Full Disclosure

Thursday February 07, 2002 12:15 PM EST

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Yahoo Buzz
• E-mail

Few in the TV news industry own up to cosmetic surgery, but those who do are -- like Greta Van Susteren -- blasé about their appointment with the knife. "How we look is part of what we do," says Bonnie Erbe, 47, host of the PBS news program To the Contrary. Erbe, who went public about her '99 face-lift "to preempt the gossip," says that Van Susteren's eye-lift procedure is far more common among newscasters than those outside the business realize-and that goes for guys, too. "There is an equal-opportunity factor at work these days," she says. "Men are now having to be as concerned about looks as women have always been."

Former Hard Copy anchor Terry Murphy, 54, had eyelid surgery in '90 to eliminate dark circles caused by allergies. Now a writer and producer at Extra who relishes not having to worry about makeup, she believes that to get back onair she needs to have her eyes redone because "it's all in the eyes and the eyes are your soul." But, she says, "I'll wait until I have the money."

Linda Ellerbee, 57, a pioneer female correspondent at ABC and NBC who now produces programs for Nickelodeon, says she had "the skin under my chin removed" after losing 60 lbs. But she sees a slight increase in the acceptance of aging. "Thanks to a lot of people, namely Barbara Walters, maybe myself and a couple other old broads, you no longer have to be young," she says. "It's a small step, but it's progress."