Mrs. CC and I have noticed recently - particularly at the Academy Awards and in the movie, The Sessions, that Helen Hunt looks totally weird. Her face looks sort of like those dessicated mummies. Skin tight, angular cheekbones, teeth protruding, extremely unattractive. She was never a beauty, but she looks scary now. (Except she does have a terrific figure) Did something happen to her? Is she very ill? Does anyone in this forum have the Straight Dope?
I just did a google image search on “helen hunt academy award”
She looks fine, for a skinny actress.
Looks like she has some “smoker’s face” going on. Those things age you.
Once in a while, this same kind of thread pops up about an older actress- “Oh my god, what happened to ______??!” The answer is “people age”. You may be so used to actresses either disappearing altogether when they get “old” (by Hollywood standards) or seeing them with fillers, Botox, and plastic surgery, that you’re no longer used to seeing natural aging and so it surprises you. Helen Hunt is “old”, plus she is also quite thin, and so doesn’t have a lot of fat underneath the skin to plump it up and fill out her wrinkles and so maybe looks a bit more haggard because of that.
Plus she has smoker’s face.
I think it may be all those years of being in charge of my pay raises. Every time I asked boss about one, he would tell me to go to Helen Hunt for it. 
Trying to maintain the body of an 18-year-old also ages a person. Kathleen Turner once said “After 40, you can either keep your face or your body.” Helen Hunt recently did The Sessions, where she spend a lot of time naked, and I’m sure she dieted and exercised like a mad woman, and the strain shows.
And yeah, that smoking thing.
I’ve thought she was a fox since St. Elsewhere! I just saw her in that recent film where she has sex with a disabled guy, several times. And appears full-frontal butt-nekid several times! Nothing wrong with how she looks (including the face!) 
She looks like a very attractive 49 year old woman.
This. I did the search and found a couple shots where you can see some small lines around her mouth and eyes, big whoop. She is 49 after all.
Bingo!
She’s got the “Madonnaface”.
I assume this is what the OP is talking about. I understand the mummy comment. I googled (like the other poster) Helen Hunt Academy Awards and it was pretty clear what the OP meant. To me, it just looks like a bad makeup job. At the very least, the skin toned lipstick is throwing her whole face off.
She looks great to me.
How old are you, CC? This may just be a question of perspective. I’m a few years older than Helen Hunt, and I think she looks great. Maybe a bit thin.
I’ve always thought she was one of those lucky women who went from being a pretty young woman/girl to being a beautiful grown woman. She’s gotten better-looking as she got older.
Jesus you all are harsh. I’m 49 and wish I looked that good.
You win this thread.
I’m sorry. You’ve lost all credibility on this issue. Where were you in the Mad About You years?
Anyway, I agree that she looks like a gorgeous 49-year-old who had an unflattering photo taken. She could have picked a better lipstick color. And a few pounds probably wouldn’t hurt her looks any. But, still lovely.
She looked like she was like 35 on that show.
That’s probably because she was 35 on that show. Well for one season anyway. I think she was 29 or 30 in season one.
This may be what the OP is talkng about:
What I see here is that she is thrusting her chin forward for the camera, and pulling her upper lip up a bit in the smile, so it’s almost a grimace.
These are both common techniques for avoiding wattle and smile creases when being photographed.