Cosmetics Mogul Donates $50 Million To Two Area Hospitals

from NY1 News

Two city hospitals received a $50 million gift Thursday from Revlon cosmetics mogul Ronald Perelman. New York Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical Center received the multi-million dollar donation from Perelman. He says he made the contribution to support advances in cardiac care and reproductive medicine.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn says Perleman's generosity will give hope to the city's residents. "[Hope] is an incredibly important thing right now in our city, because at a time when people are worried about their future, you are sending a message to them that their future will be okay," said Quinn. "Because we are in a city of great and generous people who are going to ban together and make sure that everyone gets the best care they possibly could."

"My dream is for these guys to help a lot of people get better, be better, and do better," said Perelman. The hospital plans to build a new cardiac care facility, which will be named the Ronald O. Perelman Heart Care Institute. The donation will also support research and clinical care at the Center for Reproductive Medicine, which will also be named after the donor and his late ex-wife.

Cosmetics target kids getting older younger

By CAMILLE SWEENEY

ONE recent rainy afternoon, seven-year-old Eleanor LaFauci, sat with her feet in open-toed foam slippers, admiring her toenails, freshly painted watermelon pink. “Look, we’re reading an adult magazine,” Eleanor told her mother, gleefully waving a copy of People with a desultory-looking Britney Spears on its cover. Eleanor was in the bubble-gum-coloured pedicure lounge of Dashing Diva, the Upper West Side franchise of the international nail spa, with her three-and-half-year-old sister and a half-dozen of friends.

The girls were celebrating her birthday with mani’s, pedi’s and mini-makeovers with light makeup and body art – glitter-applied stars, lightning bolts and, of course, hearts. Eleanor’s mother, Anne O’Brien, stood watching and shrugged. “What can I say?” said O’Brien, whose husband suggested the party. “She’s a girly girl. I’m not quite sure how it happened. I didn’t get my first manicure until I was 25.” Traditionally, young girls have played with unattended MAC eye shadow or Chanel foundation makeup, hoping to capture a whiff of sophistication. In the recent past, young girls have also tagged along on beauty expeditions by their mothers and teenage sisters.

But today, cosmetic companies and retailers increasingly aim their sophisticated products and service packages squarely at six- to nine-year-olds, who are being transformed into savvy beauty consumers before they’re out of elementary school. “The starter market has definitely grown, I think, due to a number of cultural influences,” said Samantha Skey, the senior vice president for strategic marketing of Alloy Media and Marketing. Reality programming like Americas Next Top Model often hinges on the segment devoted to a hair and beauty transformation for the contestants, Skey said.

On social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, members’ intense self-focus and their attention to how they present themselves also affect six- to nine-year-olds, even though technically, they aren’t allowed to set up profiles on the sites, she added. “We live in a culture of insta-celebrity,” Skey said. “Our little girls now grow up thinking they need to be ready for their close-up, lest the paparazzi arrive.” In a study last year, 55 percent of six- to nine-year-old girls said they used lip gloss or lipstick, and nearly two-thirds said they used nail polish, according to Experian, a market research company based in New York. In 2003, 49 percent of the same age-group said they used lip gloss or lipstick. Youth market analysts say this is part of a trend called kids getting older younger (KGOY) and cultural observers describe a tandem phenomenon, more-indulgent parents. — © The New York Times