Kyra the Closer

Far be it from me to call 40 old, but apparently it's retirement age in Hollywood. Women in Hollywood are just about relegated to the boneyard when they reach that age. Not everyone is Meryl Streep.

Some women over 40 have landed good TV gigs that keep them working and also earning. Kyra Sedgwick, a beautiful and talented actress, is over 40 and stars in her own series on TNT, The Closer. I love Kyra's looks, including that incredible wide mouth with the great lips.

The Closer, based on just its premise, probably isn't something that would have drawn me to spend Monday nights in front of the tube unless it was to see Kyra. A year or so ago I found the first season DVD and watched it in a weekend. I was so taken by the character of Los Angeles Police Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson that I decided to make it part of my weekly routine. Hey, ladies...so I'm not the first guy to watch a show because he likes looking at a woman. I happen to know that women like looking at women, too, and while I might be looking at the curves underneath her clothes, my wife is looking at what she's wearing, and how well she wears it.

Even I think Kyra is killer in a slouch hat with the brim pushed up in front, and her trenchcoat.

The supporting cast of The Closer is top notch. It contains two of my favorite "initials" actors, J.K. Simmons and G.W. Bailey. Simmons is especially in demand. I saw him first in Law and Order as Dr. Emil Skoda, and now I see him all over the place in character roles, keeping busy.

The word is that Kyra Sedgwick and husband Kevin Bacon were snookered by Ponzi schemer and villain Bernard Madoff. Estimates vary on their losses, with some saying up to 50 million. I have no idea how much they lost, but they are both still working and at the tops of their games right now so I won't be sending them a donation. I just read that Kyra makes $300,000 an episode of The Closer. She's also the producer. I'm sure she and her hubby are not living under a freeway viaduct in a cardboard box.

It seems that when a woman is young and beautiful all sorts of doors swing open in Hollywood, but at age 40 the doors get locked. I think it depends on the woman, too. Kyra Sedgwick is extremely talented as an actress--my first exposure to her was a Shakespeare play she was in--and she plays Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson as tough and yet vulnerable. On the one hand she can interrogate the toughest, most murderous criminals (she's called The Closer because of her ability to elicit confessions), but on the other become a blubbering basket case over her dying cat.

I like The Closer and tonight I'll be in front of the set watching it, and of course, Kyra Sedgwick.