Gerald Pitman
Who
A liposuction pro, Pitman is the man many socialites call when they want some cellulite vacuumed out of their thighs.
Backstory
A graduate of Williams and UPenn's medical school, Pitman moved to New York to complete his general surgery residency at Columbia-Presbyterian before training in plastic surgery at NYU. By 1982, he was an attending plastic surgeon at Bellevue and Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat hospitals and an assistant professor at NYU Medical School. He's been affiliated with both institutions since and now works at MEETH alongside fellow cosmetic surgery stars Daniel Baker, Sherrell Aston, and Alan Matarasso.
Of note
Although Pitman does it all—brow lifts, chemical peels, Botox, laser resurfacing—he's especially famous for liposuction, and was one of the first surgeons to start performing the procedure in the early '80s. (It was invented by a French doctor in the late '70s.) The author of a definitive textbook on the subject, Liposuction & Aesthetic Surgery, he performs an innovative "power-assisted" method that minimizes scarring and contours difficult areas like calves and ankles. He's also known for his face-lifting abilities, particularly his "mini-maxi lift" where he pulls both the skin and the muscle tight in a technique designed to minimize scarring. Beauty, of course, doesn't come cheap—he charges $10,000 for the ankle and calf liposuction, and the wait can be long. Like other plastic surgeons, he says he's busiest each spring, when women book appointments for body contouring before Memorial Day.
Personal
Pitman is divorced from fashion designer Kay Unger Pitman. They have two sons, Sam and Max. Pitman lives in an East 73rd Street apartment he bought for a little over $3 million in 2000.