Like every other guy my age, I at one time masturbated to a gold bikini-clad Princess Leia in
Return of the Jedi.
As I grew up, though, I developed a serious love for the woman behind the character -- Carrie Fisher -- in a way that was more than skin deep: She's cool, hilariously funny, whip-smart, she's been through a metric ton of awful, self-inflicted shit caused by her inability to control her demons, and most importantly she's a writer with an undeniable talent for taking that inner-torment and turning it into brilliant copy.
All of that in mind, it's still shocking to see what she's looking like these days. I understand the effects of age, drugs, alcohol and general hard-living -- believe me. But somehow the knowledge of her difficult past (and, one would have to imagine, dates with the cosmetic surgeon) doesn't make it any easier to reconcile the lovely Carrie Fisher of long ago with the Margot Kidder doppelganger that Matt Lauer interviewed this morning on the
Today show.
Take a look, and kiss those childhood fantasies goodbye.
