Sue Ontiveros: What Sarandon really was showing at SAG Awards

Follow @sueontiveros

// <![CDATA[

!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, ‘script’, ‘twitter-wjs’);

// ]]>

When I saw that the Internet was going a little wild over Susan Sarandon showing her breasts at the SAG Awards on Saturday night, I thought surely she must have been totally topless.

Well, that’s different, I thought, as I headed to my computer to catch the “Dead Man Walking” actress’ appearance. The SAG Awards are more like a company party than the Academy Awards (translation: lots of liquor), so you never know what could happen.

Follow @sueontiveros

// <![CDATA[

!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, ‘script’, ‘twitter-wjs’);

// ]]>

But really, a topless Sarandon wouldn’t have surprised me all that much, because she’s been pretty free about showing her girls on film. The Academy Award-winning actress has let audiences take a gander at what she’s got going on up there in a number of movies — “Pretty Baby,” “White Palace,” “King of the Gypsies,” “Bull Durham,” to name a few. Hers always looked quite perky, though they do seem to have gotten fuller over the years, something several websites attribute to breast implants. (Whether that’s true or not, I cannot say. Maybe actress Kate Winslet was just as unsure and that’s why she gave one of Sarandon’s breasts a little pat when they were smiling together for the camera. Whether real or enhanced, Winslet seemed quite impressed. But I digress.)

Actually, all Sarandon really did was show up wearing a black bandeau bra under her double-breasted (hey, I am not making that up; that’s a true fashion descriptor) white Max Mara suit with cropped pants. If you’re a “Seinfeld” fan, let me describe it this way: the Sarandon top was a bra, but not as brazen as the one in the infamous Sue Ellen Mischke episode (that was a white frilly number that just screamed brassiere). If you didn’t see that little triangle of skin at Sarandon’s waistline, one might have mistaken it for a strapless top. She looked quite lovely.

Still, Sarandon showing up in a bra shook up social media and the Twitterverse. The view met with swift disapproval from one (largely male) segment of social media, which almost surprised me. Their gender used to be big fans of looking at Sarandon’s breasts. There’s a whole page on celebritymoviearchive.com that catalogs all appearances of her ta-tas onscreen. (It describes with much seriousness the scenes in a clinical fashion, including phrases such as: “lowering her top to reveal her left breast.”)

Of course the reason some are freaked they saw the tops of her breasts is because hers are not a young pair anymore. Sarandon is 69, and I don’t know what the official age is for keeping one’s breasts totally hidden from view — though I guess at my age I should find out — but I’m guessing for the naysayers the actress must be passed it. Several commentators seemed aghast that she’d choose that outfit since she was doing the In Memoriam segment, as if Sarandon had showed up at Great-Granny Ethel’s funeral wearing it. Silly.

But those of us who got a chuckle out of the brouhaha know that as a woman ages, she cares less and less what others think. She does what she wants, what makes her feel good. Sarandon knows a visual reminder of her sexuality would rattle some — especially those young male critics — and she didn’t give a hoot.

And I think that’s what we were seeing up there, besides the bandeau bra.

Deal with it, basically is what Sarandon, who knows she looks fabulous, was saying by showing up in that top.

I like that.

Email: sueontiveros.cst@gmail.com

Follow Sue Ontiveros on Twitter: Follow @sueontiveros

Tweets by @sueontiveros// <![CDATA[

!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script”,"twitter-wjs”);

// ]]>