Brooke Shields, now 40, opens in London

LONDON, April 10 (UPI) -- Brooke Shields, who played a prostitute's daughter in "Pretty Baby" when she was 13, celebrates her 40th birthday by opening the musical "Chicago" in London.

The Daily Mail reports that Shields has been using what she calls the Broadway Diet to keep her weight down -- with eight performances a week she does not have time to eat more than a meal a day.

She plays Roxie Hart, the ambitious and murderous flapper for a nine-week run in the West End, the London equivalent of Broadway.

Shields, whose career has had its ups and downs, said that the best part of getting older is gaining self-confidence. She also said that she is now happily married to television writer Chris Henchy and mother of a two-year-old. Her high profile union with tennis star Andre Agassiz did not take, she said, because neither of them respected the other's career.