Barbara Walters audition

The release of Barbara Walters'  new memoir, Audition, has prompted a wave of personal appearances on the part of the 78-year-old star of The View, who now says she has mellowed.

One thing that has definitely mellowed is her face. Over fifty years of watching Baba Wawa, whose father was a friend of my father's,  I have had her in front of me as a role model. First, my mother took me to the same dressmaker when I was a chubby child (she was, too). The clothes were supposed to mask our bodies and "flatter" us, and I can still remember my mom selecting two patterns that Mrs. Lou Walters (Barbara's mother) also chose.

Then, my father held her up to me as an example of how to succeed in a man's world.

Now, she's my model for how to protect your face from aging.

I've been looking at her on HDTV for several weeks now. There's no chance you could guess her age if you didn't know. And yet, I suspect she has had only one complete facelift, and that one many years ago.

My late husband, who was a physician, used to tell me a woman could only have one facelift without looking "pulled" and unnatural. Barbara does not have the telltale wide mouth of the multiple facelift addict.  But Celebrity Plastic Surgery says she has had multiple surgeries, with a natural outcome in mind.

QUICK TAKE: Bring it on.  I want to look like her when I grow up.

--posted by francine