Age before beauty

It is the curse of show business. There is always someone younger and prettier than you ready to take your place. Sarah Jessica Parker, who has been dropped by Gap's advertising campaign in favour of 17-year-old Joss Stone, is only the latest star to discover this.

But Ms Parker should be glad. To be dropped for a younger model is an opportunity to demonstrate good grace and dignity in an industry not especially known for either of those qualities. We say: good luck to life's more mature models. And let them take comfort in the fact that, as Goethe put it, "If youth is a fault, it is one soon corrected".