HOLLYWOOD -- Catherine Deneuve stole the show during Ladies Day at the TV critics January press tour this week. The ageless French beauty was in Los Angeles to promote a remake of Dangerous Liaisons, a We (Women's Entertainment) cable mini-series co-starring Rupert Everett, Nastasia Kinski and Leelee Sobieski. (A Canadian network will hopefully pick up the project, which was shot in both French and English).

Deneuve sizzled in black fishnet stockings, a flowery print dress and a long, flowing red scarf. A ring the size of a doorknob shone from her left hand. Flanked by Kinski and Sobieski, two babes who could be her daughter and granddaughter, she nevertheless owned the stage.

She was asked for the umpteenth time the secret of her eternal beauty. Deneuve shrugged. "I smoke, I drink a little ... I'm never bored," she said.

She hits the gym although she's not really into it. The spa? Mais oui, every week.

Basically, she was very at ease with how she looks and who she is. Then the wisdom comes out: "I live with what I have; I don't like to live with what I had."

Did she find that there are more roles in Europe for women of a certain age than there are in North America? Deneuve agreed that it is easier to grow older in Europe. Why? "Because," she explained, "we love women more than beauty in Europe."

There seemed to be less love for the United States. Deneuve met questions about the current anti-French sentiment in the U.S. head on. "What about America?" she asked. "It's easier to be a French person here today than to be an American in another part of the world."

She compared the love/hate relationship between the two countries to that of a long marriage. "It's a tough moment, but it's only a moment."


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