Priscilla Presley's Face: TMZ All Over the Story—Or Maybe Not

While watching "Dancing With the Stars" (yes, color me bust-ed), the Pathophilia blog came to wonder why it is that Priscilla Presley doesn't or can't smile. Is the King's ex-wife that demure by nature? Or did the woman—whose current face (and I mean this in the nicest possible way) looks like it was molded by a new hire at Madame Tussauds—actually get Botox injected into her nasolabial folds? Possible...

But further inquiry leads to medical resource TMZ (read here and here), where it is revealed that Argentinian doctor Daniel Serrano scammed a whole slew of Hollywood celebs not too long ago, including Presley, by offering them facial injections of an "all-natural" anti-wrinkle "serum" that was touted to be better than Botox. 

Unfortunately none of the women, who must have been unbelievably desperate to achieve and/or maintain faux youth, bothered to determine if the doc was licensed in the United States or what the so-called serum actually was. Turns out that what Serrano (who, BTW, was never was licensed to practice in the US) injected into their faces was an industrial-grade lubricant silicone, according to the gossip website. In some cases, TMZ reports, Serrano's injections caused lumps, paralysis, and "holes."*

But even further investigation by the P blog reveals that all of this information is really old news (and may have nothing to do with how Presley's face looks now). Reports from way back in 2004 revealed that Diane Richie (then estranged wife of Lionel) was charged in November of that year with aiding and abetting Serrano, while he used her Beverly Hills home at various times from July to December of 2003 to administer costly injections of what he claimed was the European-approved collagen filler Artecoll,^† but what was really (in some cases) the aforementioned silicone. Serrano was charged with 4 counts in connection with the repeated administration of these injections.

A 2006 Los Angeles CBS news report reveals that Serrano was subsequently sentenced to 18 months in federal prison on charges related to the illegal injections, after he pleaded guilty in 2005 to conspiracy, receipt of illegally imported merchandise, and receipt of an adulterated device in interstate commerce. According to a San Francisco Chronicle article, Serrano, as part of a plea agreement, admitted to giving the illegal injections from 2001 until November 2004 and earning more than $1.6 million for his efforts, according to court papers. (TMZ writes that the guy only accepted lump sums of cold, hard cash from his gullible victims.) 

Serrano's "clients" included Diane Richie, Lionel Richie, and Shawn King (Larry King's wife). King, who also hosted "injection parties" for Serrano (although she was evidently not charged like Ms. Richie), claimed that she developed a "lump" in her lip from the injections, and Beverly Hills resident Ellen Levinthal is the unfortunate woman who experienced the reported facial "holes," according to the report. Presley, very notably, was not mentioned in these contemporary news reports.

*Hey, facial lumps and paralysis I could deal with, but holes?

†Artecoll, aka ArteFill, is an 80-20 mixture of purified bovine collagen and polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) microspheres (aka Plexiglass beads). ArteFill was not approved by the FDA until October 27, 2006—well after Serrano's alleged use in the United States. The product is indicated for the correction of nasolabial folds.

Photo: "Dancing With the Stars"