN AND MERYL, OH MY

Judi and Helen and Meryl, oh my

The year's just begun and it's already a hot one for indomitable dames. I'm

talking about women of a certain vintage grabbing the spotlight -- Speaker

Nancy, Candidate Hillary, glam stars Judi, Helen and Meryl. Even Jane's back

marching against the war.

Ditch the black balloons. Older women are not over the hill, they're taking

it.

An L.A. film critic, commenting on the three Oscar contenders over 50,

declared, ''Older women have come back into style,'' which is very nice to

hear, particularly if you are one.

But when was that, when older women were in style?

Not in the way that we see them now, proud and sassy, high profile, deep

cleavage.

After seeing Helen Mirren in ''The Queen'' I imagined her wrapping up her

scenes and saying, ''Burn the brogues, boys. Bring me my bustier.''

Tight curls, shapeless cardigan, flat shoes, tweed skirt is how Mirren

dressed to play the British monarch. Plus always her purse in hand or sitting

next to her. Why does a queen need a purse? Surely not for her ID. But the

purse and the rest of the costume were spot on, capturing not only the queen

but the classic matron style -- a little fussy, a bit dumpy, slightly pinched.

Not a look anywhere close to hot.

And not for the real Helen, Meryl or Judi. Nor for the smart-talking

Candice Bergen, doing a lip lock on ''Boston Legal.''

The Hollywood media are making much of the phenom of three out of five

Oscar nominees for best actress being over 50. But maybe it's just a

long-awaited reflection of who's out there. Thirty percent of American women

are over 50 -- women who do not sit quietly next to their purses and who, like

Helen and the gang, might well still be peaking.

Meryl Streep told Entertainment Weekly that Hollywood should be grateful to

women her age. They're the ones who continue to buy tickets and go to movies.

''They damn well better market to us,'' said Streep, ''and give us

something to watch.''

Streep also told a British reporter that in spite of her ''Prada'' honors

she may quit acting until there are better parts for her contemporaries,

''roles that do not depict women of my age as either dotty or horrible.''

Hollywood has long sidelined older actresses, meaning anyone over 40,

giving them predictable, secondary roles, heavy on dying mothers and freaky

landladies.

Jill Clayburgh once lost out on a TV role playing the mother of teenagers

because a director thought she was too old, even though Clayburgh at the time

in real life was the mother of teenagers.

Could be that reality gap is closing as more middle-aged actresses play

middle-aged women. Sally Field's character on ABC's ''Brothers and Sisters''

just had a 60th birthday party. Field turned 60 last year.

In ''The Queen,'' Mirren plays a woman who is a decade older than she, but

in ''Elizabeth I'' she got to play all ages of that queen and was particularly

lusty in her passionate middle age.

My actress friend Mollie defines Mirren's quality as sexy elegance, which

not only makes her peers proud but ''gives younger women someone to grow into.

Someone who knows her craft and works her butt off. And then looks fabulous.''

Judi Dench gets to not look fabulous in ''Notes on a Scandal,'' as a

bitter, downright scary teacher, a departure from her normal lovely self.

There's another reality: that older women aren't predictable.

Dench's director in ''Notes on a Scandal'' has said, ''People get more

interesting the older they get.''

Do you think?