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lipstick is handed to Ava Gardner by her makeup woman, who thinks she may want to freshen up. Gardner stares at the tube and, with a world-weary shake of her head, says, in Yiddish, "S'it gurnisht helfen." (Nothing will help). Next, looking into the woman's hand mirror, she sighs and, continuing the Yiddish singsong, says, "Avala, you've hit rock bottom."
Now, rock bottom for Ava Gardner is a height few women will ever scale, but that gives her scant comfort. When you've been one of the great beauties of the century and you're 63 and still have to work for a living in a business of intense closeups, you can get really insecure. Between scenes, therefore, she takes long, deep breaths, purses her lips and strokes the sides of her face as though to shave away years.