What a dame

Holy tea and crumpets! Now that's what I call a properly buttered scone. Her majesty Helen Mirren showed off her slammin' bikini body while vacationing in Italy this week. I'm pretty sure when I first saw these pictures all my higher brain function stopped and I was reduced to pointing at the screen and going “Hum-ah-nah, hum-ah-nah, hum-ah-nah...” Now, I can't say entirely for sure because I also blacked out. But when I woke up I was both grinning and drooling. Oh, sorry, did I forget to mention that Helen celebrates her 63rd birthday next week?

[For the love of all that is right and good, click the above picture to enlarge. It would be positively criminal not to.]

Oh, Helen, you've always been the sauciest of minxes. But what is possibly even more impressive than her (enviable/rocking/stomach so flat you could serve flapjacks on it) body is the confidence she shows by getting out there with her bad self in that bright red bikini. Apparently the shots have caused quite a stir in British press. Though, really, we shouldn't be that shocked. Sixty isn't ancient. And Helen has always been sexy. Put that together and it only makes sense that she's sexy at 60. In our overly Botoxed age of silicon and collagen, it's beyond refreshing to see a woman who embraces her age and says, “Damn right, and I look good.” She sure does. All hail the queen!

[Hat tip, Fletcher, Shannon and Marilyn!]

p.s. For those uninitiated, Helen could be considered the queen of getting her kit off. In fact this dame could have an entire Naked Lady Monday in her honor. Wait, now there's an idea...