Louise O'Neill: Getting older - and how it's changed in our lifetimes

"Think of every time you have seen a 50+ year old actor with a love interest who is twenty years his junior on screen – and how rare it is to see it the other way around."

Picture: Miki Barlok

I was 18 when Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle was released in 2003. I still remember the hype around Demi Moore’s cameo in the movie, the breathless gushing over her body, the rumours about plastic surgery. Photos of her in a bikini were published in the gossip magazines, commentators saying – can you believe Demi looks this good? At her age?!

She was 41 at the time and it seemed to be inconceivable to the general public that a woman didn’t shrivel up and turn into a crone once she hit her forties.