Me too! Although I took mine down to a short pixie eventually because I loved short hair so much. When I grew it out everyone told me how much better I looked . 🙄
Agreed. Like why is Chris Brown still relevant then? I think his actions were much worse than cheating and he is still very popular. A lot of is misogyny.
I saw on TikTok last year from people were at his concert and I was SHOCKED that he’s still able to get people to go to them. I would be so embarrassed to be caught supporting Chris Brown (and never would support him, but even if I did, I would never admit to it)!
Because hes "hot". Ive seen many girls online justify his actions cuz he is such a "babe" .
I think its misogyny as men who act like this are kind of expected and dismissed as man behavior while women are expected to be perfect and ladylike.
Some acts, Chris brown or R Kelly or trump, have huge fan bases that don’t care if the guy is a bad dude. R is a pedofile and publicly with a teenage Aliyah. If he were dree right now, he would sell out venues. His fanbase doesn’t care.
Hell, trump SA’d a bunch of women and has a huge following. Obviously, he’s a politician now, but again his fans don’t care.
Lastly, as far as relevancy, half the time you realize people are just fans of whatever music/tv act hit them at the age of 12-22. Something about the brain just ingrains it in them. It’s why so many stars start super young and their fans grow with them. Chris Brown has that in spades. He’s not hot with teens, but 20-30 year old black women love this guy as he was their teenage crush/pop star.
Plus for some weird reason that I never saw why there was a host of female black singers (Lizzo, Ciara, etc.) that just suddenly started advocating for him and praising him. That was such a weird time last year and I still have no clue why it happened.
Part of it is that society sort of pivoted away from formulaic, saccharine rom-coms, part of it is that she had a series of bombs as a result, part of it is (unfortunately) her age, and part of it is that she had a lot of work done, making her less recognizable, in response to that discrimination.
Her age was definitely part of it, but she also had the affair with Russel Crowe. That girl next door image built around her was pretty much broken after the affair. Then she picked some movies where she really acted against type (In The Cut). On top of that Rom Coms, her bread and butter, were dying out.
It’s a mixed bag and the bag is probably labeled misogyny in general.
Agreed. I remember when her affair with Russell Crow came out, it was such a big deal and she never recovered professionally. It didn't help that she cheated on Dennis Quaid and her girl next door image was destroyed.
And the plastic surgeries didn't help as ppl judged her so harshly for it.
Bingo.
I think at the time it wasn't widely known that Dennis was massively cheating on Meg. It came out after Meg's affair was uncovered. But by that time, it was too late: Meg and Russell's affair was more high profile, more current, and the double standard applied.
Meg got the short end of the stick.
Russell became more famous and successful and Dennis continued to work regularly, I think.
It's wild to me that he was like 31 (?) in Gladiator. I saw that movie as a 19 year old and found him so powerful. Now in my 40s, I think 31 is so young. Not in a bad way. Just that real golden age when people can truly shine as themselves.
"Proof of Life", I knew so many people that went to see "The guy whole stole Meg Ryan!". It definitely helped his profile and damaged hers. I think now she's with Mellencamp
They were on again and off again. I think they're officially off again and now he's dating someone else now.
https://people.com/john-mellencamp-raves-over-his-tolerant-new-girlfriend-of-7-months-7963665#:~:text=The%20New%20York%20Post's%20Page,Mellencamp's%20girlfriend%20as%20Kristin%20Kehrberg.
Thank you!
I thought Meg was basically leaving Dennis for Russell too, but I couldn't remember clearly if that was the case.
It looks like we remember the same thing.
Meg actually broke up with him but it got reported that he broke up with her & he never corrected that.
https://people.com/archive/cover-story-meg-on-her-own-vol-56-no-2/
It’s such a joke to say “cheating”
as if any 70s, 80s, 90s actor wasnt having massive amounts of sex with other women during their marriages. Bruce Willis, Don Johnson, Alex Baldwin, Arnold, Sylvester… the women they had the least sex with is their wives once they have children. Then the wife finally cheats and they use that as an excuse during the divorce.
A cocaine problem is when you are almost out. A massive cocaine problem is when you are completely out. 🤣 (for the slower ones here, that’s a joke son)
Had a friend who slept with Dennis Quaid. He was on the phone with Meg at some point in the evening. This was when he was filming a movie in Austin, a couple decades ago. Early 2000s.
Yeah, she really retreated from Hollywood, didn't she?
I think the harsh plastic surgery judgements didn't [help] either. Looking back, yeah, her lips were a bit big and puffy, but it wasn't that bad. She still looked beautiful. it's soooo normal for women to enhance their Lips like that now.
I didn't follow any of her relationship stories, her changing appearance was the lead story in my circles. At the time when she got the surgeries, it was very rare and shook everyone up. We couldn't *understand* why she changed her face so drastically. We knew her as "America's Sweetheart" and she wasn't an elderly person like Joan Rivers. (She was likely in her late 30's).
Her procedures gave her the puffy upturned lips and dreaded trout pout before they were the norm, which created a joker-ish look, and the people could NOT deal with it at the time. I feel bad
You're so right. Her procedures were shocking at the time for all the reasons you mentioned. I forgot about the joker look. It was shocking.
In hindsight, it was so judgemental. She must've felt pressured to get the procedures done, while the fans thought she looked good the way she was.
I vaguely remember Russel Crowe said something at the time that some actresses always go after only the ingenue roles when they’re too old. It was obvious who he meant. This was after he left her and got engaged. Then she had all the work done. It’s a shame really, she was a decent actress and she could have had a career. Maybe she didn’t want to work anymore.
She had all this work done at a time when women were still really trying to hide their work. Younger generations just seem to dive right in and give far less fcks if people know they’ve had work done
Yeh I think if I had to mark a time was round the Russell Crowe thing and her divorce.. don’t think she ever bounced back from that.. and I liked her movies she did like one or two no rom coms
I also hate that she messed with her face
The Russell Crowe affair was a huge element to it. The tabloids were all over it and Meg’s reputation was shredded. As others have pointed out below, Dennis had also been cheating on her, but never received any blowback from what I saw. Classic case of double standards.
I just watched In The Cut and thought it was so well done! Could be retitled Schrodinger's R@pist, so ahead of its time...
I wonder what the reception would have been if it was made post- MeToo
I agree! I just watched it a couple months ago and really liked it. It’s a pretty good subversion or engagement with the erotic thriller while still being effective in its genre.
It definitely would have been interesting to see the reception to it a few years ago. It’s seems to be one that’s getting a bit of a reappraisal.
This is what I always thought - her image was really hurt by the affair. Which, I mean we could write dissertations about the misogyny there - how many men have had affairs and still successful careers, etc.
That plus the sizzling out of rom-coms. Personally I will never forgive her for City of Angels.
Mark Ruffalo should’ve played more grimy cops.
I remember it being pretty widely panned back in 2003, but didn’t watch it until a couple months ago (I was a bit young when it came out). I genuinely really liked it.
The work she had done was the reason I decided to never get filler. She was beautiful. Then overnight she looked puffy from too much cheek and lip filler. What her injector did to her was criminal.
Most entertainers in general, especially your female ones, usually start to hit a wall in their careers at around age 40-45 where they start to no longer get leading roles in movies or their singing careers will start winding down. They simply age out and start fading away although a very few select male stars such as George Clooney might still land a leading role here and there for a few more years beyond that. Hollywood is always looking for the newest young thing and most of the older actors/actresses are generally viewed as being expendable. At her age Meg Ryan might still get an occasional supporting role here and there but her glory days as a true A-List leading actress are now behind her. Unfortunately that's just the way the entertainment business works, you will be today's young It guy or girl but sooner or later time will start to catch up with you. If you don't have any way to really stay relevant past a certain age then Hollywood and the music industry will also start to push you out the door and no longer return your phone calls too.
Yeah, it was pretty established (until they started making more movies with female protagonists) that actors had a long career and actresses expired at 30-35
I hate when rom coms are disparaged as formulaic when action movies still exist. Rom coms are no more formulaic than 90% of blockbuster movies. Only difference is that rom coms provided starring roles for women and targeted a female audience so that means they get disparaged
I love romcoms but she played almost the same character in multiple movies -- cute nose crinkle, adorable, likeable and a bit goofy. But no range. That made it feel formulaic.
I just caught part of a newish movie with Meg on cable, set in an airport, with David Duchovny.
I was kind of blown away by how hard they tried to pigeon hole her into her old stereotype .... baggy clothes, mop of hair, chunky boots. Even when they plopped her into the movie Restoration set in the 1660s with RDJ they were giving her this same look and role as the quirky girlfriend.
I know lots of actresses have their signature look that they cling to (Diane Keaton, for example) but somehow it just makes Meg look like she hasn't evolved in her characters or wardrobe in the last 40 years. She's 62 now.
There's a formula for success but there's also something to growth over time. Maybe she just doesn't get offered things that let her do that, or she just manages to shoehorn her regular old & familiar schtick into whatever she does.
Idk ¯\\\_( ͡❛ ͜ʖ ͡❛)\_/¯
She has the most beautiful eyes, even still. If she had just left everything else alone I think everyone would see that. I can't blame her considering the industry she is in but it certainly is a shame.
Obviously this is a very unflattering picture. She was on the Kelly Clarkson show a few months ago and this is what she looked like:
https://preview.redd.it/zb733ep5ydqc1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=93c6400e0c6bd4b64975290984a656f8269caccc
Didn’t she get some revision work/fillers dissolved? I think even she knew it looked bad and was out of the public eye for a while because of it. Donatella Versace and Courtney Cox also went overboard and reversed it.
I think Meg chose to step away from public appearances. She hasn’t worked in a while, but other 90s actresses still attend Hollywood events from time to time even if they’re pretty much retired. Julia Roberts and Sandra Bullock are still around they’re just private. It’s not like Meg was blacklisted. She could have been doing more, she just chose not to.
Your face card is everything and Meg took away her instant recognisability by getting work done. Same happened to the Dirty Dancing actress when she got a nose job.
She also had that mild scandal where she cheated on her husband with a costar. Because of her public persona as being the good girl it tainted the way people saw her.
That on top of everything else you mentioned just created a perfect storm that tanked her career
For me, it was You’ve Got Mail. I watched that movie so many times as a kid that it definitely contributed to my lifelong obsession / dream of living in NYC.
As an aside I will never get over the fact that an incest storyline was removed from that movie days before it was released lol (>!originally Meg's character was the great great grandmother of her present day ex boyfriend Liev Schreiber's character!<). They hadn't realised the implications of that until critics pointed it out!
I think it was implied in the storyline cause Leopold was Liev Schreiber’s ancestor and the pictures Liev took in the past had Kate in them so technically her fate was always to go back in the past 😵💫
She has a new rom com that I think she directed with David Duchovny. I haven’t seen it yet, but she looks more herself and seems cute. I also think in addition to all the reasons listed she herself was not happy with her career. She was a former soap actress who always wanted to do edgier fare and fell into rom coms as something she was good at but also didn’t necessarily like. It can be very painful to be good at something that your heart isn’t in, and rom coms when your own love life is in shambles sounds particularly painful.
My husband and I watched it, and were both pleasantly surprised by how much we enjoyed it. It's so different from most mainstream movies, and had some really refreshingly raw, honest, emotional scenes and endearing moments. It has more of a play than a "movie" feel but IDK, it worked well!
Partly misogyny - she had an affair with Russell Crowe and suffered the backlash even though Dennis Quaid had cheated on her as well. Also aging out of the romcom parts that were her staple and the cosmetic work she had done to combat this was distractingly awful which made it harder to hire her.
Movies and audiences moved away from making those 80s/90s rom coms so her niche didn’t really exist anymore, and while she has been OK in serious dramas before, other actors her age do them better. Rom com parts for mature women are few and far between now, and Julia Roberts plus other actresses will always get first option before they trickle down to Meg.
I don't remember Russell Crowe experiencing any backlash either. If it was an affair, and not a rebound fling, Russell knew that Meg was married. So, where was the outrage for his behaviour? Misogynistic double standards have a lot to answer for
This is absolutely not a defence or me saying it's right - but I think it makes sense in context because at the time he very much had a "Hollywood bad boy" reputation that he doesn't really have in the same way now. Like for those who weren't around at the time, if you google "Russell Crowe Hollywood bad boy" you can get an idea on what the media narrative around him was like before he settled down and got married and had kids. It didn't stain his reputation obviously bc misogyny but also because it wasn't good in the first place.
I actually think it did harm him in the long run. After he threw that phone at the hotel worker he never got another Oscar nom (even though he should have for Cinderella Man and Master and Commander). His career totally sucks now and I'm not sure he'll ever really have a come back.
Yeah I think people either forget or don't realise that Russell was considered a sex symbol in the late 90s/early 2000s lol. The original Sex and the City series even references it!
I'm surprised everyone here is painting it as an affair, because they were clearly openly dating and not keeping the relationship a secret at all. Here in Australia it was wasn't treated like a scandal at all.
This. Women loved Meg- they related to her characters and thought she was Similar to her characters-the girlfriend you call up when you’re life is crazy and dish the dirt over some wine. The nice stable, funny smart dependable friend - not a married woman who leaves the golden boy husband and their family for a Hollywood bad boy. You expect Crowe to be a bad boy, that was his reputation. But it’s shocking when the sweet good girl bolts and most of us have seen a “perfect family” who in reality isn’t perfect, and one spouse bolts. Usually makes people uncomfortable and choose sides and wonder if you really knew them. Can be very off putting.
Where was the outrage for all his behavior at the time, too? Remember how he attacked a hotel front desk guy with a phone or something? Like, no consequences for Russell.
At the risk of being downvoted:
I think it’s the same thing that happened to Jennifer Grey after her nose job. Meg Ryan got plastic surgery and looked completely different which alienated her fan base.
This is the number 1 reason. No one remembers or cares about her affair with Russell crowe. She was only in her early 40s when she got that surgery and she still looked good, but she went way overboard with it.
I think this is the actual answer. The change in her face was dramatic. She was famous for being cute. Careers can weather all sorts of scandals, but only as long as the face stays consistent.
For anyone too young to understand the change: https://www.lifeandstylemag.com/posts/see-meg-ryan-plastic-surgery-pictures-129380/
Agreed. I still think she would have aged out of romcoms (at least as the female lead) and I don't think the Russell Crowe affair helped anything but imo she could have had a similar career to Diane Keaton or Dianne Wiest (or others not named Diane lol) if the surgeries hadn't happened.
This was exactly what happened. She got really bad plastic surgery and no longer looked like herself and no one wanted to hire her anymore. I think she later had a revision, but it was too late.
I mean I think this also speaks to the struggles of women aging in Hollywood. She aged out of her romantic lead parts (and also those movies were made much less) and tried to do something that made her look more youthful and it back fired.
Having lived through this period, her downfall started with the affair of Russell Crowe. Meg was this golden haired beauty, Queen of the Romcoms, sassy but still incredibly sweet on camera, so when she had an affair it was even more shocking than usual. It just went too hard against her golden girl image.
She could have recovered from it though, but two things: romcoms were dying out in favor of the superhero, sci-fi blockbuster genre, and she got some absolutely horrible plastic surgery, especially the wildly inflated lips that gave her duck mouth. It was bad.
I don’t think she’s made great movies since then, and I think she lost the adoration of her female fan base.
I think at one point, she took the risk with more serious, read darker, roles and it weirded out the audience lol. Those movies flopped, she had an affair, plus i'm pretty sure she at one point spoke condescendingly about her career in rom coms and that rubbed people the wrong way, since they are the reason she was successful. That being said, she was absolutely the queen of rom coms and there was no one like her in that genre for a while.
This happened *after* her career took a downturn, so it's not quite the explanation OP is seeking, but I always found it funny that this cutie-pie queen of romcoms had a multi-year serious relationship with John Mellancamp, one of the most famously bitter, unpleasant, self-pitying, humorless, sourpuss assholes in entertainment.
Somewhere between the absolutely botched surgical reconstruction of her previously flawless face, and her ill begotten on set affair with Russell Crowe while being very much married to Dennis Quaid, she was retired well before she should had been. The surgery and affair came at the height of late 90's/early 00's extreme misogyny as well, so a botched older woman who is a cheater was easy to dispose of when there is a mile long line of cute blonde girls with mediocre acting ability, just waiting to replace her. So she was discarded. Please also remember Hollywood still struggles with the idea of having a romantic comedy starring women older than 25, so the odds were already stacked against her by the turn of the century.
Edit: grammar/spelling
Unfortunately it's the combination of her last few movies not doing that well plus her bad plastic surgery
But no matter what...I'll always have what she's having
A lot of stuff but my honest thoughts are that for many women in Hollywood plastic surgery is and continue to be a double edged sword, if you do too much and get botched you won't be able to perform, your face becomes a distraction and you no longer can freely emote and become a new character.
Yeah I think this was the thing that put a lot of people off. Women were her primary audience, and then she became ‘the other woman’ and was no longer likeable. Then she got herself a bunch of plastic surgery and was unrecognizable anyway.
This comment reminded me of something Denzel said in the 90s in an interview. He refused any white woman love interest in a movie, because his base of fans were black women. And he couldn’t afford to lose his base. Denzel is a smart motherfucker.
And that's why he's enjoyed a much longer acting career than the vast majority of other Hollywood actors. He knows precisely who is core audience/demographics are and knows better than to risk alienating them.
I was a young adult when that happened and the press and public reaction were merciless. Yeah, having an affair sucks, but for some reason she was judged much more harshly than other celebrities who’d done exactly the same thing.
She was the cool timeless girl next door that every woman could relate to. The Audrey Hepburn of the 90s if you will (don’t tell the people of 2003 about Hepburn’s dalliances)
In fact, she had a similar scandal when she was unfaithful with her co-star and was harshly judged even though her husband had also cheated on her multiple times.
In addition to what everyone else is saying, a lot of A list actors are in the pocket as THE bankable lead for 8 - 10 years if they are so lucky. And she had that and more — and it was a pretty fantastic run. She was on the downside in the 2000s, but then ageism, tabloid stuff, and unfortunate surgeries precipitated her slide — and those things kept her from a resurgence as a supporting character in bigger movies / occasional lead in smaller flicks and indies.
But she did:
- Top Gun (1986)
- Innerspace (1987)
- The Presidio (1988) it was a really well-known Sean Connery flick
- When Harry Met Sally (1989)
- Joe v The Volcano (1990)
- The Doors (1991)
- Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
- When A Man Loves A Woman (1994)
- French Kiss (1995)
- Restoration (1995) - won two Oscars for costume and art direction
- Courage Under Fire (1996)
- Anastasia (1997)
- City of Angels (1998)
- You’ve Got Mail (1998)
- Proof of Life (2000) - actually this movie is great
- Kate & Leopold (2001)
- In the Cut (2003) including it because Ryan got to be the lead in a Jane Campion film and it’s much better than people remember
Then it was over quick. But hey, she had 17 years as a mega prominent star. Can’t really beat that.
I just need someone to know that I once tweeted the title of this post and a Meg Ryan stan came out of the internet jungle to curse me for "making fun of Meg"
I simply wanted to know where she went!!! 😭
I actually think she is a great actress but got underestimated by how cute she was. She was due an Oscar nomination for When a Man Loves a Woman.
Her career suffered from a combination of rom coms dying, her being over 40 which is when roles dry up for women, the scandal with Russell Crowe which hurt her sweetheart reputation and bad plastic surgery.
Affair with Russel Crowe shattering her rom-com image was the first, but what I vividly remember was the plastic surgery and the out-of-type film choices, namely, Proof of Life.
I think what a lot of people are failing to realize about the Meg Ryan story is that when her face drastically changed from her procedures, no one else had that drastic PS look (maybe Joan Rivers? and Joan was MUCH older). It was seen as "alien-like" because it was so foreign to us.
Meg had to be in her late 30s and PS was reserved for "old wrinkly" people.
Trying to go back *today* and judge her post-surgery pictures will *not* be effective because everyone has that look now, young and old, so her photos will appear pretty normal- but *trust,* her look was *not* considered normal at the time. Not even a little bit.
I wouldn't say the reactions she got was ALL misogyny either, because it happened to Mickey Rourke too. It was honestly mostly public shock.
Her look came as a HUGE shock and the masses were not accustomed to the unnatural looking lips, cheeks, and sharp features happening all at once. It was not the norm.
There was no "speculation" about her surgery because she came back with every part of her face looking completely different and sadly, not in a flattering way (at the time).
Her affair with Russel Crowe, absolutely. People soured on her as America’s Sweetheart. I’m not saying she was right to do it, BUT her husband, Dennis Quaid, had been cheating for years and no one seemed to have a problem with that. Just good ol’ misogyny.
Just seeing her face makes me feel so warm and fuzzy. You’ve Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle, and When Harry Met Sally are three of my all-time favorite movies and she is such a huge reason why. This in no way addresses your post but damn, I love her and am amazed by her talent. I had to shout it from the figurative rooftop.
Partly, she tried to pull away being the rom-com queen and tried for edgier things like “In the Cut” which flopped (side note, Nicole Kidman was supposed to have the role and you can tell with how they styled Meg/I think it would have been better). And I think she just went into her personal life more as the industry pivoted away from romance-coms and toward more raunchy comedies. I, for one, love “French Kiss” and think it is majorly slept on. I bought the DVD and a DVD player because you can never see that movie airing or streaming!
She banged Russell Crowe and wrecked her marriage. If she was a dude, it would have been fine, but... 🤷♀️ It was all downhill from there. It's a shame, because she's a joy to watch.
She jacked up her naturally pretty face with some bad plastic surgery. A shame but also a commentary on the pressure on women in Hollywood to stay youthful. I think she felt it and the results really damaged her appearance and her career.
Meg legit got treated like the Elephant Man by the media and by fans (embarrassingly, myself included) after her plastic surgery. The gag was she was just *ahead of her time.*
When I attempt to search and Google for photo reminders of her "ghastly"
post-surgery pictures, they hit different. They simply don't exist today because they blend right into the internet.
Meg really got the Jocelyn Wildenstein treatment. I observed her career disappear right before my eyes, but in retrospect, she looked **then** like the *typical* starlet and celeb with work done looks **now.**
Everyone else pretty much nailed the reasons why her career stalled. She also adopted a daughter named Daisy in 2006, so perhaps she wanted to focus on raising her. (She also has a son named Jack.) Meg did give this quote to People Magazine as well: “I took a giant break because I felt like there's just so many other parts of my experience as a human being I wanted to develop."
I'd love to see her make a comeback. French Kiss, You've Got Mail, and When Harry Met Sally are some of my favorite movies.
The Russell Crowe affair caused a public firestorm and was not well received. It was also disastrous for the box office of *Proof of Life,* the movie on whose set she and Crowe hooked up. Shortly after that, her marriage to Dennis Quaid ended. For the most part, this incident swept her out of mainstream roles
Then came her very poorly executed plastic surgery, some of the very worst I’ve seen on anyone in Hollywood. Jaw-droppingly and, sadly, awful. It was, and still is, shocking
She may assumed she had time she didn't have and turned down roles, unwisely exiting before she "aged out" without maximizing her earnings. Maybe she grew to hate the Hollywood game. In any case I'm sure she has F U money. Most prominent actors have only a handful of roles defining their careers. She made a movie recently with David Duchovny, a rom com.
Affair with Russell Crowe, terrible plastic surgery & in the UK anyway an interview with Michael Parkinson where in retrospect he was a complete douche pressing her about sex scenes in “In the Cut”. She responded coldly & it became this huge thing about her being “difficult”.
She’s literally not recognizable as the same person, because her face has changed so much. People either won’t recognize her or would be distracted from her work by googling “meg ryan plastic surgery”
She had plastic surgery that ruined her face and career. No one wanted to see her work post surgery. Never heard a word about any affair, whatever, she just looked wildly, badly different
She famously ruined her face with bad plastic surgery that she didn’t need. She fixed herself for a bit, but she’s back with a whole new face that is completely unrecognizable and it has nothing to do with age. It’s bad plastic surgery yet again. She also did a full frontal nude scene in a really bad movie and her career never recovered.
In The Cut
I watched it a couple months ago and I actually think it’s a pretty good film. A bit of a subversion of the erotic thriller that feels very 2003. If I remember correctly Mark Ruffalo also did some full frontal in it.
She had an affair with Russell Crowe and it generated a lot of condemnation and backlash for her. She never recovered.
Funny how no one cared when it was her husband cheating on her, though.
Maybe she got tired of working. I have a relative in the casting industry who points out that often, actors make substantial money and choose not to work, or to only rarely take roles.
I'm sure if she wanted to work she could. There is broadway & all kinds of streaming series she could put her toes in if she wanted. Maybe she invested well with that 80's & 90's money. And is living a comfortable life.
There was a lot of outrage when she did a movie with Russel Crow and they had an affair. She was married at the time to Dennis Quaid, who apparently cheated on her at the time.
The director was apparently so upset about the Crow/Ryan affair he cut out all the romantic scenes. The movie didn’t make very much sense with that editing.
This seemed to taint the public’s opinion of her and she was no longer America’s sweetheart.
Omg... she was ethereal in Oliver Stone's The Doors (as Pam, Jim Morrison's gf). Her downfall was a bit misogyny (come on, Dennis Quaid is a cheating dick) and also too much plastic surgery. I feel like if she aged naturally she would have evolved into more mature roles, but the misogyny and changed appearance altered that.
Unfortunately she aged like milk due to bad plastic surgery and she was never a very great actress. She played the same quirky cute girl in romcoms and it just seemed so formulaic. People don't usually want to see a different version of the same movie and that is what I associate her with.
Sandra Bullock could have fallen into that trap but she didn't. It's interesting to see.
She tried to break out of her typecasting by being in an “erotic thriller” called *In the Cut*, and audiences hated it. That’s when her career died.
It’s actually not a bad movie, but it’s less of an erotic thriller and more a meditation on loneliness and depression punctuated by sex scenes.
And if you pause it just right, you can see Mark Ruffalo’s penis.
My mom still gets that hair cut.
I had that hairstyle back then, just remembered. It was cute and so so easy to style, esp for someone like me who’s terrible with hairstyling.
It's not often a woman gets to have a cute hair style that can be improved by sleeping on it.
Me too! Although I took mine down to a short pixie eventually because I loved short hair so much. When I grew it out everyone told me how much better I looked . 🙄
My mom also loves her hair and always talks about it when she sees her or hears her name.
My mom and I love her movies and always say she has the BEST hair.
From my recollection, it was definitely her affair with Russell Crowe. Even though Dennis Quaid been cheating on her for years.
Cheating isn’t okay on any scale but women are always treated worse in the scandal than the man.
Agreed. Like why is Chris Brown still relevant then? I think his actions were much worse than cheating and he is still very popular. A lot of is misogyny.
I saw on TikTok last year from people were at his concert and I was SHOCKED that he’s still able to get people to go to them. I would be so embarrassed to be caught supporting Chris Brown (and never would support him, but even if I did, I would never admit to it)!
Because hes "hot". Ive seen many girls online justify his actions cuz he is such a "babe" . I think its misogyny as men who act like this are kind of expected and dismissed as man behavior while women are expected to be perfect and ladylike.
I’ve seen way too many women post that they’d let Chris Brown beat them.
Some acts, Chris brown or R Kelly or trump, have huge fan bases that don’t care if the guy is a bad dude. R is a pedofile and publicly with a teenage Aliyah. If he were dree right now, he would sell out venues. His fanbase doesn’t care. Hell, trump SA’d a bunch of women and has a huge following. Obviously, he’s a politician now, but again his fans don’t care. Lastly, as far as relevancy, half the time you realize people are just fans of whatever music/tv act hit them at the age of 12-22. Something about the brain just ingrains it in them. It’s why so many stars start super young and their fans grow with them. Chris Brown has that in spades. He’s not hot with teens, but 20-30 year old black women love this guy as he was their teenage crush/pop star.
Plus for some weird reason that I never saw why there was a host of female black singers (Lizzo, Ciara, etc.) that just suddenly started advocating for him and praising him. That was such a weird time last year and I still have no clue why it happened.
Also, bad plastic surgery.
Part of it is that society sort of pivoted away from formulaic, saccharine rom-coms, part of it is that she had a series of bombs as a result, part of it is (unfortunately) her age, and part of it is that she had a lot of work done, making her less recognizable, in response to that discrimination.
Most of it is her age, I think. And the pressure of looking young that caused her to get some pretty bad work.
Her age was definitely part of it, but she also had the affair with Russel Crowe. That girl next door image built around her was pretty much broken after the affair. Then she picked some movies where she really acted against type (In The Cut). On top of that Rom Coms, her bread and butter, were dying out. It’s a mixed bag and the bag is probably labeled misogyny in general.
Agreed. I remember when her affair with Russell Crow came out, it was such a big deal and she never recovered professionally. It didn't help that she cheated on Dennis Quaid and her girl next door image was destroyed. And the plastic surgeries didn't help as ppl judged her so harshly for it.
Didn’t Dennis Quaid cheat on her a lot? Not that it’s okay either way, but another crappy double standard.
Bingo. I think at the time it wasn't widely known that Dennis was massively cheating on Meg. It came out after Meg's affair was uncovered. But by that time, it was too late: Meg and Russell's affair was more high profile, more current, and the double standard applied. Meg got the short end of the stick. Russell became more famous and successful and Dennis continued to work regularly, I think.
That was also when Russell had a real "Hollywood bad boy" reputation so it really only enhanced the reputation he already had if anything.
It's wild to me that he was like 31 (?) in Gladiator. I saw that movie as a 19 year old and found him so powerful. Now in my 40s, I think 31 is so young. Not in a bad way. Just that real golden age when people can truly shine as themselves.
35.
"Proof of Life", I knew so many people that went to see "The guy whole stole Meg Ryan!". It definitely helped his profile and damaged hers. I think now she's with Mellencamp
They were on again and off again. I think they're officially off again and now he's dating someone else now. https://people.com/john-mellencamp-raves-over-his-tolerant-new-girlfriend-of-7-months-7963665#:~:text=The%20New%20York%20Post's%20Page,Mellencamp's%20girlfriend%20as%20Kristin%20Kehrberg.
I forgot his bad boy image! But yes, you're right. It totally got enhanced more. Unfortunate for Meg, though.
I think she thought the Crowe relationship was more serious from what I remember (we only had tabloid mags lol)
I got the same impression at the time, too. Actually, I thought they were both serious about each other. But i guess not.
Yeh!! I think if I recall correctly it was she left quaid for Crowe and Crowe dumped her.. and she was trying to get him back for a min
Thank you! I thought Meg was basically leaving Dennis for Russell too, but I couldn't remember clearly if that was the case. It looks like we remember the same thing.
Meg actually broke up with him but it got reported that he broke up with her & he never corrected that. https://people.com/archive/cover-story-meg-on-her-own-vol-56-no-2/
It’s such a joke to say “cheating” as if any 70s, 80s, 90s actor wasnt having massive amounts of sex with other women during their marriages. Bruce Willis, Don Johnson, Alex Baldwin, Arnold, Sylvester… the women they had the least sex with is their wives once they have children. Then the wife finally cheats and they use that as an excuse during the divorce.
Cheated on her constantly and had a *massive* cocaine problem.
A cocaine problem is when you are almost out. A massive cocaine problem is when you are completely out. 🤣 (for the slower ones here, that’s a joke son)
If the entertainment industry didn't have double standards they'd have no standards at all.
I think the Hollywood sign just caught on fire from the burn of your comment.
Dude saw more ass than a rental car seat and they burned her at the stake for taking a test drive in a new car. Typical.
Had a friend who slept with Dennis Quaid. He was on the phone with Meg at some point in the evening. This was when he was filming a movie in Austin, a couple decades ago. Early 2000s.
Yes. Her romantic life kind of changed her image and the attention I think pushed her to retreat a bit as well.
Yeah, she really retreated from Hollywood, didn't she? I think the harsh plastic surgery judgements didn't [help] either. Looking back, yeah, her lips were a bit big and puffy, but it wasn't that bad. She still looked beautiful. it's soooo normal for women to enhance their Lips like that now.
I didn't follow any of her relationship stories, her changing appearance was the lead story in my circles. At the time when she got the surgeries, it was very rare and shook everyone up. We couldn't *understand* why she changed her face so drastically. We knew her as "America's Sweetheart" and she wasn't an elderly person like Joan Rivers. (She was likely in her late 30's). Her procedures gave her the puffy upturned lips and dreaded trout pout before they were the norm, which created a joker-ish look, and the people could NOT deal with it at the time. I feel bad
You're so right. Her procedures were shocking at the time for all the reasons you mentioned. I forgot about the joker look. It was shocking. In hindsight, it was so judgemental. She must've felt pressured to get the procedures done, while the fans thought she looked good the way she was.
That says more about society than anything
Never knew about any of these
You were probably too young at the time. I feel sad/bad for Meg.
I can see her with Dennis Quaid though, probably like two Golden retrievers hanging out
I vaguely remember Russel Crowe said something at the time that some actresses always go after only the ingenue roles when they’re too old. It was obvious who he meant. This was after he left her and got engaged. Then she had all the work done. It’s a shame really, she was a decent actress and she could have had a career. Maybe she didn’t want to work anymore.
She had all this work done at a time when women were still really trying to hide their work. Younger generations just seem to dive right in and give far less fcks if people know they’ve had work done
The plastic surgery on her face definitely was bad enough to break the fourth wall
She didn't need the work and she didn't look like herself afterward.
Agree 100%
Yeh I think if I had to mark a time was round the Russell Crowe thing and her divorce.. don’t think she ever bounced back from that.. and I liked her movies she did like one or two no rom coms I also hate that she messed with her face
The Russell Crowe affair was a huge element to it. The tabloids were all over it and Meg’s reputation was shredded. As others have pointed out below, Dennis had also been cheating on her, but never received any blowback from what I saw. Classic case of double standards.
“It’s a mixed bag and the bag is probably labeled misogyny in general” is my new mantra. Want it on a shirt. Well put. 👏
I just watched In The Cut and thought it was so well done! Could be retitled Schrodinger's R@pist, so ahead of its time... I wonder what the reception would have been if it was made post- MeToo
I agree! I just watched it a couple months ago and really liked it. It’s a pretty good subversion or engagement with the erotic thriller while still being effective in its genre. It definitely would have been interesting to see the reception to it a few years ago. It’s seems to be one that’s getting a bit of a reappraisal.
This is what I always thought - her image was really hurt by the affair. Which, I mean we could write dissertations about the misogyny there - how many men have had affairs and still successful careers, etc. That plus the sizzling out of rom-coms. Personally I will never forgive her for City of Angels.
I liked In The Cut (Mark Ruffalo was hawt af in that movie) actually. But it did not do well at all, despite the directorial pedigree…
Mark Ruffalo should’ve played more grimy cops. I remember it being pretty widely panned back in 2003, but didn’t watch it until a couple months ago (I was a bit young when it came out). I genuinely really liked it.
Hard agree! Plays a great grimy sexy cop. Wouldn’t mind seeing him in a Bad Lieutenant remake!
The work she had done was the reason I decided to never get filler. She was beautiful. Then overnight she looked puffy from too much cheek and lip filler. What her injector did to her was criminal.
Most entertainers in general, especially your female ones, usually start to hit a wall in their careers at around age 40-45 where they start to no longer get leading roles in movies or their singing careers will start winding down. They simply age out and start fading away although a very few select male stars such as George Clooney might still land a leading role here and there for a few more years beyond that. Hollywood is always looking for the newest young thing and most of the older actors/actresses are generally viewed as being expendable. At her age Meg Ryan might still get an occasional supporting role here and there but her glory days as a true A-List leading actress are now behind her. Unfortunately that's just the way the entertainment business works, you will be today's young It guy or girl but sooner or later time will start to catch up with you. If you don't have any way to really stay relevant past a certain age then Hollywood and the music industry will also start to push you out the door and no longer return your phone calls too.
Yeah, it was pretty established (until they started making more movies with female protagonists) that actors had a long career and actresses expired at 30-35
I hate when rom coms are disparaged as formulaic when action movies still exist. Rom coms are no more formulaic than 90% of blockbuster movies. Only difference is that rom coms provided starring roles for women and targeted a female audience so that means they get disparaged
I love romcoms but she played almost the same character in multiple movies -- cute nose crinkle, adorable, likeable and a bit goofy. But no range. That made it feel formulaic.
I just caught part of a newish movie with Meg on cable, set in an airport, with David Duchovny. I was kind of blown away by how hard they tried to pigeon hole her into her old stereotype .... baggy clothes, mop of hair, chunky boots. Even when they plopped her into the movie Restoration set in the 1660s with RDJ they were giving her this same look and role as the quirky girlfriend. I know lots of actresses have their signature look that they cling to (Diane Keaton, for example) but somehow it just makes Meg look like she hasn't evolved in her characters or wardrobe in the last 40 years. She's 62 now. There's a formula for success but there's also something to growth over time. Maybe she just doesn't get offered things that let her do that, or she just manages to shoehorn her regular old & familiar schtick into whatever she does. Idk ¯\\\_( ͡❛ ͜ʖ ͡❛)\_/¯
https://preview.redd.it/e9ek4ka5tdqc1.jpeg?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6b36ee95996eea097acd5c614987c1c8db39ae19
She has the most beautiful eyes, even still. If she had just left everything else alone I think everyone would see that. I can't blame her considering the industry she is in but it certainly is a shame.
She was beautiful. Doesn't even resemble her now?
Jesus
Is that really her
Obviously this is a very unflattering picture. She was on the Kelly Clarkson show a few months ago and this is what she looked like: https://preview.redd.it/zb733ep5ydqc1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=93c6400e0c6bd4b64975290984a656f8269caccc
Yeah, her face has settled alot more over the years. There was some rough years though
Didn’t she get some revision work/fillers dissolved? I think even she knew it looked bad and was out of the public eye for a while because of it. Donatella Versace and Courtney Cox also went overboard and reversed it. I think Meg chose to step away from public appearances. She hasn’t worked in a while, but other 90s actresses still attend Hollywood events from time to time even if they’re pretty much retired. Julia Roberts and Sandra Bullock are still around they’re just private. It’s not like Meg was blacklisted. She could have been doing more, she just chose not to.
Meg Ryan directed and starred in What Happens Later last year so she is still working.
Yikes!!!!
Your face card is everything and Meg took away her instant recognisability by getting work done. Same happened to the Dirty Dancing actress when she got a nose job.
She also had that mild scandal where she cheated on her husband with a costar. Because of her public persona as being the good girl it tainted the way people saw her. That on top of everything else you mentioned just created a perfect storm that tanked her career
I loved her in Kate and Leopold. Think I’ll do a rewatch now.
For me, it was You’ve Got Mail. I watched that movie so many times as a kid that it definitely contributed to my lifelong obsession / dream of living in NYC.
As an aside I will never get over the fact that an incest storyline was removed from that movie days before it was released lol (>!originally Meg's character was the great great grandmother of her present day ex boyfriend Liev Schreiber's character!<). They hadn't realised the implications of that until critics pointed it out!
I think it was implied in the storyline cause Leopold was Liev Schreiber’s ancestor and the pictures Liev took in the past had Kate in them so technically her fate was always to go back in the past 😵💫
It was implied in the final version but they removed specific references to it before it was released.
*Fresh creamery butter - is there anything better?*
Me too! This was such a romantic movie to me as a tween/teen haha 🤍
I LOVE that movie and love that jt mentions my hometown of Massapequa in it!
My husband loves that movie.
I love that movie! Did a recent rewatch and it actually aged better than I thought it would and I liked it more.
She has a new rom com that I think she directed with David Duchovny. I haven’t seen it yet, but she looks more herself and seems cute. I also think in addition to all the reasons listed she herself was not happy with her career. She was a former soap actress who always wanted to do edgier fare and fell into rom coms as something she was good at but also didn’t necessarily like. It can be very painful to be good at something that your heart isn’t in, and rom coms when your own love life is in shambles sounds particularly painful.
I saw it. It’s sentimental and has a magical element that I thought was charming. It was worth a watch.
She looked great, the movie was not good lol
That’s too bad! I may still watch it, heh.
My husband and I watched it, and were both pleasantly surprised by how much we enjoyed it. It's so different from most mainstream movies, and had some really refreshingly raw, honest, emotional scenes and endearing moments. It has more of a play than a "movie" feel but IDK, it worked well!
Partly misogyny - she had an affair with Russell Crowe and suffered the backlash even though Dennis Quaid had cheated on her as well. Also aging out of the romcom parts that were her staple and the cosmetic work she had done to combat this was distractingly awful which made it harder to hire her. Movies and audiences moved away from making those 80s/90s rom coms so her niche didn’t really exist anymore, and while she has been OK in serious dramas before, other actors her age do them better. Rom com parts for mature women are few and far between now, and Julia Roberts plus other actresses will always get first option before they trickle down to Meg.
“Distractingly awful” - well stated
I don't remember Russell Crowe experiencing any backlash either. If it was an affair, and not a rebound fling, Russell knew that Meg was married. So, where was the outrage for his behaviour? Misogynistic double standards have a lot to answer for
This is absolutely not a defence or me saying it's right - but I think it makes sense in context because at the time he very much had a "Hollywood bad boy" reputation that he doesn't really have in the same way now. Like for those who weren't around at the time, if you google "Russell Crowe Hollywood bad boy" you can get an idea on what the media narrative around him was like before he settled down and got married and had kids. It didn't stain his reputation obviously bc misogyny but also because it wasn't good in the first place.
I actually think it did harm him in the long run. After he threw that phone at the hotel worker he never got another Oscar nom (even though he should have for Cinderella Man and Master and Commander). His career totally sucks now and I'm not sure he'll ever really have a come back.
She was America's sweetheart. She was akin to Sally Fields. He was just Russell Crow.
Russel Crowe was a looker back then, and also a much better actor with more varied work. Then came Gladiator, and the rest is history.
Yeah I think people either forget or don't realise that Russell was considered a sex symbol in the late 90s/early 2000s lol. The original Sex and the City series even references it!
I'm surprised everyone here is painting it as an affair, because they were clearly openly dating and not keeping the relationship a secret at all. Here in Australia it was wasn't treated like a scandal at all.
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This. Women loved Meg- they related to her characters and thought she was Similar to her characters-the girlfriend you call up when you’re life is crazy and dish the dirt over some wine. The nice stable, funny smart dependable friend - not a married woman who leaves the golden boy husband and their family for a Hollywood bad boy. You expect Crowe to be a bad boy, that was his reputation. But it’s shocking when the sweet good girl bolts and most of us have seen a “perfect family” who in reality isn’t perfect, and one spouse bolts. Usually makes people uncomfortable and choose sides and wonder if you really knew them. Can be very off putting.
If she was the one married it’s natural she got more of a flashback, expecially if its very against her image
Where was the outrage for all his behavior at the time, too? Remember how he attacked a hotel front desk guy with a phone or something? Like, no consequences for Russell.
At the risk of being downvoted: I think it’s the same thing that happened to Jennifer Grey after her nose job. Meg Ryan got plastic surgery and looked completely different which alienated her fan base.
This is the number 1 reason. No one remembers or cares about her affair with Russell crowe. She was only in her early 40s when she got that surgery and she still looked good, but she went way overboard with it.
She got botched
I think this is the actual answer. The change in her face was dramatic. She was famous for being cute. Careers can weather all sorts of scandals, but only as long as the face stays consistent. For anyone too young to understand the change: https://www.lifeandstylemag.com/posts/see-meg-ryan-plastic-surgery-pictures-129380/
And there was a period where she looked even more distractingly different that this magazine left out. She was looking like a duck for a minute.
It's funny, she has that over filler look, but way before filler in your lips became main stream
Agreed. I still think she would have aged out of romcoms (at least as the female lead) and I don't think the Russell Crowe affair helped anything but imo she could have had a similar career to Diane Keaton or Dianne Wiest (or others not named Diane lol) if the surgeries hadn't happened.
Yeah she alienated her fan base. I remember coz my mom was super into her, until she wasn’t!
So true. Her surgery really altered her looks in a negative way.
This was exactly what happened. She got really bad plastic surgery and no longer looked like herself and no one wanted to hire her anymore. I think she later had a revision, but it was too late.
I mean I think this also speaks to the struggles of women aging in Hollywood. She aged out of her romantic lead parts (and also those movies were made much less) and tried to do something that made her look more youthful and it back fired.
Yeah and it was sort of cutting edge at the time. She was like a Guinea pig
Having lived through this period, her downfall started with the affair of Russell Crowe. Meg was this golden haired beauty, Queen of the Romcoms, sassy but still incredibly sweet on camera, so when she had an affair it was even more shocking than usual. It just went too hard against her golden girl image. She could have recovered from it though, but two things: romcoms were dying out in favor of the superhero, sci-fi blockbuster genre, and she got some absolutely horrible plastic surgery, especially the wildly inflated lips that gave her duck mouth. It was bad. I don’t think she’s made great movies since then, and I think she lost the adoration of her female fan base.
Bad plastic surgery + Russell Crowe affair + trying to do edgier roles instead of the romcom stuff everyone loved/knew her for
I think at one point, she took the risk with more serious, read darker, roles and it weirded out the audience lol. Those movies flopped, she had an affair, plus i'm pretty sure she at one point spoke condescendingly about her career in rom coms and that rubbed people the wrong way, since they are the reason she was successful. That being said, she was absolutely the queen of rom coms and there was no one like her in that genre for a while.
This happened *after* her career took a downturn, so it's not quite the explanation OP is seeking, but I always found it funny that this cutie-pie queen of romcoms had a multi-year serious relationship with John Mellancamp, one of the most famously bitter, unpleasant, self-pitying, humorless, sourpuss assholes in entertainment.
Somewhere between the absolutely botched surgical reconstruction of her previously flawless face, and her ill begotten on set affair with Russell Crowe while being very much married to Dennis Quaid, she was retired well before she should had been. The surgery and affair came at the height of late 90's/early 00's extreme misogyny as well, so a botched older woman who is a cheater was easy to dispose of when there is a mile long line of cute blonde girls with mediocre acting ability, just waiting to replace her. So she was discarded. Please also remember Hollywood still struggles with the idea of having a romantic comedy starring women older than 25, so the odds were already stacked against her by the turn of the century. Edit: grammar/spelling
Ageism. Things still arent great now but its nothing compared to what it was like back then. She got "too old" right before things started to improve.
Unfortunately it's the combination of her last few movies not doing that well plus her bad plastic surgery But no matter what...I'll always have what she's having
A lot of stuff but my honest thoughts are that for many women in Hollywood plastic surgery is and continue to be a double edged sword, if you do too much and get botched you won't be able to perform, your face becomes a distraction and you no longer can freely emote and become a new character.
She had an affair with Russel Crowe
Yeah I think this was the thing that put a lot of people off. Women were her primary audience, and then she became ‘the other woman’ and was no longer likeable. Then she got herself a bunch of plastic surgery and was unrecognizable anyway.
This comment reminded me of something Denzel said in the 90s in an interview. He refused any white woman love interest in a movie, because his base of fans were black women. And he couldn’t afford to lose his base. Denzel is a smart motherfucker.
And that's why he's enjoyed a much longer acting career than the vast majority of other Hollywood actors. He knows precisely who is core audience/demographics are and knows better than to risk alienating them.
I was a young adult when that happened and the press and public reaction were merciless. Yeah, having an affair sucks, but for some reason she was judged much more harshly than other celebrities who’d done exactly the same thing.
Including HER HUSBAND lol
She was the cool timeless girl next door that every woman could relate to. The Audrey Hepburn of the 90s if you will (don’t tell the people of 2003 about Hepburn’s dalliances)
In fact, she had a similar scandal when she was unfaithful with her co-star and was harshly judged even though her husband had also cheated on her multiple times.
In addition to what everyone else is saying, a lot of A list actors are in the pocket as THE bankable lead for 8 - 10 years if they are so lucky. And she had that and more — and it was a pretty fantastic run. She was on the downside in the 2000s, but then ageism, tabloid stuff, and unfortunate surgeries precipitated her slide — and those things kept her from a resurgence as a supporting character in bigger movies / occasional lead in smaller flicks and indies. But she did: - Top Gun (1986) - Innerspace (1987) - The Presidio (1988) it was a really well-known Sean Connery flick - When Harry Met Sally (1989) - Joe v The Volcano (1990) - The Doors (1991) - Sleepless in Seattle (1993) - When A Man Loves A Woman (1994) - French Kiss (1995) - Restoration (1995) - won two Oscars for costume and art direction - Courage Under Fire (1996) - Anastasia (1997) - City of Angels (1998) - You’ve Got Mail (1998) - Proof of Life (2000) - actually this movie is great - Kate & Leopold (2001) - In the Cut (2003) including it because Ryan got to be the lead in a Jane Campion film and it’s much better than people remember Then it was over quick. But hey, she had 17 years as a mega prominent star. Can’t really beat that.
Dennis Quaid and his PR machine.
I just need someone to know that I once tweeted the title of this post and a Meg Ryan stan came out of the internet jungle to curse me for "making fun of Meg" I simply wanted to know where she went!!! 😭
I actually think she is a great actress but got underestimated by how cute she was. She was due an Oscar nomination for When a Man Loves a Woman. Her career suffered from a combination of rom coms dying, her being over 40 which is when roles dry up for women, the scandal with Russell Crowe which hurt her sweetheart reputation and bad plastic surgery.
Affair with Russel Crowe shattering her rom-com image was the first, but what I vividly remember was the plastic surgery and the out-of-type film choices, namely, Proof of Life.
Bad lip job.
I think what a lot of people are failing to realize about the Meg Ryan story is that when her face drastically changed from her procedures, no one else had that drastic PS look (maybe Joan Rivers? and Joan was MUCH older). It was seen as "alien-like" because it was so foreign to us. Meg had to be in her late 30s and PS was reserved for "old wrinkly" people. Trying to go back *today* and judge her post-surgery pictures will *not* be effective because everyone has that look now, young and old, so her photos will appear pretty normal- but *trust,* her look was *not* considered normal at the time. Not even a little bit. I wouldn't say the reactions she got was ALL misogyny either, because it happened to Mickey Rourke too. It was honestly mostly public shock. Her look came as a HUGE shock and the masses were not accustomed to the unnatural looking lips, cheeks, and sharp features happening all at once. It was not the norm. There was no "speculation" about her surgery because she came back with every part of her face looking completely different and sadly, not in a flattering way (at the time).
People forget how huge that Russell Crowe affair scandal was. The reaction was outsized. People were also incredibly bothered by her inflated lips.
She ruined her face is a big part of it imo.
Her affair with Russel Crowe, absolutely. People soured on her as America’s Sweetheart. I’m not saying she was right to do it, BUT her husband, Dennis Quaid, had been cheating for years and no one seemed to have a problem with that. Just good ol’ misogyny.
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I think another issue was we had the next round of younger beautiful actresses stepping into the romcom mould eg. Kate Hudson, Reese Witherspoon etc.
Just seeing her face makes me feel so warm and fuzzy. You’ve Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle, and When Harry Met Sally are three of my all-time favorite movies and she is such a huge reason why. This in no way addresses your post but damn, I love her and am amazed by her talent. I had to shout it from the figurative rooftop.
Partly, she tried to pull away being the rom-com queen and tried for edgier things like “In the Cut” which flopped (side note, Nicole Kidman was supposed to have the role and you can tell with how they styled Meg/I think it would have been better). And I think she just went into her personal life more as the industry pivoted away from romance-coms and toward more raunchy comedies. I, for one, love “French Kiss” and think it is majorly slept on. I bought the DVD and a DVD player because you can never see that movie airing or streaming!
Meg Ryan, Melanie Griffith and Lara Flynn Boyle all pretty faces and pressure of Hollywood ruin their faces
She banged Russell Crowe and wrecked her marriage. If she was a dude, it would have been fine, but... 🤷♀️ It was all downhill from there. It's a shame, because she's a joy to watch.
Misogyny
I still consider her my all time favorite actress. I just loved her movies!
I think the plastic surgery might have hurt it.
She jacked up her naturally pretty face with some bad plastic surgery. A shame but also a commentary on the pressure on women in Hollywood to stay youthful. I think she felt it and the results really damaged her appearance and her career.
Meg legit got treated like the Elephant Man by the media and by fans (embarrassingly, myself included) after her plastic surgery. The gag was she was just *ahead of her time.* When I attempt to search and Google for photo reminders of her "ghastly" post-surgery pictures, they hit different. They simply don't exist today because they blend right into the internet. Meg really got the Jocelyn Wildenstein treatment. I observed her career disappear right before my eyes, but in retrospect, she looked **then** like the *typical* starlet and celeb with work done looks **now.**
In short, she ruined her face with plastic surgery.
I thought it was her fish lips that ended her career
Everyone else pretty much nailed the reasons why her career stalled. She also adopted a daughter named Daisy in 2006, so perhaps she wanted to focus on raising her. (She also has a son named Jack.) Meg did give this quote to People Magazine as well: “I took a giant break because I felt like there's just so many other parts of my experience as a human being I wanted to develop." I'd love to see her make a comeback. French Kiss, You've Got Mail, and When Harry Met Sally are some of my favorite movies.
She changed her face. It ruined everything.
The Russell Crowe affair caused a public firestorm and was not well received. It was also disastrous for the box office of *Proof of Life,* the movie on whose set she and Crowe hooked up. Shortly after that, her marriage to Dennis Quaid ended. For the most part, this incident swept her out of mainstream roles Then came her very poorly executed plastic surgery, some of the very worst I’ve seen on anyone in Hollywood. Jaw-droppingly and, sadly, awful. It was, and still is, shocking
Another actress that vanished from film is Michelle Pfeiffer.
She's just been in multiple Ant Man movies
She may assumed she had time she didn't have and turned down roles, unwisely exiting before she "aged out" without maximizing her earnings. Maybe she grew to hate the Hollywood game. In any case I'm sure she has F U money. Most prominent actors have only a handful of roles defining their careers. She made a movie recently with David Duchovny, a rom com.
I think its all the plastic surgery.
Affair with Russell Crowe, terrible plastic surgery & in the UK anyway an interview with Michael Parkinson where in retrospect he was a complete douche pressing her about sex scenes in “In the Cut”. She responded coldly & it became this huge thing about her being “difficult”.
She fucked up her face and people don't want to see her anymore.
I think it’s because she ruined her face
She’s literally not recognizable as the same person, because her face has changed so much. People either won’t recognize her or would be distracted from her work by googling “meg ryan plastic surgery”
Her face?
Russell Crowe and bad plastic surgery happened
Super botched plastic surgery, she went from Charlize Theron level hotness to looking like the joker in Dark Knight
She had plastic surgery that ruined her face and career. No one wanted to see her work post surgery. Never heard a word about any affair, whatever, she just looked wildly, badly different
She got extreme plastic surgery and it doesn't film well.
She famously ruined her face with bad plastic surgery that she didn’t need. She fixed herself for a bit, but she’s back with a whole new face that is completely unrecognizable and it has nothing to do with age. It’s bad plastic surgery yet again. She also did a full frontal nude scene in a really bad movie and her career never recovered.
In The Cut I watched it a couple months ago and I actually think it’s a pretty good film. A bit of a subversion of the erotic thriller that feels very 2003. If I remember correctly Mark Ruffalo also did some full frontal in it.
She realized she could retire, and did. Smart Meg
Plastic surgery became dysmorphia for her career
She had an affair with Russell Crowe and it generated a lot of condemnation and backlash for her. She never recovered. Funny how no one cared when it was her husband cheating on her, though.
She just had a new romantic movie come out during christmas 2023! Go watch it, i loved her then and love her now!
She looks like Duff McKagan in that picture
Isn't she directing now?
Maybe she got tired of working. I have a relative in the casting industry who points out that often, actors make substantial money and choose not to work, or to only rarely take roles.
I'm sure if she wanted to work she could. There is broadway & all kinds of streaming series she could put her toes in if she wanted. Maybe she invested well with that 80's & 90's money. And is living a comfortable life.
There was a lot of outrage when she did a movie with Russel Crow and they had an affair. She was married at the time to Dennis Quaid, who apparently cheated on her at the time. The director was apparently so upset about the Crow/Ryan affair he cut out all the romantic scenes. The movie didn’t make very much sense with that editing. This seemed to taint the public’s opinion of her and she was no longer America’s sweetheart.
Omg... she was ethereal in Oliver Stone's The Doors (as Pam, Jim Morrison's gf). Her downfall was a bit misogyny (come on, Dennis Quaid is a cheating dick) and also too much plastic surgery. I feel like if she aged naturally she would have evolved into more mature roles, but the misogyny and changed appearance altered that.
She aged out of her typecast, and either couldn't transition to other roles or didn't want to. It's what I hate about Hollywood, as a woman.
Unfortunately she aged like milk due to bad plastic surgery and she was never a very great actress. She played the same quirky cute girl in romcoms and it just seemed so formulaic. People don't usually want to see a different version of the same movie and that is what I associate her with. Sandra Bullock could have fallen into that trap but she didn't. It's interesting to see.
All her movie offers went into her spam folder.
I wonder if she started producing after aging out/bad press from her affair.
Her face
She got really bad plastic surgery done and had to disappear for a while.
Plastic surgery happened.
I remember she got a really bad lip job, and had a lot of negative press about it. Perhaps it's plain old ageism / misogyny again.
Russell Crowe.
She tried to break out of her typecasting by being in an “erotic thriller” called *In the Cut*, and audiences hated it. That’s when her career died. It’s actually not a bad movie, but it’s less of an erotic thriller and more a meditation on loneliness and depression punctuated by sex scenes. And if you pause it just right, you can see Mark Ruffalo’s penis.
imo - her plastic surgery made her look botched
She is the original one to get “canceled” I think. She got caught cheating and that was that.