Cougars on the Prowl
Posted on March 2, 2009
Filed Under East meets West | 1 Comment
By Susan Stackpole
Roar! Let’s begin with a quiz…Â
A cougar is:
a)Â Â large American feline resembling a lion
b)Â Â is an instrumental post-rock band from Madison, Wisconsin formed in 2003
c)Â Â Â A woman of middle age who actively seeks the casual companionship of younger (typically under 30 years old) males
d) All of the above
You are correct if you answered “dâ€. 
Today, we are turning our attention to a new breed, the Hollywood Cougar. We find ourselves deep in the celebrity urban jungle studying the particularly fascinating species, Hollywood Cougar, a creature attracting increased media attention. Hollywood Cougars are middle aged women enjoying the company of younger, attractive, usually twenty-something men. Elizabeth Taylor, Katie Couric, Demi Moore, Mariah Carey, Paula Abdul, Jennifer Aniston, and Kim Cattrall are all high-profile cougars flipping the typical Hollywood stereotype of May-December relationships. Even Hugh Jackman, 40, 2009 Oscar host has gotten in the game marrying Deborra-lee Furness, thirteen years his senior. Furness dismisses the age difference, stating, “Honestly, I simply don’t know what relevance it plays. If we’re talking maturity stakes, he’s more grown up than I am.†One international study estimates one-third of single women between ages 40 and 60 in western societies are dating younger men. Susan Winter, 40, author of Older Women, Younger Men: New Options for Love and Romance, confirms that social attitudes have definitely evolved, revealing her experience of dating a nineteen year old. Reality television is creating a voyeuristic view of real life cougars on the prowl. The Cougar, hosted by Vivica A. Fox premieres on 15 April 2009 on TV Land and showcases a forty-plus woman surrounded by twenty younger bachelors vying to be the coveted cub.
Elizabeth Taylor, perhaps the original cougar, stirred it up on 6 October 1991 for her eighth marriage when she married Larry Fortensky, twenty years her junior, whom she met while in rehab. Katie Couric, anchorwoman for CBS News, began dating, Brooks Perlin, is twenty –seven years her senior after agreeing to have dinner with following a Manhattan cancer fundraiser in September 2006. Perlin is a triathlon competitor managing a business marketing green construction materials. Couric’s friend said of Couric, “the age difference scared her off at first.â€Â Demi Moore, 47, probably one of the most famous cougars, met Ashton Kutcher, 31, at a casual dinner in 2007 and started dating in May. Moore states that they stayed up all night talking the night they met. Moore, once engaged to Emilio Estevez, had two previous marriages to Freddy Moore and Bruce Willis. It’s Kutcher’s first marriage after long-term relationships with Brittany Murphy and Ashley Scott. The couple married at the last minute in a traditional Kabbalah ceremony, which was held at their home in Beverly Hills, CA on 24 September 2005 and are still together.
Mariah Carey, eleven years senior, married twenty-seven year old, Nick Cannon, on 30 April 2008 in a sunset ceremony at Carey’s Bahamian estate. Cannon reveled, “She is beautiful on the outside and ten times as beautiful on the inside.†Carey’s previous marriage to music mogul, Tommy Mottola, twenty years her senior, ended in divorce, with Carey admitting she had fantasies of being kidnapped, so she could escape from Mottola. Paula Abdul, has been seen on and off again for almost two years with JT Torregiani, a restaurant owner more than twenty years her junior. Jennifer Aniston, newly forty, has been seen with known heart-breaker, thirty-one year old John Mayer, her date for the Oscars this year. Despite a highly publicized divorce from Brad Pitt following his involvement and subsequent marriage to Angelina Jolie, Aniston says she’s feels better than ever. 
Kim Cattrall, famous for her role as seductress in the wildly popular, Sex and the City, found sometimes life imitates art, or television story lines, when she began dating chef Alan Wyse, thirty-three years her junior. Cattrall, when asked about dating someone younger, responded, “I’ve discovered that it’s really interesting to be with a man of another generation because he has different ways of looking at the world.Â
Ladies take heart, and younger men, buckle your seatbelts. It seems more thirty-something plus women are discovering that age is merely a number, and finding maturity and romance in younger men that perhaps is lacking in their elder counterparts. May-December relationships are taking on new gender roles as women who are comfortable with themselves care less about what people think and more about what their hearts are saying. Shhhh. Listen closely, and you will hear the contented purring of Hollywood cougars nestled contentedly with their much younger cubs joyfully by their side.
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I have just read this article and surprise surprise!!! I am a cougar!!
And I will say this much…I am in love with a man 26 years my junior and have never been happier. Ladies!!! Don’t kid yourselves, sometimes younger guys are years more mature than the older ones. If you are comfortable in your own skin, then I say go for it. Life is too short so don”t waste anytime. Cougar or not, I have never been happier.