Babe of the day: Diane Lane

The best of feminine beauty is a transcendent, fleeting quality that can't be manufactured, no matter how much 'make over' effort is put into it. Like a flower, it blossoms into full glory in mature youth, then seemingly fades away just as quickly with age. Diane Lane is a prime example. She's ordinary now. But from her late teens to early-mid twenties, young Diane Lane's physical beauty put her in the rare class of a young Brooke Shields and Grace Kelly.

I first became aware of Lane, born in 1965, in 1995's Judge Dredd and then again in 2000's Perfect Storm. She didn't impress me in either movie. By the end of her 20s, presumably the age she filmed Judge Dredd, Lane was a drier, harder version of her younger self - an ordinary looking actress. Doing a bored, meandering google search one day, I was surprised when I came across pictures of a young Diane Lane. Her beauty was stunning, enough that my breath caught when I saw one particular publicity shot I haven't found again. Later, I caught 1982's Six Pack, co-starring a late-teen Diane Lane transitioning from young girl cuteness to the cusp of fully feminine sensuality and beauty.

Some photo galleries of Diane Lane can be found here and here. I'd like to find that first Diane Lane fan site and publicity shot again.

Eric