FACING THE FUTURE AVERAGE, NORMAL FOLKS RISK PLASTIC SURGERY TO CARVE OUT A NEW IMAGE AND A NEW CAREER.

Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer

We are a city obsessed by appearances, usually somebody else's. The customers who go into the Beverly Hills salons, beauty magazines tucked under their arms with the page folded to an actress or model, are seeking the celebrity's hair, body, face - or life.

``That's who I want to be,'' they say.

Some really mean it and head straight for a cosmetic surgeon who can give them anyone's complete appearance.

That's basically the path taken by a Newport Beach woman who goes by the name Margarita. It wasn't that she didn't like her own face. Yes, she wanted it to be less rounded and to lose the bump from her nose. More importantly, Margarita says, she has been bewitched since childhood by another woman's appearance and behavior. That someone was Marilyn Monroe.

``My mother was fascinated by her, and I suppose she read the magazines, and then I would look at the magazines and think, 'What a pretty lady,' '' says Margarita. ``I just admired the woman, no matter what anybody says.

``It's like the song Elton John wrote. She's a 'candle in the wind.' Her flame has flickered out but her legend lives on, and this is how I wanted to immortalize her.''

After having surgical alterations done to her eyes, cheeks, nose, lips and forehead, Margarita had new employment opportunities. She works as a look-alike at bachelor parties, on cruise ships and at other engagements. If you've got the look and enough acting ability to successfully mimic the chosen celeb's style, you could make some serious money.

According to Dan Gore, who has booked and managed celebrity impersonators for 10 years, the successful faux ``Chers,'' ``Madonnas'' and ``Rickys'' out there can pull in $1,500 for a single evening at a corporate event or convention. Snagging a commercial overseas will earn a look-alike three times that much.

A handful of look-alikes are even hired by the person they're impersonating to serve as a stand-in during a film or video shoot. In addition to the $400 for a single day of work, you get the benefit of saying you worked for Madonna or Michael Jackson.

``Very few of them are able to work full time,'' says Gore, whose company, Incredible Creations on Stage, recently managed a female impersonator show, Carnival Cabaret, in Lake Tahoe. ``There's one 'Cher' out there who looks a lot like her. Then there are three or four others who have had lots of surgery to compete with the one who looks most like her.''

Dr. C. Lin Puckett, president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, considers it both common and healthy for a patient dissatisfied with a certain part of her appearance - a nose for example - to use a celebrity's nose as a model for what she would prefer.

But a total transformation?

``I suspect that would be a phenomenon that is unique to California and especially to the Los Angeles area,'' says Puckett, a professor of plastic surgery at the University of Missouri. ``The majority of us have not been confronted by someone saying she wants to look like Kim Basinger, except in a joking manner.''

Then there's cosmetic surgeon Nikolas Chugay, who has not only been confronted by such a person, he seeks them out.

``Your face is your fortune,'' trumpets a media release from the Lee Solters Co., a Beverly Hills-based public relations firm employed by Chugay. ``Life is too short to live it wishing for that which genetics forgot to provide as standard issue, especially when it means the difference between hefty paychecks and the unemployment line,'' the release form continues. ``After all, one can do a lot worse than making beaucoup bucks resembling one of the Beautiful People.''

Chugay insists he wasn't initially looking for the look-alike enhancement niche. One day, a man came into his office wanting to look like former Roseanne husband Tom Arnold.

After studying pictures, Chugay determined the bone structure of this man's face was close enough to Arnold's that Chugay could enhance the look. The nose would need some work, and the chin. He would also get liposuction.

``Most people start that way,'' says Chugay. ``Somebody tells them they look a little bit like Ricky Martin and the wheels start turning.''

Chugay has also done a Michael Jackson, a Marilyn Monroe and an Elvis Presley. New clients include folks wanting to resemble Leonardo DiCaprio and Ricky Martin.

Performing a total transformation on a look-alike raises certain red flags among cosmetic surgeons. Anybody who wants to look like someone else that desperately needs to be treated with caution. If you're going to take their money, doctors say, be careful how much you raise their hopes.

L.A.-based cosmetic surgeon Dr. Michael McGuire says potential customers should not be given false guarantees or made to think that their lives will necessarily change just because, after surgery, they might look more like a famous person than they did to begin with.

And that's if they're lucky. More often than not, a person hoping to look like someone else will simply look different, McGuire says, and not necessarily better.

``The patient who comes in and truly wants to look like a celebrity is a rarity, and most of those patients are psychologically handicapped,'' says McGuire, immediate past president of the California Society of Plastic Surgeons.

``Most people have unrealistic expectations,'' he adds. ``They think they're going to get the mate or the job of their choice or the promotion they long sought. But the only thing holding them back is that they don't look like Tom Cruise.''

A doctor who encourages this line of thinking, McGuire claims, is doing both himself and his patient a disservice.

``The patient will experience failure both surgically and psychologically,'' McGuire says. ``Then you're going to have an unhappy patient after many stages and tremendous expense.''

Margarita - who was looking to celebrate Marilyn more than to enhance her own job prospects - said she spoke to a psychologist before going under the knife.

``Any individual doing such drastic changes should speak to somebody and know for sure that's what he wants,'' she says. ``I did that, and it worked out.''

Nor does she think Chugay is doing anything irresponsible.

``To me, he's a genius,'' she says. ``The man actually studied the face like an artist. He created a totally different person.''

Chugay, who estimates that a complete transformation will run anywhere from $15,000-$30,000, says he has experienced little or no criticism from colleagues over his celebrity look-alike enhancements.

``Most of them say, 'Wow, that's kind of interesting,' '' says Chugay. ``I didn't really intend to do this, and I haven't experienced that much negativity to this point.''

He also says he talks with prospective patients thoroughly before agreeing to perform any procedure.

``I turn down more people than I (accept). They may look quite different (from the celebrity). We discuss in pretty great detail what's involved, and we decide together,'' says Chugay, a doctor of osteopathy who studied at the Chicago College of Osteopathy and Medicine and performed a plastic surgery fellowship in Rio de Janeiro.

However, a three-year probation against Chugay's license from the Osteopathic Medical Board of California based on a patient accusation will be completed in April 2001. It will be the third probationary period he has completed in the course of his career. He is allowed to continue practicing as long as he complies with the terms of his probation.

Yet satisfied customers claim Chugay has both improved their appearance and enhanced their professional career. They say they went under Chugay's knife with clear head, and are more than satisfied with the results.

Steve Erhardt insists the changes he hired Chugay to perform, which included a chin cleft and narrowing of the nostrils, weren't substantial. The result, however, was that Erhardt ended up looking like Michael Jackson.

Which was fine with Erhardt who, with the use of clothing, makeup and mimicry could pull off the rest of the illusion and get ``more work than I want'' as a Jackson look-alike.

``I do have the same basic features as Michael,'' says Erhardt, a trained makeup artist who lives in Los Angeles. ``Not only do I look like him, I act like him. I sound exactly like him when I'm working.''

There's more than a little irony here, of course. It's a bit of a challenge to make someone look like a person who is more than a little bit famous for his own changing appearance.

``Michael Jackson is always in transformation himself,'' says Chugay, with a laugh.

Check out doctor credentials carefully

It's a good idea to check the professional and educational background of any doctor you plan to consult or hire. Especially in plastic surgery, where the person charging you thousands of dollars to fix your appearance may have had the bulk of his or her training in gynecology or even dentistry.

In the state of California, any doctor licensed as a physician and surgeon can legally perform any surgical procedure on an outpatient basis, says Dr. Thomas R. Stevenson, president of the California Society of Plastic Surgeons.

``The real bellwether is if the doctor has hospital privileges,'' says Stevenson, professor and chief of plastic surgery at UC Davis. ``Hospitals have much more stringent criteria for privileges. They wouldn't let me do neurosurgery at this or any other hospital unless I proved I was qualified.''

If a plastic surgeon claims to be board certified, patients should ask his field of certification, say officials from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons - the educational branch of the American Board of Plastic Surgery (ABPS). The answer will determine how much and what type of training the doctor has received.

``The American people deserve to understand that there are boards that are legitimate and real and others that are sort of contrived,'' says Dr. C. Lin Puckett, president of the American Board of Plastic Surgeons and professor of plastic surgery at the University of Missouri.

``American people who are seeking cosmetic surgery or any other kind of plastic surgery are probably sophisticated enough to ask if someone is board certified. They are not necessarily sophisticated enough to differentiate when that individual says, 'Yes, I'm certified by the Two-Step Board of Plastic Surgery.' ''

In order to receive certification in plastic surgery from the ABPS, members must have graduated from an accredited medical school and completed at least five years of additional training: three in general surgery, two in plastic surgery. They have practiced plastic surgery for an additional two years and passed comprehensive written and oral exams. Certification must be renewed every seven years.

Both medical doctors (MDs) and doctors of osteopathy (DOs) can earn board certification from the ABPS. Osteopathy is a system of healing that emphasizes manipulation (as of joints) but does not exclude other uses of medicine or surgery.

Osteopaths can also gain certification in plastic surgery through the American Osteopathic Association (AOA) by undergoing two years of training in plastic and reconstructive surgery following three years of training in surgery or an AOA-approved and completed residency program in orthopedic surgery or an AOA-approved and completed residency in otolaryngology/facial plastic surgery.

In order to be certified through the American Board of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, a doctor has to have previous certification from the ABPS or the American Board of Otolaryngology. The doctor will have graduated from a residency approved by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), been in private practice for two years in facial plastic surgery, and have passed written and oral exams.

- Evan Henerson

CAPTION(S):

4 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- color) There's money to be made in looking like someone famous - and you don't have to depend on nature for your big break

David Sprague/Staff Photographer

(2 -- 3) Steve Erhardt, left, had a few alterations - chin cleft, narrowed nostrils - to make him look like Michael Jackson. His post-surgery look is on the right.

(4) 'I turn down more people than I (accept). They may look quite different (from the celebrity). We discuss in pretty great detail what's involved, and we decide together.'

Nikolas Chugay

Doctor of osteopathy and plastic surgeon

Box: Check out doctor's credentials carefully (See text)