At an age when most actresses are being phased out, I am being phased in - with a vengeance.

Memory is the first casualty of middle age, if I remember correctly.

Were women meant to do everything - work and have babies?

It's not just in Hollywood that women run the risk of being passed by once they reach 50. It happens in real life, too.

Though beauty gives you a weird sense of entitlement, it's rather frightening and threatening to have others ascribe such importance to something you know you're just renting for a while.

Self-acceptance has been a blessed by-product of middle age.

I may not be a great actress but I've become the greatest at screen orgasms. Ten seconds of heavy breathing, roll your head from side to side, simulate a slight asthma attack and die a little.