I just got the new issue of Vanity Fair where Tom Ford is the guest editor. Now I love Tom Ford the très sexy direction he gave to the Gucci brand, but lets just say that ironically as a former clothing designer, much of the women in the magazine don't have any on. Maybe he couldn't handle the ladies wearing other designers' wares since he left the fashion world. So we deduce that in Tom Ford's Hollywood there's naked women.
But I'm not sure what this means for a gay guy to grace the cover with two naked actresses...Tom claims he stepped in after Rachel Mc Adams backed out because two naked ladies equal lesbians. Huh? (Rachel good for you. I loved you in "The Notebook".) But this isn't the most disturbing part. After reading in US Magazine the "Secrets of the VF Nude Shoot", I'm more relieved to know about the details of their digital enhancements. According to their digital expert, Kiera's front arm, jaw, and neck look retouched, while Scarlett, bare butt-and-all, might have gotten some smoothing over the small of her back as well as her rib cage area.
Even though I know that photos of celebrities and models are typically retouched for magazines, finally seeing this site, fuideffect.com, makes me feel so much better. From the company that actually retouches the photos, you can see what kind of work they actually do. Go into portfolio, before/after, and you will find some pics of some of the biggest celebrities. Click on left to see the "before photo" (hold it down the button to examine it longer) and you will see Daryl Hannah's cellulite and Billy Bob Thornton's eye wrinkles. In fact, what I noticed the most in all of the photos was that each person had some sort of slight eye bag, eye wrinkles, or eye discoloration which was simply, digitally erased.
I can go into the all the bad ideas and misconceptions this brings up for women, but I won't. Hollywood and the fashion are businesses of looking good. We as women, just can't forget that or buy into it. Yes, we can enjoy it. Photographs are artistic. Fashion is artistic. Movies are artistic. The moral of the story don't ever let it all make you feel bad about yourself. Everything is retouched. It's all smoke and mirrors. Remember that. I almost forgot it.