A New Game for the Celestial Diva Within

By IRENE LACHER

Oct. 31, 1999 12 AM PT

Imagine you’ve been thin and attractive your whole life. Now that middle age is setting in, you notice the effects of aging. Every time you look in the mirror, you tell yourself that you:

A. Love and accept yourself as you are and will grow old gracefully.

B. Must increase your maintenance program and even use modern medicine to cut away the years if necessary.

C. Have earned every wrinkle or gray hair and are proud of being older and wiser.

D. Other.

Now discuss among yourselves.

That’s the idea behind a new game for gals called Go Goddess. It’s kind of the opposite of Trivial Pursuit. Like the bestselling game of Christmases Past, Go Goddess invites players to answer questions on cards, but instead of testing a girl’s command of minutiae, Go Goddess encourages her to schmooze about her cosmic awareness.

“We believe every woman is a goddess,” says Elaine Berkowitz, one of the game’s three Miami-based creators, “and we want women to understand the truth that lies within and have the courage to act on it.”

The truth that lies within L.A. women is that a lot of them would go under the knife, judging from a bout of Go Goddess at last week’s launch party in the Nina boutique of Fred Segal Santa Monica. Going around a table that included celebs Mimi Rogers, Frances Fisher and Shannon Tweed, the Angelenas present agreed that “B” was their anti-aging option of choice.

But Fisher found all the answers attractive.

“I try to do A,” she said. “I’m starting to do B. I’m working on C.”

Berkowitz says the idea for the game came out of soul-baring discussions she had with friends after a difficult divorce. And since the only thing women like better than soul-baring discussions is shopping, Berkowitz and company figured they could combine both in Go Goddess.

“We started talking about different issues that were common to all women--truth, prosperity, curiosity, strength, perseverance, grace . . .” Berkowitz says, ticking off the topics the cards explore. “This is about girls’ night in, not girls’ night out.”

Even the price is Olympian. The game, which includes cards, a scarf, candles, matches and puzzle pieces, goes for a lofty $49.95. It’s available at Neiman Marcus and online at https://www.gogoddessinc.com.

Just for the record, gogoddess.com was already taken.

“By a bail bondsman,” says Berkowitz, who appeared to be preternaturally unruffled by the competition. “Whatever.”