TV REVIEW : ‘Beauty Queen’ Profile of Lauder: Skin-Deep

Industrialist and beauty queen are words rarely used to describe the same person. But Estee Lauder, America’s richest businesswoman, is both. Founder of one of the world’s leading cosmetics companies, Lauder sits in the beauty industry’s catbird seat, controlling the lucrative makeup counters in the country’s most prestigious stores.

Lauder is the subject of the third and final installment of “Beauty Queens,” a series on the Arts & Entertainment cable network (at 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. today) that already has explored the lives of other cosmetics moguls Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden. The only living legend in the trio, Lauder, now in her 80s, is interviewed at length about her rise to the top.

We hear that she waited eight hours to get her first meeting with a buyer at Saks Fifth Avenue in the early 1950s, immediately put cream on the woman’s face, and thus launched her brand in the prestige market. And that she invented the concepts of “gifts with purchase” and “purchase with purchase,” two revolutionary ideas that have become classics. And that she is America’s most sophisticated “nose” when it comes to creating a new fragrance.

But that’s about it. In this superficial report, we don’t learn the hows and whys of Estee Lauder. Eila Hershon and Robert Guerra, who produced and directed the series, don’t take advantage of their knowledge of Rubinstein and Arden to show how Lauder toppled their power bases. As has been the problem with all three profiles, there is no attention paid to the competition prevalent in one of the country’s most cutthroat businesses.

Hershon and Guerra don’t explore Lauder’s shrewd side, but instead portray her as the sweet elder stateswoman who conquered an industry because “my girls (her sales force) are all taught to sell the woman exactly what she wants and not a penny more.” That attitude doesn’t grow a makeup company to an estimated $1.3-billion empire.

Viewers are, however, treated to the glitz of the beauty world: the beautiful faces, the beautiful people and plenty of beautiful makeup. “Bee-yoo-tee-ful,” as Lauder intones it, is the name of her game (and, coincidentally, one of her perfumes). We see her as she hobnobs with the Prince and Princess of Wales and President and Mrs. Bush, as well as the glitterati of the film and fashion world. A devotee of dramatic clothing, she even demands that a perfume box be designed to reflect her favorite dress.

But beyond a polo prize and a university designed for employees, we see little of the impact of her fortune. There is a mere mention of her son Ronald’s bid for mayor of New York, even though his losing campaign proved to cost more than all the other candidates combined. We hear nothing of her vast art and jewel collection, nor of the vast charitable work she and her company have done.

For those who only want to glimpse the glamour set, the last installment of “Beauty Queens” will suffice. But those who want the real scoop on Estee and her empire will be disappointed; this hour is homage to the queen with no comment from her subjects.