Brigitte Bardot is 80 and feisty as ever

PARIS –For those of us of a certain generation and a continental bent such as me (watch it!), Brigitte Bardot was the hot sex symbol of the 60s. She turns 80 on Sunday, and is as feisty as she became when she gave up making (generally bad B) movies. She has arrived at the ripe old age without a computer or even a mobile phone. According to another report, she is also unsocial and eschews any mention of the fame and beauty that turned her into a synonym of luxury and seduction – much of that effect in Spain, where curvy actresses willing to drop their clothes at the approach of a camera, though never every item where a rarity. She lives in the South of France, in a house full of animals and she still fights for the rights of such species as foxes, seals and elephants, which fight became her raison d’etre (reason for living, darling) after a youth of being persecuted by paparazzi everywhere. She uses no make-up and doesn’t visit a hairdresser, apparently, but behind the wrinkles of age and the intensity of those eyes is the blonde (never found out if it was natural) that shone brightly in the time of Marilyn Monroe, Diana Dors and The Beatles. Joyeux Anniversaire, Madame!