Since we're on the subject ...

Helen Mirren is sixty-freaking-three. Has been, in fact, since July 26. So there's really no reason to bring it up, except as an excuse to post this photo of Dame Helen in a skimpy red bikini during a recent holiday. :)

All hail the Queen ...

Helen Mirren, still getting it done at age 62, doing a brief but cute interview on the Today show this morning to promote her photo-filled memoir, In the Frame:



I would have had her appearance on Letterman last night if the cable hadn't gone out for the exact span of her interview. Bother.

The stars ... they really are like us!

So how does one of the world's best actors unwind just hours after winning the Academy Award. In the case of Dame Helen Mirren, newly anointed Best Actress of the Universe for her lead role in The Queen - it's tearing into a very American meal of a hamburger at the Governors' Ball:




Why is is this a big deal? Only because two years ago, then-newly anointed Best Actress of the Universe Hilary Swank sampled similar fare at a local L.A. diner soon after picking up her second Oscar for Million Dollar Baby:



To be fair, Swank's burger was of the veggie variety, but there is a pattern - and, perhaps, a new Oscar tradition. After all, it's very likely that the women who have to fit into those slinky gowns probably haven't eaten in days prior to the Academy Awards ceremony. Now, if we can just find a shot from 2006 of Reese Witherspoon and her statuette at McDonalds, and we'll really have something ...