Actress Renee Zellweger poses at the 21st annual ELLE Women in Hollywood Awards in Los Angeles, October 20, 2014.Reuters
It seems like the only thing anyone is looking at on the Internet today is Renée Zellweger. Specifically, her face. That's right – an actor best known as 2001's Bridget Jones – is at the top of the every "most shared story" list today.
Admittedly, I rolled my eyes and judged the world's morals before clicking on the story.
And then, like everyone else, I stared. Scrolled, and stared again, slack-jawed, especially when I stumbled upon this.
This isn't about scrutinizing a celebrity's poor plastic surgery, or wondering why a perfectly beautiful woman would choose to go under the knife. No – in fact, her current face is just fine. There are wrinkles, imperfect eyebrows, and the new Zellweger looks very much like a healthy 45-year-old woman. It's simply just not the Renée Zellweger we know. The Academy Award-winning actress and face of Bridget Jones, Roxy Hart, Dorothy Boyd – she's nowhere to be found.
In her place is a completely different woman walking the red carpet.
If you stare at new Zellweger long enough (yes, I'm embarrassingly behind on today's to-do list), you'll notice it's her eyes that have changed so drastically. In the nineties, when Dirty Dancing star Jennifer Gray changed her nose, she was also unrecognizable as her former self, and the public reaction was similar.
Is it, then, a justifiable point of Internet curiosity, as opposed to viral outrage at a failed attempt at recapturing youth?
Renée Zellweger, for now, is remaining mum about her very new look. Does she think she looks different? Could there have been an underlying health issue?
All worthwhile questions we should ask ourselves before lobbing insults or judging her decisions. But to be sure, another justified question: Does it matter what we think?