Recent movies in which characters wear cultured pearls include Tin Cup, She's The One, That Thing You Do and One Night Stand. In The First Wives Club, the three "first wives" played by Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler and Diane Keaton are given strings of pearls by an old friend as a reminder of their friendship. Later the pearls come to symbolize female solidarity when the "first wives" help women in similar situations.

Perhaps that solidarity is one reason you can see so many women of all occupations, ages and social strata wearing pearls to work, at home and out for the evening.

Cultured pearls have also been seen on such popular programs as Melrose Place, Clueless, Savannah, and Beverly Hills 90210.

In Suddenly Susan, Brooke Shields stars as a former socialite "suddenly" on her own in the workaday world. Her character nevertheless still wears her cultured pearls both to express her own sense of style and because cultured pearls work well from day to night.

At the 50th Emmy Awards, many stars were seen bedecked in cultured pearls, including Julianna Marguilies of ER. Marguilies enhanced her sexy black gown with a modern twist, a contemporary cultured pearl and diamond collar by Stefan Hafner for Bernard Grosz. Also seen wearing cultured pearls on that prestigious occasion were Jensen Dagget of The Single Guy, Rene Taylor of The Nanny, Gillian Anderson of The X-Files and Karen Duffy, better known as the MTV v.j. "Duff."

Whatever your style, "you can't go wrong (with pearls)," said Anna Wintour, Editor in Chief of Vogue, in a recent New York Post interview, who speculates there'll be "a lot more jewelry and a lot more pearls coming up in the collections."

As Martin Katz, known as the "Private Jeweler to the Stars," explains, "Pearls transcend all ages. I would never consider my collections complete without an important representation of pearl jewelry,"

Thanks to versatile, always fashionable, cultured pearls, you don't have to be a star of stage or screen to look elegant, stylish and pretty in pearls.(NAPSI)