Andrew Rudnick snickered when he first saw a medical spa offering Botox and laser hair-removal services on a visit to a Las Vegas mall in 2002. He laughed at the thought of someone - anyone - shopping for the latest fashions, grabbing a bite to eat and then, oh yeah, strolling in for a quick shot of Botox to zap out a nasty wrinkle.

"I couldn't understand why anybody in a mall would walk in and have their legs lasered, never mind Botox," he recalled. He parked himself on a bench near the spa and watched in amazement as shoppers strolled in. He owned a weight-loss and laser center in Boston at the time, and the sight was a revelation. "I counted the traffic in and out and saw the revenue."

Returning to Boston, he scouted retail locations. He dropped the weight-loss part of his business to focus on skin care and laser treatments, renamed the company and opened his first Sleek MedSpa that same year.

If gloom is the game, Beckett is the champ

Two other productions of Beckett opened recently in New York: Fiona Shaw in "Happy Days" and Mikhail Baryshnikov in "Beckett Shorts."

If gloom's the game, Beckett's most valuable player. No one reduces existential futility with the clarity and vision of this late, great dramatist, whose "Endgame" features characters who live in trash bins. The cast of "Rough for Theatre I," one playlet of "Fragments," consists of one man who's blind and another in a wheelchair. It speaks, in one line, of "the same old moans and groans from the cradle to the grave."

"There is a darkness in America now, an uncertainty, and maybe in Beckett people are finding something reflective of the times," says Cindy Gold, head of the acting program and associate professor of theater at Northwestern University.

Hi-Tech Beauty-Buster Fixers

Whether your problem is thinning hair or acne, there are a few hot, new products on that claim to take away everything from wrinkles to too much hair. The products use some of the same technologies that a dermatologist may have used on you -- lasers, LED lights, and infrared light -- and you can use them all in your own home.

But do they work?

"These products provide at-home versions of procedures typically performed in a doctor's office: light treatments, laser hair removal, or chemical peels," says Linda Wells, editor in chief of Allure magazine.

"In terms of at-home treatments, this is just the beginning."

Wells and some Allure staffers visited The Early Show Wednesday and reported on the effectiveness of products the staffers tried for several weeks.

Tattoo removal ongoing ordeal for Lansing woman

Kristi Doe's teenage rebellion took the form of a tattoo. And it wasn't just a discreet rosebud on the small of her back, or a chain around her ankle; it was a skull wearing a top hat, clenching a flower stem in its teeth. It covered most of her upper left arm.

David Letterman shaves his beard during show

NEW YORK (AP) � For David Letterman fans, it may have been the kindest cut of all: His beard is history.

The late-night funnyman had the bushy beard he grew while off the air during the strike by the Writers Guild of America shaved Monday on his �Late Show.� One barber buzzed the beard with an electric razor; the next one lathered him up and finished the job with a straight razor.

�We have to say goodbye to an old friend tonight, and I�m just sick about it,� Letterman said.

He said he was �being pressured� to shave, although he wouldn�t say by whom. Not shaving added 15 minutes to his day that he could use to goof off, he said.

He had fun with newspaper photos and cartoons about his beard, including one in which a couple sat at home watching his show.