It's no secret that magazines and other media outlets use Photoshop to make their cover models look "just so," but is lightening or color correcting a photograph the same as completely changing the way a person looks? Is this practice of over-photoshopping contributing to damaged body images of Americans?
Kate Hudson
W Magazine turned a golden goddess Kate Hudson into the ice queen on its September 2008 cover. W is claiming that the image is an actual photograph of Kate Hudson. We're sure it is, but it looks like the photo editors glossed it over and slicked it up in Photoshop. The image also bears an uncanny resemblance to photographer Patrick Demarchelier's 1994 Harper's Bazaar cover photograph of Nadja Auermann. So perhaps W is guilty of more than just changing someone's face. Way to be creative ... stealing someone else's idea and using it on one of your biggest issues of the year.
Miley Cyrus
Caution: Objects may be larger than they appear. In this case it appears that Seventeen magazine used Photoshop to place Miley Cyrus' head on a smaller body. Does this petite 15-year-old really need to appear smaller? It also looks as if they elongated her front teeth and somehow inverted her arms. Or did they do that pose on purpose? That must have been an uncomfortable photo shoot.
Dane Cook
Funnyman Dane Cook has recently been complaining about the movie posters for his ssoon-to-be-released flick 'My Best Friend's Girl.' A few of Cook's complaints are: "The left side of my face seems to be melting off of my skull. It looks like I'm wearing Maybelline Water Shine Diamonds Liquid Lipstick. It's no secret that I'm more rugged facially due to a drunken visit by the teen acne fairy, but according to this poster I've got perfect porcelain flesh." You missed one Dane: where is the scar on your eyebrow?
Jennifer Love Hewitt
Jennifer Love Hewitt was splashed on the cover of US Weekly showing off her 18-pound weight loss, claiming that she lost the weight in 10 weeks. Skeptics are saying Jen used the "Photoshop diet" to shed those pounds. Bloggers have been calling her a hypocrite after her statement when she defended her weight gain on her website: "I know what I look like, and so do my friends and family. And like all women out there should, I love my body.To all girls with butts, boobs, hips and a waist, put on a bikini -- put it on and stay strong. XoxoJLH".
Jennifer Hudson
On her new album cover, singer and actress Jennifer Hudson seems to have melted away at the midriff. Jennifer has refused to comment on her new cover.
Milla Jovovich
Ukrainian actress and model Milla Jovovich is not the 13-year-old model she used to be. Can someone please tell Lucky magazine that it's OK to look your age?
Jessica Simpson
In its September 2008 issue, Elle decided to chop up (lumberjack) Jessica Simpson for the cover. It appears as if the editors chipped away at her waist and part of her left thigh and buttocks. They somehow also made her hair as wide as her hips.
James Franco is glowing on the September cover of GQ. What exactly makes a man glow like that?
Michelle Obama has discovered the fountain of youth. On this month's cover of Ebony she doesn't have a single line on her face. Her skin is so beautiful anyway, there was no need to make it unnatural.
Teen Vogue allowed Vanessa Hudgens to look her age on its September cover. She looks natural and very much like herself. There is some shadowing underneath her eyes in the photo on the right, but that's nothing that a fill light wouldn't take care of. We think this cover is the least Photoshopped of the month.
At first we thought this was a photo of Mischa Barton's wax figure on Marie Claire's UK cover, because apparently her skin has a shiny plastic coating.
'Gossip Girl's' Blake Lively has reportedly been unhappy with recent magazine photographs, but we think she looks beautiful on the September 2008 cover of Cosmopolitan. Her hair is wider than her hips, too, but nonetheless ...
Tyra Banks
Harper's Bazaar might have made a few minor changes, but Tyra Banks still has it. She even looks great under the glare of flash bulbs (picture at right). The former professional model still knows what she is doing.
TMZ recently broke the news of the "bleached out " L'Oreal ad appearing in September's Elle and Allure magazines. We're comparing the ad to a more recent photo of Beyonce from May 6th. Her skin tone does appear lighter with blond hair than dark brown, but not that light. This week Essence magazine published the same ad from L'Oreal with a much darker-skinned starlet.
Tiny sleeping beauties Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline were recently splashed across the covers of two mags, People and Hello. Skeptics are claiming the smiling infants were Photoshopped. They argue that babies do not typically smile from external stimulation until they are 2 to 4 months old.
The millions paid by the magazines to the couple to secure the rights to the photos went to the pair's charity foundation.
