The Bikini that shook the world

Jaws dropped all over the world as a photograph of Helen Mirren in a red bikini, first published in Britain's Daily Mail newspaper last week, was reprinted in newspapers and on websites everywhere. Mirren turns 63 on Saturday.

Vicki Woods writes

:

"The dazzling sight of Helen Mirren frolicking in her red bikini in this week’s papers gave an awful lot of women an awful lot to think about. I imagine for the most part, their thoughts were like mine - one-tenth admiring and nine-tenths green with envy and self-digust"

HMAS member Barrie Smith, 61, from South Carolina was contacted by a producer for BBC Live Five to participate in a segment where a panel of various cultural "experts" discussed the idea of people finding a 60-something woman attractive in a bikini. "I firmly believe that Helen Mirren has caused a paradigm shift" says Barrie. "There are an awful lot of women who need an example, a role model" - and Helen seems to set the bar for beauty, irrespective of age.