Bettie Page in a coma

Real women have curves. Such a shame that I have to admit I didn't even realize she was still alive, though reading the article it sounds like she was a bit of a recluse. Still, a lot of the stick thin models and "ideals" of today could learn a lesson from this one...

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(12-09) 04:00 PST Los Angeles -- Bettie Page, a 1950s pinup known for her bangs and saucy come-hither looks, was hospitalized in intensive care after suffering a heart attack, according to her agent.

"She's critically ill," Mark Roesler of CMG Worldwide said.

He said Page, 85, had been hospitalized for three weeks with pneumonia and was about to be released when she had the heart attack last Tuesday. She was then transferred to another Los Angeles hospital's intensive care unit.

A family friend, Todd Mueller, said Page was in a coma. When asked to confirm, Roesler said, "I wouldn't deny that," but would not comment further on her condition.

Page, a secretary turned model, is credited with helping set the stage for the sexual revolution of the rebellious 1960s. Magazine photographs of her were tacked up on walls nationwide.

She was featured as a centerfold in the January 1955 issue of then-fledgling Playboy magazine and in controversial sadomasochistic poses.

Page later spent decades away from the public eye, and during that time battled mental illness and became a born-again Christian.

After resurfacing in the 1990s, she granted occasional interviews but refused to be photographed.

Mueller credits his business dealings with Page for bringing her out of seclusion. Since offering her "a bunch of money" to show up at autograph signings in 1989, he said, "I probably sold 3,000 of her autographs, usually for $200 to $300," he said. "Eleanor Roosevelt, we got $40-$50. ... Bettie Page outsells them all."

Gretchen Mol played the former pinup star in the 2005 film "The Notorious Bettie Page."