Potential candidates, it seems, do not need much convincing. The American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery reports that last year more than 385,000 lipo procedures were performed in the United States, up 188 percent from 1997. Stanley Frileck, M.D., clinical associate professor at UCLA and the medical director at L.A.'s Ona Spa (where one can receive a consultation for a face-lift after a relaxing steam bath), counts rail-thin models and celebrities among his pilosuction clientele. "Think of an actress who is going up for an award and is planning to wear a certain dress but has small amounts of fat in the outer thighs that make it fall in an unflattering manner, or the runway model who can't get into a jersey gown because she has two little collections of fat in her flank area," he says. Difficult to imagine, but he insists these creatures exist and visit his office in droves.

- Addicated to Lipo, VOGUE October 2002