Quick, help me out here! Which sells more printed media and sends ratings sky-rocketing? Beauty secrets, plastic surgery or sex? I suspect it's sex in first place, plastic surgery second, beauty secrets running a close third. I'm listing them in alphabetical order and will blog away in that sequence.

Now, I've admitted that I'm blogging with a mission...I want to generate buzz around my website, and in turn hopefully get people turned onto onelifemanyvoices.com and help us raise much needed funds to aid hurricane relief efforts on the Gulf Coast.

Confession: I read magazines, devour tabloids, buy the NY Post, and am therefore being disingenuous when I ask even in a general sense do you think news on beauty secrets, plastic surgery, and sex sell? Darn straight they sell, and inexhaustibly apparently. I know, I'm a frequent buyer, and devour new info on this stuff on a daily basis. So, buckle your seat belts...here goes:

You're going to HATE this! But bear with me, and read further, because plastic surgery and sex will prove to be more tit-a-lating....ummmmmnnnnn....

BEAUTY: What you don't do, sometimes counts MORE than what you do do...are you following me?

I have been excessive in many ways BUT I HAVE NEVER SMOKED CIGARETTES and I NEVER DRINK ALCOHOL. Disclaimer: I grab a cigarette on occasion, but like Bill Clinton, I don't inhale...much. I've tasted wine, or taken a sip of a frosty adult beverage...but alcohol makes me sleepy, and sick...besides I FAR prefer to save the calories for dessert.

I think that being a non-smoker and non-alcohol drinker has aided my health, longevity, and yes, my looks. I've been on people's TV screens for 41 years, and I didn't start as a child actor. Just do the math...but I think I look good for my age, and feel heartily validated when folks recognize me from my Rachel on Another World days-- which were 35 years ago!

I take good care of my skin...never go to sleep with out cleaning my face very well and applying moisturizer.

I use small white, inexpensive wash cloths instead of tissues...and launder them separately in bleach. I think they get your face cleaner and exfoliate better than some expensive product. I read about that "secret" decades ago in an article about Gloria Swanson (star of Sunset Boulevard) who was a great beauty in her late seventies.

I have facials every few months at Mario Badescu here in Manhattan. I use their cucumber make-up remover, and some of their facial masks...like flower and tonic. They don't push product on you, and when they clean your pores you don't have to hide out for 3 days.

I sleep... a lot when I need to. I have even taken to my bed before 8 pm. Rest, nap, or sleep when you are tired--what a concept. For those of you with young children, or any other distractions and/or obligations--I advise asking, or begging for help for at least one night a week of quiet, personal time....get tough about it if you have to. If you don't take care of yourself, you can't take care of anyone else.

As regards sleep, make your bed as comfortable and attractive as you can afford to. Fresh white sheets, (bleachable again) make an inviting cocoon, so you don't have to get fancy about it...unless it strikes your fancy to do so. Visit my cousin Claudia Strasser's Website for some cool out-there frilly, French boudoir ideas www.theparisapartment.com. But, really clean white sheets work well too.

The next one is a tricky concept, because of late, I've fallen victim to forgetting this good strategy. Age ain't nothing but a number...ignore anyone else's concept of what you should look like, or should have done by the time you are whatever age you are. This is a deal between you and your Higher Power...look INWARD and not just IN the mirror...and keep looking for ways to grow and challenge yourself.

I don't want to get all Oprah on you, because I find her goals for all of us DAUNTING...I don't want to feel over-whelmed even by someone telling me all about realizing my personal potential...they mean to be encouraging but personally, I find it too much information from too remote and outside a source. I think I am better off getting biblio-therapy (from a book) than I am seeing it radiating out of my TV set...but that's me...get help from wherever it helps you...that's the only point here...

OOOps...I digress...

YUP, I'VE HAD SOME "WORK" DONE. Here is the menu in chronological order:

Breast enhancement, Silicone Implants--had a "boob job" yes girls, got the girls done around 1983 when they were still giving everyone silicone implants with dispatch. I met my future surgeon at a cocktail party, and made an appointment the next week. I had breast fed both my sons and was never more than a B cup...something possessed me and in I went--and out I came with a C plus and a horrific case of internal bleeding and edema. My Doctor was out of town when I called in terrible post-op pain and was reluctant to come back. Apparently, he should have insisted I come in and drained out all the excess blood--but he didn't and I swelled up by the hour and the subsequent weeks were spent in terrible pain. Pretty awful outcome when I just wanted to fill out a bikini top better?

So currently, with starlets on the covers of magazines retailing their plastic surgery nightmares-- all the way back to Jenny Jones revealing her what--eleven breast procedures?--we have the hint that plastic surgery isn't always as easy, or as pain free as they would like you to believe.

My implants had to be replaced because the edema caused them to encapsulate or harden. As recently as 6 years ago, when I was worried about the published concerns about silicone--I tried to have them entirely removed only to have a really well-known Beverly Hills plastic surgeon tell me I'd look hideous and just to safely down-size and put them half under the chest wall to ensure the girls would stay perky looking and soft to the touch...excuse me...yeah, I just gave myself a quick feel and he was as good as his promise.

Just don't buy into everything you are promised without triple checking and doing your research...like if you are planning to have a baby in the future, you might be told that you won't have any trouble breast feeding with implants in your breasts. They may also promise no loss of sensation in your breast and nipples. May I respectfully suggest, you check that out before you proceed?

Your breasts will get larger and change shape during pregnancy, what will be going on with your implants in relationship to the changes in your natural breast tissue? I'm just asking..

In 1985, in Los Angeles, a brilliant plastic surgeon with several other important ocular degrees, pulled forward my lower lids and while I was wide awake and only on a local painkiller--LIPOSUCTIONNED the fat out of the puffy bags I'd had under my eyes since I was 25. That was easy and THE RESULT WAS AMAZING! No cutting, it took 20 minutes and 5 days later the minimal black and blue was gone and I've been delighted ever since. He's a genius, and if I get his permission to give out his name I'll add it to this blog. Happy and delighted to share.

In 2004, while in Paris, a friend sent me to one of their best plastic surgeons, who basically took my too soft neck and pulled it behind my ears...(LOL) talk about sticking your neck out...I got on a plane and flew back to New York four days later. Remember the scene where David is shocked when Dorian shows him that her neck is black and blue because of a run-in with some Santi crime family member or another? I suggested we put that in because in fact my neck had some bruises on it, and it coincided with the dialogue indicating Dorian had been roughed up...well, that's history now. I don't think the results lasted long enough, and like Nora Ephron, I hate my neck. I may be the last of my generation's Divas to get a full face lift--just because I'm afraid it will come out badly and I'll get some unpredicted dire side-effect (I usually do). So I'm looking for someone whose specialty is necks....e-mail me as I will obviously travel for good work.

Speaking of side effects, collagen hardens on me, botox got funky results, and lip filler made lumps. No great loss, because I hate needles anyway, but I won't be injecting stuff in my face anytime soon...though...a buddy told me she had fat from her hips injected into her face...Hey, my hips could supply a small village of women with fat, and I'm willing to be a donor just to help out (LOL)...I'm getting sillier by the minute, so let me take a deep breath and move onto SEX.

I remember sex, I remember it well... and fondly. In the past I would term myself a passionate Victorian, right now I'm just Victorian. It's been awhile since I've been in a relationship...and here's what I think about that:
BETTER NO RELATIONSHIP THAN A BAD ONE!!!!

And here's an extra bang (pun intended) for your blog buck:

CASUAL SEX IS THE MOST MORONIC OXYMORON IN OUR LEXICON.

Great sex could never be casual...never!

That's my experience, and I know what I know...and isn't having un-protected sex with someone you hardly know, or seeking out your true love in bars non-sensical?

I have a secret indulgence that is available only in my dressing room at the studio, while waiting for my scenes to be shot: don't tell ABC this but if Jerry Springer, or Maury, or any of the Judge shows are on I am glued to the set! But, I always marvel as they do DNA tests to find the baby's daddy, or the cheating sex addicted mate needs to confess all on national TV--what were they thinking? They weren't thinking, at all! And yet, the mind is one of the most powerful organs for sexual attraction, stimulation, satisfaction, and long term gratification...how can you "loose your mind" with real love, how can you be deeply sexual and sensual unless you indeed share your mind, heart, soul and spirit with the other person?

I was young, and frisky during the big Sexual Revolution, but I was also married and monogamous...to this day the one regret I have in my sexual behavior is when I gave into pressure to be more "free"--- and a few times I bought into that "oh whattheheck it's just a one night stand--it's good to be more expressive and free" thing and I truly regret it...and I hate regretting stuff because it doesn't get you anywhere unless it becomes part of your compass to where you DON'T WANT TO GO-- EVER AGAIN!

Everyone always wants to know if actors who have chemistry on screen, are play-acting or playing around off-camera. I have never had an affair with one of the fabulous leading men I've worked with on One Life to Live...But, I did have long term affairs with TWO actors who were once on the show -- AFTER they had left the show.

I am such a TEASE...I'm not going to name names or say anything other than that they were both younger and gorgeous..

Oh dear, blogging is addictive and this Diva likes the subtle lighting the computer screen throws on the face...I'm ready for my close-up Mr. Gates.