Red Carpet Rewind: Celebrity Cougars

By Elizabeth Snead

Mothers, forget your daughters. Better hide your sons. Cougars are taking over TV.

The first cougar on the TV prowl was Kim Cattrall‘s naughty Samantha, the unrepentant lover of boy toys on “ Sex and the City.” And she’s sure to continue her young-man-eating antics in the second “SATC” movie, which all four actresses, Cattrall, Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon and Kristen Davis, have officially signed on for.

But check out TV’s new season pack of cougars: Courteney Cox, who has a younger husband in real life, will star in ABC’s new comedy series “Cougar Town,” about amusingly desperate middle-aged women enjoying the physical pleasures of young dudes. Surely Courteney will bring some, um, reality, to the half-hour series.

And TV Land is launching “The Cougar,” a dating game show about older women dating younger men, with Vivica Fox, left, as host.

Let’s look at some of Hollywood hottest cougars who helped inspire this new craze: Jennifer Aniston, Halle Berry, Sharon Stone, Demi Moore, Mariah Carrey, Linda Hogan, Kim Cattrall, Paula Abdul, Barbara Hershey, Sandra Bullock, Bo Derek, Ellen Barkin and, one of the original celebrity cougars, Cher.

Who’s a fox? And who’s a fogey? You decide!  (Matt Sayles / Associated Press)