Demi Moore: Did W Mag Photoshop Her or Not?

The laughter over the Ralph Lauren model debacle hadn’t even died down when it appeared earlier this week that the fashion industry had repeated its affront to anatomical correctness again but this time on the new cover of W magazine featuring Demi Moore.


The blogosphere immediately cried foul as people pointed out the mysterious chunk missing out of her left thigh (our right, looking at the picture). The lines just don’t seem to match up in any way that allow for the proper placement of bones and the fabric seems unnaturally suspended in midair. It seemed like another case of sloppy photoshop and blind editors.

But then today Demi released this pic on Twitter saying, “Here is the original image people my hips were not touched don’t let these people bullsh*t you! [sic]”


As you can see the “original” photo looks like the one that made it on the cover. Suddenly everyone is confused. A professional fashion photographer claims that there is no way the image is legit and yet Demi remains adamant that it’s really her. Is it a magic eye trick? It makes me wonder if perhaps it really is photoshopped and Demi really believes it is her. Could it be possible that celebs get so used to seeing themselves photoshopped, airbrushed and otherwise technologically gussied up that they too believe the imagery?

What’s your vote? Does this one go in the Photoshop of Horrors Hall of Fame? Or is there a way to stand to make your hip do that? My vote is it’s all a ploy to distract people from her vacant slack-jawed expression. Or the fact that she’s wearing a really expensive loin cloth.

33 Comments

  1. I don't know Charlotte but my first thought was how her collar bones stuck out & how thin she was. If pics are the same as the camera & she is really 10 pounds thinner than this.. YIKES!

  2. I'm with Jody; I REALLY hope this picture was photoshopped! Otherwise, YIKES!!!!

  3. Photoshop of horror. Its the Emperor's clothes, if they tell it to us enough, we are supposed to believe its real. The hip is ridiculous. The swags of fabric totally outline where the hip should be. Also, the whites of her eyes are perfectly white (no blood vessels), that is an easy photoshop giveaway.

  4. Deb (Smoothie Girl Eats Too)

    I actually think that the top photo looks EVER so slightly different from the bottom one. The bottom one looks like her hip could possibly do a curve inwards under her bronze toga and then come back out to her thigh. But the top one just looks chopped. Am I alone?

  5. I could care a less if something is photo shopped. I would wanna be if I was on the cover!

    However, I am more narrow at the top of my pelvis than I am at my hip, so I think this could be a legit photo.

    I do agree with the others however, she needs a few more pounds!

  6. Another Suburban Mom

    I am hoping the picture is photoshopped. But can I say that I liked the softer, curvier Demi of yesteryear rather than this hard, Madonna clone.

  7. It has to be photoshop! It just does not look possible to have that indent at that part of your hip.

    Regardless, she looks like she needs a good meal. Her eyes are screaming, "feed me"!

  8. I can't tell if it's photoshopped or not, but either way, she looks like a plastic zombie! Scary!

  9. Devil's Advocate Alert. I'm going to side with Demi on this one, only because of the cut of the fabric and the way it bunches up against her hand. She also seems to be jutting her right hip and cheek to her right (our left) which could create this illusion.

    I think it's time for an experiment in re-creation (not recreation, but that, too).

    -Joshua

  10. They all photoshop their cover photos. I wish I could photoshop myself in real life sometimes 🙁

  11. I think the hip placement is probably real: looking at how thin she is, I can believe that her hip would curve in there due to lack of body fat.

    That said, I think both images are photoshopped, although the final one is more extremely so. The highlights on the final image are brighter, as are the whites of her eyes, and that vein in her left arm (our right) is VERY reduced in the final image. BUT in the "before" picture, her face is still suspisciously highlighted, and the whites of her eyes are still pretty bright for a "normal" photo (especially for someone that thin: extreme thinness and healthy eye-whites don't usually go hand-in-hand, you know?). Plus some of the shadows on her body (esp. her legs) look painted in.

    Um. That was long. I spend WAY too much time looking at these damn things, LOL.

  12. Tracey @ I'm Not Superhuman

    Whether or not the retoucher took a chunk out of her hip or not, the cover is photoshopped. There isn't a single magazine that doesn't photoshop their covers. Some may just even skin tone, remove stray hairs, smooth wrinkles and veins in hands and feet, and whiten eyes. But most fashion mags will go futher. If the regional magazine I worked at greatly retouched covers, W does more.

  13. I'm with Deb – I think the photos look different, and the while the bottom looks like it could be real, the top one looks like too big of a difference to line up. Maybe it's just a trick of the eye, since the colors are more saturated in the top photo, but that's how it looks.

  14. I'm on the photoshopped ship.

    Nobody looks that plastic. Not a single line or blemish on her face? There isn't enough makeup in the world to make someone that flawless. Sorry, Demi, it wasn't the hip that gave it away (I totally believe that she could be standing in such a way as to make that hip indent slightly – it would be easier to tell if we could see her knees…..) but the flawless face.

    Oh, wait…. that could just be jealousy rearing it's ugly head…. nah – nobody's that perfect.

  15. for some reason I couldnt comment this morning…wouldnt work for me.

    I wanna add a tangent–kind of.
    Bear in mind I read the tweets in print and not FROM HER but supposedly demi was tweeting all about the fact it is, indeed, she in the pics and that shes just "really skinny" blah blah blah.

    for some reason that just made me sad.

    and think YIKES.

    I dont know which Id prefer…her dieting herself into oblivion OR lying about the photoshoppage.

  16. When I initially saw this a few weeks back I thought that she looked extremely skinny and that they either squeezed her into that like a corset or they skimmed a bit of her middle off on the left. She is at an odd angle but her left looks like it was skinnied down to me.

  17. I can't even really see the issue from just looking at tha pictures. It looks like she is jutting out her other hip, which could make this kind of line, and the way the fabric is draped around her makes me think that the photo is legit and the photoshopping wasn't that extreme… But I'm certainly not an expert!

  18. It looks funny to me, but I think every picture is photo-chopped. I do agree that she looks unnaturally skinny.

  19. Photoshopped or not, it depresses me that so many women still aspire to look super-skinny above all else. We'll keep seeing these images held up as ideal unless we start choosing "real" looking models and actresses over ridiculously skinny ones by voting with our $$.

    But I think most people are fine with this kind of thing and don't see a problem. Makes me sad.

  20. I was really upset by the image when I saw it. I am tired, like many of you, of the photoshop perfectionism that the media bombards us with. While looking up body proportions to see if maybe the photo could be accurate I found this link: http://demimooreshipisreal.blogspot.com/
    This is confirmed by one of the great artistic examples of the human figure in contrapposto pose (warning: art nudity):http://www.dl.ket.org/humanities/sculpt/images/michelangelo_.jpg.

    So maybe the hip thing IS real?

  21. I have been sewing fabric for 25 years. That fabric doesn't look heavy or stiff enough to hold up on it's own like that. It would take something like denimn or burlap or wrinkle free polyester to suspend in midair. What Demi is wearing looks like silk, satin or rayon or something. You would have to have wires or netting or something underneath it to hold. Why would a clothing designer do that? It has to be photoshopped. Regardless, emaciation is nothing to boast about.

  22. Heather McD (Heather Eats Almond Butter)

    Photoshopped or not, I don't care. Demi Moore has a kickin bod. I only hope I can look that amazing when I'm her age.

  23. To be honest I really dont know what to say but she clearly is naturally beautiful so it does'nt really matter anyway.

  24. She is very thin, but if you look at any candids of her, you can tell it's photoshopped. Her waist just isn't that skinny and her skin isn't that smooth.

    But as far as photoshopping goes, this isn't nearly as bad as some other pictures out there. Remember Kelly Clarkson on Self Magazine? But at least she admitted the photoshopped the heck out of her.

  25. Okay, the notion that it was photoshopped but she truly believes its her scares the crap out of me.

    And what scares me even more is that I think you could be spot on about that.

  26. You and Demi are nice to look at in a photo but It makes for a real bony hug.

  27. Angle and depth of field can be used properly to cause effects like this…hard to say. I do think her photo looks a bit different fromt he one int he magazine…
    She's always looked crazy good tho – I mean remember naked preg pictures? the lady has a bod on her…she's always been this way. A bit bony if you ask me, but not entirely impossible.

  28. I don't see any difference between her "original" photo and the cover. And we all know by now that they clean up, retouch and fix a lot.

    Cannot figure out how that silky wrap is hanging the way it is if she's not photoshopped. And I'm one of those folks who's hips indent at the joint. (it looks freaky).

    Either way, she's too skinny.

  29. Of course she was photoshopped, those people will photoshop mud

  30. Well I do think its photoshopped, anyways Found this pretty interesting "theory" ill go for it. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/6651870/Demi-Moores-photoshopped-W-cover-is-it-really-her-body.html

  31. No, there is no way to stand to make your hip bones bend that way, nor mine, nor most of your readers. I'm sure there are some skeletal models who can contort themselves into all sorts of anatomically mystifying positions such as these, however. Just no one within reading distance of your "you."
    With all that draping, fabric really can take on a life of its own, perhaps that's where her joint is hiding under there.
    But my definitive answer to your question is, as always, YES they Photoshopped her! They're all always Photoshopped! Every photo, every time, if any money was exchanged. I don't know if that particular hip was Transformed, Distorted, or Liquified in any way (yes, they spell Liquify wrong in PS), but you catch my drift. I'll save you from ever having to wonder again, the answer is always YES. And frankly, does anyone really care if she really is that thin? She's really, really, really thin, and that should be be horrifying enough without wondering if an artist made her thinner.

  32. seriously its the angle she standing at her hip dosent go inwards its just shes skinny and the placement of her legs and then the dress covers that but i would still have thought it was pretty clear that it was just the was she waqs standing and i dont get why nobody else has

  33. Thanks a lot!!!!
    So Gooood Page..….
    NIce post
    tr