COUGAR ON THE PROWL

IN OUR brave new age, who cares about age?
The new movie The Proposal makes this point as Sandra Bullock, 45, proposes to Ryan Reynolds, 32.


She gets down on her knees in the middle of a street and asks Ryan to marry her to save her from being deported (she's Canadian).
It's very unseemly because not only does Ryan not help her get up (they don't get along because she's his domineering, harda** boss), but it's also terribly undignified for an elderly woman to bend down the way she did.
She's elderly, that is, if you consider that by the time Ryan is, say, 45, Sandra would be 58.
That would make her eligible for a senior-citizen discount when she goes to see a show like The Proposal.
But that's okay, because reality in Cougarland may suck during the broken-hipfalse- teeth years but, man, movies make it look cool.
You know what a cougar is, don't you? It's the animal you married, hooked up or made bacon with, that's about the same age as Mum.
Now, your parents might kick you out for bringing back The Mummy but, in Hollywood, Mrs Robinson from The Graduate has turned from fab hag to snag.
Nobody in The Proposal batted an eyelid when puppy dog Ryan took his urbanite rottweiler boss Sandra to his family home in rural Alaska and introduced her to everybody.
Maybe those folk in Sarah Palin country are basically stupid, but the age issue was never a big deal in a film more concerned with chemistry.
In these days of extreme makeovers, Botox, instant lifts, Ryan Seacrest facials and Kelly Clarkson's photoshopped butt, anybody can look more or less younger, and nobody cares about the hag-lad factor.
Yes, times have changed.
Now, casting an older gal with a younger stud is easier with actual cougars like Demi Moore, Halle Berry, Mira Sorvino, Barbara Hershey, Heather Graham and Cameron 'eight years older than ex-flame Justin Timberlake' Diaz on the prowl.
To be fair, The Proposal doesn't make Sandra out to be a serious senior prowler.
But it does portray her as an eager b***-breaker who uses her seniority and power over Ryan to force him to do things that he doesn't want to.
That's kinky to some people.
Not as kinky as a dominatrix movie with handcuffs, whips and whipped cream, but kinky nonetheless.
Which is why Courteney Cox is hunting for fresh meat in a new TV sitcom called Cougar Town, while Friends mate Jennifer Aniston will be cruising in a rom-com called Pumas.
You know, the closest I ever got to a cougar is The Cougar herself.
I interviewed Stacey Anderson, the 40-year-old babe who kissed a lot of 20-something dudes in the reality-TV series.
"Age is just a number," she told me.
Which means that even if the difference between you and your honey is 105, heck, you can still play.