Fieger glows with new look
Associated
Press
Geoffrey Fieger in a "before"
picture from when he was running for governor in 1998. For the "after,"
start checking your TV listings in late summer. |
My wife can spot
a face-lift, a dark root or a pair of contact lenses from a block away
on a foggy night.
I, on the other
hand, am a Guy, which means I'd been tuning in for five years before I
turned to someone and asked, "Is Bill Bonds wearing a toupee?"
The News' Laura Berman aligns far more closely with my wife, so the first thing she did after she left her dentist's office the other day was call me.
Laura has known Geoffrey Fieger since they were kids in Oak Park and he was just the future millionaire lawyer next door. He was also at the dentist, and according to Laura, he hasn't looked this good or this fresh since he was young enough to have a paper route.
"All the office staff was talking about how glowy and young he looked," she said. "He's clearly prepping for TV. He's had a makeover."
This was not an accusation. Hair, eyelashes, suit, skin -- Fieger looked better all over, and "I want to do what he did," Laura said.
My assignment
was to discover exactly what that was. So, drawing on my years of experience
as a wily reporter, I found his number in the Yellow Pages and dialed it.
***
FIEGER, 50,
flew to Los Angeles Friday to start work on his new reality-based television
program, Fieger and Associates.
We're not talking about an other cheesy syndicated court show here. It's a prime-time network presentation -- cheesiness factor to be determined -- and ABC has already ordered six episodes, which means it may actually wind up on the air.
There are no guarantees; network executives discard completed programs as casually as first wives. But if Fieger's face might start popping up in tens of millions of living rooms every week, who could blame him for having his hair tinted and his face lifted?
Well, some people,
I suppose. But there's no need, because according to Fieger (and associates),
the new look is as natural as B-12 injections and the mountains behind
the Canyon Ranch spa.
"And dental
floss," Fieger says. "Twice a day. I'm fixated on teeth."
***
LOOKING PERKY
is easier after you've won a few seven-figure verdicts. Fieger works out
six mornings a week, for instance, with two personal trainers. He's just
back from the spa in Tucson, where four-day packages start at $3,209.31.
He gets injections of vitamin B-12 and human growth hormone releaser for pep and dabs Retin-A on his face every night to fight wrinkles and gulps 50 or 60 vitamins a day, "everything you could possibly imagine. I just go to GNC and clean off the shelf."
His suits are custom-made in Birmingham, and if they look better, it's because the workouts have repackaged his 240 pounds.
His same old
stylist might have cut his hair a bit shorter, he says, but there are no
highlights; his gray streaks just look blond. The eyelashes are naturally
curly, and let's see ... was there anything else on Laura's list?
Oh, yes. He
might run for governor or he might not. Likewise mayor of Detroit.
***
SPEAKING
OF my wife, which we were about 16 paragraphs ago, several readers
have wondered why I always refer to her as "my wife" and not by name.
Basically, the
reason is this: She prefers to keep her name out of the paper, and I prefer
to not come home and find my clothes on the lawn. So we have reached a
compromise whereby I do exactly what she wants.
Just this once,
though, I'm sure she won't mind. So for those who asked, her name is ...
Katarina Witt.
Copyright Detroit News 2001