Wrinkles

Unplug the iron and call off the collagen treatments. Wrinkles are the latest wrinkle in fashion. Crinkled, crushed and crumpled clothes are the rage of the runways in Europe and New York. Strong cases for folded fabrics are being made by such designers as Issey Miyake, Gianni Versace, Donna Karan, that up-and-coming pleat person Han Feng, and the British line called Ghost, which showed for the first time in New York recently. These days, thanks to them, it's cool to wear rumpled suits and slept-in- looking shirts.

The University of Pennsylvania yesterday sued one of its researchers, joining the legal battle over who will have the patent rights to a popular acne treatment when it is sold as a cream to take away skin wrinkles. Penn, in a suit filed in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, contends that it is the owner of Retin-A when it is marketed as a product to retard wrinkles. The product, now sold as an acne treatment, is awaiting licensing as a treatment for wrinkles, though the law allows physicians to prescribe it for that purpose.

They are standing in the same spot on the Boardwalk they stood in 40 years ago. And it is still hard to get a word in edgewise. Fred Feldman, 67 and a regular on the Boardwalk since he was a newlywed from West Philly, sums it up like this: "We talked about girls then, and now we talk about food. Or else we go around and feel each other's pulse. " Forty years ago, this stretch of the Boardwalk in the Chelsea neighborhood of Atlantic City was crammed with the same characters from the same old Philadelphia Jewish neighborhoods who now return on summer weekend mornings to hang with the old - and getting older - gang.

The basic premise of the show, as described by an enthusiastic art-historian friend - sculptures of well-known feminists' facial and neck wrinkles - didn't sound appealing at all. It seemed too gimmicky for words. It called to mind the French performance artist Orlan, whose act is the display of her own plastic surgeries, not of the late, brilliant John Coplans, who isolated sections of his own aging body in photographs, the results suggesting bizarre, hairy sculptures. But I had liked the earlier efforts of the sculptor in question, Barbara Zucker, and admired her as a cofounder of New York's A.I.R.

So many of us are looking for miracle cures. Patches that erase wrinkles. "Peels" that promote perfection. And why shouldn't we? It's 1998 - scientists can clone cows and identify disease-causing genes. Why shouldn't they also be able to stop time and remedy yesterday's foolhardy indulgences - or at least the evidence of them encroaching on our once-virgin visages? So it is always with a hopeful quickening in our hearts that we read advertisements for such products as Centre Lucerne's Anti-Wrinkle Patch, billed as "a safe, wonderful new alternative to plastic surgery.

Her eyes protected by bumblebee-yellow goggles, Kimberly Campenella relaxed at Pierre & Carlo Salon and Spa as aesthetician Alexis Brown traced the contours of her face with a red laser. The scarlet light will stimulate collagen, and in a few weeks the skin around the architect's eyes, lips and jawbone will plump up, slowing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Fine lines and wrinkles? Since she's only 33, you wouldn't think that was one of Campenella's issues. One would need a magnifying glass to see the tiny lines that hug her thin lips - and with her raven hair and milky skin, she looks 28. Still, she stresses about it. And on this rainy day in June, Campenella is ready for her second wrinkle-fighting laser-light treatment at the Center City salon.

Cate Blanchett is an actual, real human woman. She has lines on her face; wrinkles! She's also beautiful. The 42-year-old Australian thesp's naked face appears on the cover of the Economist's feature mag, Intelligent Life, without makeup or digital alterations. It makes us wonder whether we've ever seen the actual face of any of the countless women deemed beautiful by the media. "When other magazines photograph actresses, they routinely end up running heavily Photoshopped images, with every last wrinkle expunged," writes editor Tim de Lisle . More Houston rumors She can't get away from drug chatter even in death.

If women have the early advantage in the war between the sexes, men do better in the middle years. They don't get stretch marks or develop cellulite, nor do they feel compelled to battle ceaselessly against bulging waistlines. Men's wrinkles are considered signs of character, while women's wrinkles are considered wrinkles. Perhaps in recognition of this lack of parity, men were given a special curse of their own - baldness. Undisguisable and irremediable, it has a powerful humbling effect, reminding men that their youth has passed.

ZAPPING ZITS Good news for those of you who get those unsightly blemishes: A Food and Drug Administration panel says that the benefits of benzoyl peroxide, an ingredient in popular acne medicines, outweigh the risk of getting cancer from it, and that it should remain available without a prescription while new animal studies are conducted. IRONING OUT WRINKLES An FDA advisory panel also has recommended approval of a new cream developed by Johnson & Johnson that reduces wrinkles in skin damaged by the sun. The cream, to be named Renova, is not intended to erase wrinkles caused by normal aging.

Grace Robinson was pleased with the size of her breasts, but the 43-year-old wanted to smooth out the fine lines and wrinkles around her decolletage. "I just wanted it to look a little perkier, around the breast area," said the Cherry Hill mother. So, after a quick chat with her plastic surgeon, Steven Davis, Robinson found herself scheduled for a Pellevé Perk-up. On a recent Wednesday afternoon, Davis spent 15 minutes gliding a wand that emitted radio frequencies over Robinson's chest.

Cate Blanchett is an actual, real human woman. She has lines on her face; wrinkles! She's also beautiful. The 42-year-old Australian thesp's naked face appears on the cover of the Economist's feature mag, Intelligent Life, without makeup or digital alterations. It makes us wonder whether we've ever seen the actual face of any of the countless women deemed beautiful by the media. "When other magazines photograph actresses, they routinely end up running heavily Photoshopped images, with every last wrinkle expunged," writes editor Tim de Lisle . More Houston rumors She can't get away from drug chatter even in death.

Items on Jeff Wojciechowski's to-do list before a 2010 family vacation to Cancun included renewing his passport, shopping for beach wear, and getting a Botox injection. The procedure wasn't to smooth out wrinkles. Instead, the injection went into his bladder muscle, to give the 63-year-old Fort Washington man a respite from incontinence that has plagued him since a 2006 construction accident left him paralyzed from mid-chest down. Though Botox has become synonymous with the temporary elimination of wrinkles, what's less well known is its application across medicine.

Grace Robinson was pleased with the size of her breasts, but the 43-year-old wanted to smooth out the fine lines and wrinkles around her decolletage. "I just wanted it to look a little perkier, around the breast area," said the Cherry Hill mother. So, after a quick chat with her plastic surgeon, Steven Davis, Robinson found herself scheduled for a Pellevé Perk-up. On a recent Wednesday afternoon, Davis spent 15 minutes gliding a wand that emitted radio frequencies over Robinson's chest.

Few milestones are more important to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies than PDUFA dates. The acronym stands for Prescription Drug User Fee Act, which was enacted in 1992 to shorten the amount of time regulators were taking to review new-drug applications. Generally, the Food and Drug Administration must give its answer on whether it will approve a new drug or biologic six months after a company applies for regulatory review. The big date for Exton's Fibrocell Science Inc. is Wednesday.

ANYONE doubting that DROP is an infectious disease need only tune in to the latest development in a lawsuit filed to keep DROP participants Frank Rizzo, Marian Tasco and Marge Tartaglione from running for re-election. Last week, Common Pleas Judge James Murray Lynn ruled against those challenging the incumbents based on their "irrevocable decision to retire" when they enrolled in the Deferred Retirement Option Plan. An appeal is expected to be filed today, which will make its way to Commonwealth Court.

Civilization V 4 stars Publisher: 2K Games System: PC Price: $49.99 Age rating: Everyone 10-plus Civilization V begins, as all Civilization games do, with a single settler. It can end in several ways, as all Civilization games can. But there have been a lot of changes made to the time in between, all wrapped up in a sleek art deco interface that presents the key information a player needs. What that first settler unit and the city it founds will lead to is largely up to a player's own style and whether the civilization is designed around crushing rival cultures or uniting them, creating an influential culture or researching leaps in technology.

Some view fashion reality TV as a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the mysterious world of designers. Others see it as an opportunity for any Joe Schmoe with a pair of scissors to design a dress for Angelina Jolie. In any case, the genre has changed the fashion landscape. Thanks to these kinds of shows, people who only dreamed of being designers - recall Project Runway alums Chloe Dao or Christian Siriano - now have full-fledged lines. People who once operated on the sidelines - think stylist Rachel Zoe - are stars in their own right.