# What celebrity has the best/worst Wikipedia picture? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 17, 2011, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877 "2011-10-17T02:42:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2011, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877/21 "2011-10-17T17:58:56Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Basically, you’d expect famous people to put up a nice, professional photo of themselves on a major site like Wikipedia. Most have good photos on IMDB. They want to, but never grasp the basic idea that they need to give up all rights to the image, and they have to own the image outright - that what is acceptable to a newspaper editor is not acceptable for Wikipedia. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2011, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877/22 "2011-10-17T17:59:31Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > I enjoy working on Wikipedia, but the best description I have come up with about the annoying parts is this - _volunteer bureaucrats_. It’s like the old saw about academic politics being the most vicious type because the stakes are so low. Amen. It’s like a large group of Vogons, except they want to be that way of their own free will. Well, maybe not that bad, but surprisingly annoying. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2011, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877/23 "2011-10-17T21:45:03Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > [Stephen King could use a better one, too.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_king) Eek! And the cropping makes it look like he’s posing for a guest appearance on _Futurama_. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2011, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877/24 "2011-10-17T21:52:42Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > [Vince Vaughn](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vince_Vaughn) looks haggard. Yes, but how’s his wiki picture? ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877/25 "2011-10-18T00:43:41Z")
> [@Toxylon](#): > > Don’t know if it’s a cultural thing or what, but I don’t see anything wrong with any of the pictures presented here: this is what those people look like in real life, ie. fine. That’s what I thought also. The purpose of these photos is to help identify someone; most “professional” photos of celebrities are so airbrushed and photoshopped they don’t have much relation to what people really look like. What’s with the Kate Bush photo? She looks great in it, but it’s kind of blurry. Did Kate’s five year old cousin take a candid shot? Now if you want a great looking Wiki picture, look at the Wiki for British singer [Corinne Bailey Rae](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Corinne_Bailey_Rae_at_Divan_du_Monde%2C_Jan_2009.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877/26 "2011-10-18T00:55:13Z")
I think [Ellen Barkin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Barkin) could probably find a better picture. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877/27 "2011-10-18T00:58:41Z")
> [@installLSC](#): > > What’s with the Kate Bush photo? She looks great in it, but it’s kind of blurry. Did Kate’s five year old cousin take a candid shot? No, by a fan outside of one of Kate’s very rare public appearances. ---
**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877/28 "2011-10-18T01:03:42Z")
For a while, Miyazaki had his own animated photo on his wikipedia page. That seemed to me the bast way for an animator to have his picture on Wikipedia. Someone must have found an acceptably sourced photo of him, because that’s what’s there now. > **[Hayao Miyazaki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayao_Miyazaki)** > > Hayao Miyazaki (宮崎 駿, Miyazaki Hayao, \[mijaꜜzaki hajao\]; born January 5, 1941) is a Japanese animator, filmmaker, and manga artist. A co-founder of Studio Ghibli, he has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and creator of Japanese animated feature films, and is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished filmmakers in the history of animation. > Born in Tokyo City in the Empire of Japan, Miyazaki expressed interest in manga and animation from an early age, and he joine... ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877/29 "2011-10-18T01:41:18Z")
> [@Arkcon](#): > > For a while, Miyazaki had his own animated photo on his wikipedia page. That seemed to me the bast way for an animator to have his picture on Wikipedia. Someone must have found an acceptably sourced photo of him, because that’s what’s there now. > > [Hayao Miyazaki - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayao_Miyazaki) Do you have a link to his drawn photo? I’d like to see it. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877/30 "2011-10-18T01:48:52Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > I enjoy working on Wikipedia, but the best description I have come up with about the annoying parts is this - _volunteer bureaucrats_. It’s like the old saw about academic politics being the most vicious type because the stakes are so low. My personal description of them is termites - they’re nibbling away at what other people are trying to build. If it was just one or two of them, they could be squished. But there’s so many of them. I can’t fight them anymore and I’ve stop contributing to Wikipedia. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877/31 "2011-10-18T05:17:45Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > My personal description of them is termites - they’re nibbling away at what other people are trying to build. If it was just one or two of them, they could be squished. But there’s so many of them. The worst is the termites with a bot, like Betacommand. Unless the image you uploaded fit some criteria that his FUCKING BOT had, it got deleted. I have no problem with a human marking my stuff, but that was an asshole’s way to be a jerk to a huge number of people while pretending that he was working for the good of Wikipedia. > [@](#): > > I can’t fight them anymore and I’ve stop contributing to Wikipedia. I keep working at it, but I understand the impulse to quit. I just don’t want the deletionists to win. Mostly I add images and references. I get annoyed when my [portrait shot of a performer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ToddRundgren.png) gets replaced by a [much less helpful concert shot](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Todd_Rundgren_at_Revolution_Live.jpg) that shows much less of the performer’s face. I believe I generally leave Wikipedia articles better than I found them. ---
**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877/32 "2011-10-18T13:58:47Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Do you have a link to his drawn photo? I’d like to see it. No, I don’t. Someone real patient with Wikipedia’s history function could dig to find it, or use the comments section to track down approximately when the change was mad, and Wikimedia hay still have it archived, but … no, not me. Truly believe people make multiple, repeated edits, reverts, and bot corrections, just to bury old versions of Wikipedia pages so we can’t see them. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877/33 "2011-10-18T14:48:13Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > [Stephen King could use a better one, too.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_king) > [@gaffa](#): > > Eek! And the cropping makes it look like he’s posing for a guest appearance on _Futurama_. I have yet to see a good photo of King. He is one of the most unphotogenic people on the planet. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877/34 "2011-10-18T17:57:59Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > I keep working at it, but I understand the impulse to quit. I just don’t want the deletionists to win. The problem is it’s so much easier to destroy than to create. You can spend an hour writing a single article. In that same hour, some idiot can go around and delete thirty articles. As for the relative intelligence of creators and deleters - well like I said it’s a lot easier to destroy than to create. I figure a lot of these deleters are incapable of creating anything so they delete something instead to make their mark. I once made a proposal that people should have to earn the right to delete anything by having created something first. You couldn’t propose deleting an article unless you had already written an article. And you had to keep your ongoing balance of creation over deletion about zero. For every thousand words you wanted to eliminate you had to have written a thousand words first. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877/35 "2011-10-18T18:07:49Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > The problem is it’s so much easier to destroy than to create. You can spend an hour writing a single article. In that same hour, some idiot can go around and delete thirty articles. > > As for the relative intelligence of creators and deleters - well like I said it’s a lot easier to destroy than to create. I figure a lot of these deleters are incapable of creating anything so they delete something instead to make their mark. I tend to work on subjects that they won’t notice. I’m not usually adding to big, popular articles, but on people and subjects that are not particularly well-known. I’d rather make something that will prove useful to the few that need it. > [@](#): > > I once made a proposal that people should have to earn the right to delete anything by having created something first. You couldn’t propose deleting an article unless you had already written an article. And you had to keep your ongoing balance of creation over deletion about zero. For every thousand words you wanted to eliminate you had to have written a thousand words first. Sounds reasonable, but it might lead to a huge glut of nonsensical crap by newbies trying to build up their points. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877/36 "2011-10-18T18:08:24Z")
Well, [George Hrab](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:George_Hrab_TAM9.jpg) looks like George Hrab. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877/37 "2011-10-18T18:23:06Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > [Kevin Bacon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Bacon) looks like he’s thinking about murdering someone just out of frame with that statuette. What makes you think he’s not? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877/38 "2011-10-19T14:26:49Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > I love the photo of [Andrew Vachss](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Vachss) though some find it very vaguely creepy. > [@Zsofia](#): > > Damn you, I came into this thread to post that! He has the most awesome Wikipedia picture in the world, bar none. There’s no wiki about his wife [Alice Vachss](http://www.alicevachss.com/press-kit/alice-vachss-bio.pdf), but take a look at her! ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877/39 "2011-10-19T17:59:53Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > Sounds reasonable, but it might lead to a huge glut of nonsensical crap by newbies trying to build up their points. I figure it would be too much effort for many of them. Unless they could design a bot to copy and paste content for them. ---
**Author:** ![Brynda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Brynda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynda)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877/40 "2011-10-19T18:27:32Z")
> [@Arnold\_Winkelried](#): > > I think [Ellen Barkin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Barkin) could probably find a better picture. No, not since her surgery. ☹ She used to be attractive. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877.md?page=3)