Why the fit and fabulous over-40s trump the good girls in their 20s

Lucy Lawless beams back at us from the cover of Next magazine. Her hair retains her usual shade of mouse-blonde and not the scarlet tresses she's been toting as her accessory du jour at various events resembling more a cartoon Wilma Flintstone. The flaming-red locks (wigs from the set of Spartacus) have raised quite the eyebrow lately and the occasional snigger. Like her energetic behaviour and erratic enthusiasm at the Music Awards.

The Xena actress, like her counterparts Kerre Woodham, Carol Hirschfeld, Robyn Malcolm and Alison Mau are regular tabloid fodder like their American counterparts Demi Moore, Madonna and Sharon Stone.

They sell magazines and as such, smile back with shiny pearlers, glossy manes and perfect smiles. Cover girls they have become - but are they taking the spots usually filled by the 20-something celebrity whippets spilling out of nightclubs and generally causing mayhem?

Oh wait. This is Auckland, not Hollywood and while Millie Holmes has been pulling up the ranks for the bad girls in the manner of Amy Winehouse and Lindsay Lohan - whose father came out today declaring his daughter may not be alive in a year if she continues on the fast track route she has adopted - we have few young ones prepared to rock the boat, let alone shake the good girl mantra.

Hallelujah for La Lawless then.

Mau, whose seemingly perfect marriage ended earlier this year has refused to answer why, despite hiring a celebrity consultant friend to "manage" her image during that period, that included deciding when the right time was to take off her wedding ring: not too soon so as to appear heartless; not too late as to appear heartbroken.

She has recently returned from a holiday with her two children, Joel and Paris and her estranged husband Simon Dallow. The family spent time at Disneyland. It was a promise, Mau said, she made to her children some time ago.

While Dallow ran wild at the Qantas Awards, shaking off any goody-too-good image his colleagues may have had of him after a few too many beverages and a stunning win - taking home the gong for Best News - where are the young ones doing the same?

Why aren't our 20 and 30-something beauties filling the void that Young Hollywood has done so well?

They're growing up, acting maturely and fulfilling their ambitions. Keisha Castle-Hughes is a homebody with a partner and a tot; Brooke Fraser is nesting in Sydney; Shavaughn Ruakere and Helena McAlpine are out of work and occasionally seen, Jaquie Brown is building up Jaquie Brown Inc, Kimberly Crossman from Shortland St and Siobhan Marshall from Outrageous Fortune only make my social pages if they're snapped at a high-profile party, and Casey Green has ditched the pole in favour of a respectable life as an All Black squeeze.

BORING!

Even Aja Rock and Nicky Watson, who could be relied upon for attention-seeking behaviour and itty-bitty get-ups, have shunned the bad girl spotlight in favour of marrying into money (Aja - the "I-dos" are still coming) and hanging out with males of the four-legged variety (Nicky).

Watson's brief foray back to her bikini modelling days on the catwalk alongside Pamela Anderson provided us with much-wanted column inches, but it wasn't to last.

I guess we need to leave it to the fit and fabulous 40-something-year-olds with stories to tell and the guts to tell them.

Rachel Glucina