Barry gets a lift

In a woman's long blonde wig, baseball cap and dark glasses, Barry Manilow leaves a clinic after having plastic surgery.

Yet surprisingly his facelift ignored his most prominent and celebrated feature - his nose.

The 57-year-old singer is understood to have had a complete upper and lower facelift, including the removal of drooping skin from the eyelids and general tightening of facial skin.

And he was clearly not keen on being recognised as he left the clinic in Beverly Hills with what looked like a surgical wrap under his chin.

A passer-by who saw him walk into a nearby hotel with an unknown woman companion said: 'Barry looked bizarre. He was wearing sunglasses

and a Super Bowl cap on top of a long blonde hairpiece. It was quite an extraordinary sight.'

The singer has said he plans to have plastic surgery on his famous nose at a later date after he broke it in a freak accident at his California home in June.

Manilow said he had woken up in the night disorientated, walked into a wall in the dark and knocked himself out. 'I veered left instead of right and slammed into the wall,' he said.

He was unconscious for four hours and was warned he would need plastic surgery to avoid permanent facial disfigurement.

'I may have to have my nose fixed and, with this nose, it's going to require major surgery,' he added. The performer - whose hits include Mandy, Copacabana, Could It Be Magic and Can't Smile Without You - was at his house in Palm Springs when the accident happened.

When he awoke he believed he was still staying in a hotel room in Malibu.

However, the accident left some music industry pundits suspicious about Manilow's claims, arguing that he could be using the story as a ruse to undergo plastic surgery.

The latest pictures will only add to that speculation.

Experts in cosmetic surgery say stars often use similar tales to hide the fact that they had opted to go under the knife through vanity rather than necessity.

Alex Karidis, plastic surgeon at St John and St Elizabeth Hospital in London, said: 'A lot of patients come up with elaborate stories to explain why they have had surgery to avoid saying they were simply having a nose job.

'And with someone like Barry Manilow, who has millions of fans who associate him with his nose, it would have been hard for him to avoid people trying to prevent him having surgery.

'But if he can now say there is a reason to have the surgery, like he has a bump on his nose, then it makes it easier for him to go ahead and have the operation.'