When the belly succumbs to age and gravity

I was shocked - and then consoled - when I saw the pictures of singer-songwriter Neil Young in a recent Daily Mail.com page. There he was, on the back porch of a villa in Portofino, Italy, with his girlfriend, the actress Daryl Hannah, enjoying their holiday.

Hannah, 54, a faded star, was in a bathrobe. Young, 70, wore a knee-length pair of shorts, a straw fedora and a blue shirt that he left open. What shocked me was how flabby he looked, and the sight of his big paunch.

I am used to seeing on the Net reed-thin ageing rock stars like Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, so the sight of a rock titan like Young, who had obviously given in fully to age and gravity, shook me. But it was also a consolation, because I have the same flab and paunch.