Celebrities! They’re just people; they’re just like anyone else. That is, except for their fabulous wealth, fame, power, and beauty. And because no one is truly flawless, even the most beautiful of celebs will get a little help from the miracle of Photoshop to look their best for pictorials and movie posters.
But, sometimes the trigger-happy and quick-to-filter photo retouchers of the world abuse their powers and create an image of a person that has no basis in reality.
There are stars out there who genuinely look great even under the glare of the studio lights and the unforgiving nature of the camera lens. Thanks to the liberating flow of info on the world wide net “before” pics will leak. And there are celebrities who look better before the photo editors Frankenstein up their images in their digital labs. Here are seven examples animated into GIFs of photoshopped celebs who looked better before. .
1. Jennifer Lawrence
The curvy and talented Jennifer Lawrence has publicly spoken out against the pressure she’s put under to lose weight for roles, the unrealistic beauty standards women have to live up to, and the rampant Photoshopping of women in Hollywood. That’s why this lingerie image from a men’s magazine shoot is so amusing. In the original you can feast your eyes on her lovely legs, full hips, and solid stomach with that cute “I work out muscle line” in the middle. In the altered version, she’s transformed into a starving orphan from a UNICEF “Save the Children” commercial.
2. Penelope Cruz
In the before pic, Penelope Cruz rocks a curvaceous figure and wild and sexy “I just finished running through a field naked because I love life,” hair. In the “after” photo, her hair is tamed, and her curves are stringbeaned away. Plus, her top is changed to produce more cleavage…and she’s whiter? We understand the impulse behind building up her (already awesome) chest for the men out there, but lighting her skin color is a little effed up.
3. Kate Winslet
Kate Winslet is renowned for her full-figured beauty and frequently speaks to the press about her pride in her natural beauty. That’s why Winslet was pissed when the British edition of GQ digitally transformed her into “a giraffe” (her words).
“The retouching is excessive,” Winslet said about the photos.”I do not look like that and more importantly, I don’t desire to look like that.” In the GIF above you can see that someone screwed up when editing. They reshaped Kate but forgot to alter her reflection in the mirror. Whoops! But, of course, this famous image with the leaked original and the altered photoshop pic is even more shocking:
4. Scarlett Johansson
Okay, we get it. Society sucks, and it demands that women be unrealistically thin and have their boobies out, so photoshop geniuses make it happen. But this before and after set is just baffling. Have you ever wondered what one of the world’s greatest beauties would like as a ghost possessing a nose sharp enough to cut up meat? Wonder no longer, as Scarlett Johansson is changed into a horror show. Why? Just why?
5. Tara Lynn
We’re not here to tell you what to find beautiful. Screw it, you like skinny chicks! Screw it, you dig big fat dudes!! Screw it, you’re attracted to clowns!! Be you. Love what you love. But here’s plus-size model Tara Lynn being transfigured into someone else, into a scrawny supermodel waif. That’s fine, if waifs are what you’re looking for, but why hire a plus-size model in the first place? Tara Lynn didn’t surprise the photographer by jumping out of a cake and demanding her photos be taken.
6. Kristen Stewart
This Kristen Stewart pic isn’t as startling as some on the list, but we’ve included it because they edited her to look even more pissed off. And Kristen Stewart already looks a little peeved to be having her photo taken; in fact in the before she looks seconds away from attacking the photographer. The after pic is changed to give Kristen pursed lips and a sterner glare. This must be the first time in history a celebrity has been made to look both angrier and less sexy.
7. Kim Kardashian
Even Kim Kardashian, the Queen of Curves, the woman who brought big butts back into fashion, is not exempt from being put on a diet via Photoshop. And this “before and after” image has quite the story to go with it. Complex.com accidentally posted the original untouched version on their site before later swapping it out for the altered version. Eagle-eyed gossip bloggers caught the switcheroo and spread the news over the web.
Kim K, a woman who does not have a reputation as the most articulate of celebs, spoke some words of awesome in reference to the so-called controversy: “You know what, who cares! So what: I have a little cellulite. What curvy girl doesn’t!?” Kardashian said. “How many people do you think are photoshopped? It happens all the time! …I’m proud of my body and my curves and this picture coming out is probably helpful for everyone to see that just because I am on the cover of a magazine doesn’t mean I’m perfect.”
J-Law gets in here twice because irony is delicious. The actress who speaks out the most about body issues is once again slimmed down. And they make her face gaunt and pointy. We’re begging you photo editors and magazine art directors, leave Jennifer Lawrence alone. Let her be her in all of her wonderful glory:
