Great Moments in Age-Inappropriate Casting In this past Sunday's magazine, Carina Chocano wrote a Riff column about why women waste their youth worrying about their age. If TV is any indication, we have reason to worry - we all but disappear once we reach age 40. Seventy-one percent of women on TV are in their teens, 20s and 30s, according to Martha M. Lauzen, the executive director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, who appears in Jennifer Siebel Newsom's documentary, "Miss Representation." Relying so heavily on under-40 female leads can mess with women's heads and create some pretty mismatched on-screen coupling. Here's a roundup of some notable May-December relationships: The serial offenders: Richard Gere was 22 years older than his co-star Winona Ryder in "Autumn in New York" (2000) and 18 years older than Julia Roberts, his co-star in Pretty Woman (1990). In "Unfaithful," he was 16 years older than his wife, played by Diane Lane. And Nicolas Cage is 18 years older than Jessica Biel, his co-star in "Next," and he's 10 years older than Eva Mendes, his love interest in "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans." The thousand-year gap: In "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, Arwen (Liv Tyler) is thousands of years older than her love, Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen). In reality, he's 19 years older than she is. Not quite as extreme a version: In the "Twilight" series, Edward Cullen is trapped in his 17-year-old body (ostensibly the same age as Bella Swan) when they meet, although he's supposed to be more than 100 years old. In reality, Robert Pattinson is 26, and Kristen Stewart is 22. Seeing double: In the 1995 "Sabrina" remake, Harrison Ford (Linus Larrabee) is 23 years older than Julia Ormond (Sabrina Fairchild). In the 1954 original, Humphrey Bogart was even older than his co-star Audrey Hepburn - by 30 years. The international effect: Bill Murray is 34 years older than his counterpart in 2003's "Lost in Translation," Scarlett Johansson. The hot-musician effect: In the current season of "Gossip Girl," Ivy Dickens (Kaylee DeFer) is now dating Rufus Humphreys (Matthew Settle). He's 43, and she's 26. The friend couple: Lucille Ball (Lucy) and Vivian Vance (Ethel). Ethel was portrayed as much older than Lucy on the show, but in real life Vivian Vance was just two years older than Lucille Ball. Life mimics art: Humphrey Bogart was 25 years older than Lauren Bacall, his real-life love and co-star in "To Have and Have Not." Life reverses art: Sandra Bullock is 12 years older than Ryan Reynolds, her colleague and husband in "The Proposal." Reynolds is 11 years older than his new bride, Blake Lively. Improbable Parents: Sally Field is only 10 years older than Tom Hanks, her son in "Forrest Gump." In "That's My Boy," Adam Sandler is Andy Samberg's father - and they're 12 years apart. Mary Steenburgen in "Step Brothers" is only 14 years older than Will Ferrell, who plays her son. In "Riding in Cars With Boys," Drew Barrymore plays Adam Garcia's mother, even though she's two years younger than he is. Crispin Glover was Michael J. Fox's father in "Back to the Future," even though he's three years younger than Fox. In "In Time," Olivia Wilde is Justin Timberlake's mom, and he's three years older than she is. On "Golden Girls," Estelle Getty (Sophia) was really a year younger than Bea Arthur, who played her daughter Dorothy on the show. Hall of Fame: In "The Graduate" (1967), Dustin Hoffman plays a 21-year-old, when in reality he was 30. His love interest Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), supposedly in her 40s, was only six years older than he was.