# The most shameless airbrushing of all time
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-airbrushing-of-all-time/92615
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [November 10, 2001, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-airbrushing-of-all-time/92615 "2001-11-10T10:32:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Bossk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bossk)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2001, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-airbrushing-of-all-time/92615/1 "2001-11-10T10:32:44Z")
For God’s sake, Sigourney Weaver is 52 years old.
How old does she look in this poster? 23?
[http://www.filmup.com/posters/locp/heartbreakers.htm](http://www.filmup.com/posters/locp/heartbreakers.htm)
Gimme a friggin’ break.
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### Author:  [@Spit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spit)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2001, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-airbrushing-of-all-time/92615/2 "2001-11-10T10:57:26Z")
I am really surprised that it turned out so well…After all, the artist HAD to have been laughing his ass off. 😃
* * *
Plato? Aristotle? Socrates? Morons!
~She’s not crazy, just a little misunderstood… -Better Than Ezra
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### Author:  [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2001, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-airbrushing-of-all-time/92615/3 "2001-11-10T11:17:53Z")
Rumor has it that Gwyneth Paltrow’s butt was airbrushed for the poster for “Shallow Hal”. You know, the movie they’ve been working so hard to convince us is about beauty being in the eye of the beholder, and not about getting cheap laughs from fat gags? If the rumor is true, that would be one of the more _ironic_ airbrushings of the year… In Hollywood, it seems, beauty is still in the hand of the airbrush artist. :rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2001, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-airbrushing-of-all-time/92615/4 "2001-11-10T16:35:34Z")
Many years ago, Playboy had their first centerfold featuring twin sisters. They were airbrushed so that the two women had a grand total of three legs.
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### Author:  [@Slip\_Mahoney](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slip_Mahoney)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2001, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-airbrushing-of-all-time/92615/5 "2001-11-10T18:00:38Z")
Dishonesty in advertising. Who’da thunk it?
They’ve been doing that since movie posters were invented.
Although in this case, I admit that they completely bypassed sublime and went directly to ridiculous.
Sigourney \*never[i/] looked this good.
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### Author:  [@Slip\_Mahoney](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slip_Mahoney)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2001, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-airbrushing-of-all-time/92615/6 "2001-11-10T18:02:22Z")
::sigh::
What’s this Preview Reply button do?
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### Author:  [@Chas.E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chas.E)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2001, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-airbrushing-of-all-time/92615/7 "2001-11-10T18:29:50Z")
The other woman looks like a plastic Barbie as well. But then, that’s the look she’s trying for.
I recall seeing an article a while back (in AdBusters, I think) that described the photo retouching for a Michelle Pfeiffer layout in a fashion magazine. The article gushed about her being the “all-natural woman” who looked good even without makeup, but the retouching bill was about $15,000.
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### Author:  [@Sweet\_Sota\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sweet_Sota_Girl)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2001, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-airbrushing-of-all-time/92615/8 "2001-11-10T19:10:44Z")
Sigourney actually looked pretty damn young in the movie as well, which tell me the make up artists _truly are_ artists…
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### Author:  [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2001, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-airbrushing-of-all-time/92615/9 "2001-11-10T19:42:23Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Bossk \*
> \*\*For God’s sake, Sigourney Weaver is 52 years old.
>
> How old does she look in this poster? 23?
>
> [http://www.filmup.com/posters/locp/heartbreakers.htm](http://www.filmup.com/posters/locp/heartbreakers.htm)
>
> Gimme a friggin’ break. \*\*
She looked pretty good in “Galaxy Quest” which came out just last year or they year before. Personally I think she’s had a nip, tuck, or some sort of lift. But then I noticed the same thing about Ted Danson and Susan Sarandon.
Marc
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### Author:  [@Lockfist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lockfist)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2001, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-airbrushing-of-all-time/92615/10 "2001-11-10T19:44:22Z")
I suppose the idea of Sigourney Weaver being a beautiful woman at 52 is irrelevant to this discussion ?
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### Author:  [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2001, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-airbrushing-of-all-time/92615/11 "2001-11-10T19:46:46Z")
Oh come on, you say it like 52 years old is Miss Jane Pittman territory. Movies are frequently about pretty pictures, and movie posters have always been carefully calculated images intended to present a perfected notion of the movie. Is this news to you? Where does “shameless” enter the argument?
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### Author:  [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2001, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-airbrushing-of-all-time/92615/12 "2001-11-10T20:23:08Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Lockfist \*
> I suppose the idea of Sigourney Weaver being a beautiful woman at 52 is irrelevant to this discussion ?
Personally, I think Sigourney Weaver’s appeal comes from the amount of character evident in her face. She’s never struck me as being exactly in the mold of many other Hollywood stars, but has an appeal all her own. She’s unique. She’s not Jennifer Love Hewitt. Jennifer Love Hewitt battling acid-blooded face-sucking alien monsters is farce, Sigourney Weaver doing it is wonderous to behold.
In the poster, they simply airbrush her into some run-of-the-mill bimbo, on the theory that that’s what everyone wants to see in the movies. At 52, she can be, and is, beautiful, but as a mature woman, not the way she looks in the poster. Pamela Anderson is over 50 now, and is someone who I could understand being airbrushed (just a bit of a touch-up) to make look still in her prime. Not Sigourney Weaver.
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### Author:  [@pesch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pesch)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2001, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-airbrushing-of-all-time/92615/13 "2001-11-10T22:29:31Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Chas.E \*
> \*\*The other woman looks like a plastic Barbie as well. But then, that’s the look she’s trying for.
>
> I recall seeing an article a while back (in AdBusters, I think) that described the photo retouching for a Michelle Pfeiffer layout in a fashion magazine. The article gushed about her being the “all-natural woman” who looked good even without makeup, but the retouching bill was about $15,000. \*\*
What you’re thinking of is the notorious Esquire cover that featured her. The tag line was something along the lines of “Do you know what would make Michelle Pheiffer perfect?” and on the other side of the cover was the back of her head with the words “Absolutely nothing.”
That’s when the bill surfaced listing the extensive airbrush work they had to do on the photo to make her so perfect.
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### Author:  [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2001, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-airbrushing-of-all-time/92615/14 "2001-11-10T22:44:55Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by waterj2 \*
> **Pamela Anderson is over 50 now, and is someone who I could understand being airbrushed**
😕 Are you sure about this? The bill for airbrushing must be astronomical! :eek:
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### Author:  [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2001, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-airbrushing-of-all-time/92615/15 "2001-11-10T22:50:27Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Terminus Est \*
> \*\*
>
> > [@](#):
> >
> > \*Originally posted by waterj2 \*
> > **Pamela Anderson is over 50 now, and is someone who I could understand being airbrushed**
>
> 😕 Are you sure about this? The bill for airbrushing must be astronomical! :eek: \*\*
According to the [IMDB](http://us.imdb.com/Name?Anderson,+Pamela), Pamela Anderson’s birthday is July 1, 1967, making her 34 years old.
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### Author:  [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2001, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-airbrushing-of-all-time/92615/16 "2001-11-10T22:56:09Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by flodnak \*
> \*\*Rumor has it that Gwyneth Paltrow’s butt was airbrushed for the poster for “Shallow Hal”. You know, the movie they’ve been working so hard to convince us is about beauty being in the eye of the beholder, and not about getting cheap laughs from fat gags? If the rumor is true, that would be one of the more _ironic_ airbrushings of the year… In Hollywood, it seems, beauty is still in the hand of the airbrush artist. :rolleyes: \*\*
She is also wearing falsies.
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### Author:  [@ScriptAnalyst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ScriptAnalyst)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2001, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-airbrushing-of-all-time/92615/17 "2001-11-10T23:45:38Z")
Whatever was done with the airbrushing, Sigourney Weaver looks great in person. Whether because of good makeup or surgery, I don’t know, but it’s not as if she needs her photos airbrushed in order to look good.
But then, photos are often airbrushed to make people look not merely good but flawless.
Steve Biodrowski
[http://www.thescriptanalyst.com](http://www.thescriptanalyst.com)
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### Author:  [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2001, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-airbrushing-of-all-time/92615/18 "2001-11-10T23:55:07Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Chas.E \*
> \*\*I recall seeing an article a while back (in AdBusters, I think) that described the photo retouching for a Michelle Pfeiffer layout in a fashion magazine. The article gushed about her being the “all-natural woman” who looked good even without makeup, but the retouching bill was about $15,000. \*\*
I thought that article was in Harper’s.
Pretty amazing, since I think Michelle Pfeiffer would look good without makeup. Would probably look pretty good first thing in the morning with a head cold, but apparently we’re talking about an entirely in-human standard of perfection that even beautiful human beings can’t live up to.
I know it’s kind of ridiculous to vote for Michael Jackson for shamelessly airbrushed photo, since he comes pre-airbrushed. But I saw his video, and he looks pretty scary. And I saw the cover of TV guide and he looks…well still scary (that is no longer a human nose). But much less like a burn victim than he does elsewhere.
Imagine what that face looks like in person. Or in person without makeup (not that you’d ever catch him like that.)
(I have to think it’s the same weird idea of Perfect Beauty that says you should airbrush Michelle Pfeiffer that made MJ do whatever he did to himself.)
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### Author:  [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2001, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-airbrushing-of-all-time/92615/19 "2001-11-11T20:24:07Z")
waterj2, are you perhaps thinking of _Loni_ Anderson?
One weird airbrushing I remember from about a dozen years ago involved a Rolling Stone “centerfold” type shot of Lisa Bonet who was around 4 months pregnant – they airbrushed the baby out though and you could just barely see the shadow of where her stomach actually was in the picture.
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### Author:  [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2001, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-airbrushing-of-all-time/92615/20 "2001-11-11T20:34:45Z")
No, I was thinking of Pamela. I must have been deliberately misinformed somewhere along the line in order to make me look foolish. Yeah, that’s it…
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