Yet British actress Elizabeth Hurley, who's a veteran of bikini shoots, is apparently looking forward to the moment she never has to pose in a bikini again.
She has been selling bikinis under her own name, Elizabeth Hurley Beach, for three years now and, this year, she is diversifying with a diffusion line for clothing line Mango, reported London's TheTimes.
'Shooting bikinis is now my life, which, as you can imagine, is unmitigated hell,' she said.
'I can't think of anything worse in the world than another bikini shoot - I've got two next month.
'I bring it all on myself. I've got nobody else to blame.'
She added: 'If you get a photographer you don't know, of course, you think, 'Oh God'.
'But if you signed on for the gig, sadly, you have to go and be jolly in a skimpy white bikini.
'So I now rely on nice photographers and a bit of (digital) retouching.'
While the 40-year-old beauty is vague about the amount of exercise she does ('I don't go to the gym, but I intend to'), and emphatic about amount she eats ('lots'), she is conscious of age catching up with her.
Hurley said: 'The biggest change at 40 is that you can't stay very slim with yoga, Pilates or stretching alone.
'Previously, I didn't do much more.
'Over 40, you have to do something aerobic, unless you don't eat much, but I eat lots.'
A treat, for the record, is something 'salty and meaty - a bacon and sausage sandwich', she said.
HEAVIER
She added: 'Physically, there's no comparison with six years ago - I'm much heavier now. Before Damian (her 6-year-old son with Hollywood billionaire Steve Bing), I chain-smoked, which is an appetite suppressant.
'Now, if I put on any weight, it looks different. Because you've been big, and your skin has stretched, you have to watch it.'
So hence, she doesn't mind a bit of digital retouching.
'I like a certain amount of retouching, like anybody,' Hurley admitted cautiously. 'We all like to get rid of spots and shadows under our eyes. I've always been quite particular - I don't like my face to be retouched...
'I don't mind if you want to make me a bit thinner and a bit younger, but you can't give me a different jaw or eyebrows.'
This article was first published in The New Paper on Apr 26, 2008.
