I really haven’t paid much nevermind to the ongoing train wreck of the Mel Gibson kerfuffle, except to think that this is, no matter how it turns out, a Hall of Fame performance in the “get back at your boyfriend” sweepstakes, easily outclassing the Kim Basinger leak of ex-hubby Alec Baldwin’s rant to his teenage daughter by Basinger.
See the original “World Exclusive” here
I guess they just upped the ante with the release of a photo, allegedly after Mel punched her and broke two teeth. Released — as have been all her other “getbacks” — via Radaronline. Hilariously, US Magazine (another gossip rag desperate to gin up as much ink as possible via the free show of Mel Gibson’s post-marital troubles) reports that “Her rep has denied that she leaked them. Her rep also says claims that the tapes were edited are ‘ridiculous’.”
Now, Radaronline warns me: WARNING: This photograph may not be reproduced.
No: if it is in the public news arena and it is a hoax, fair use protects me. I’m not ripping them off: they’re ripping US off.
What IS ridiculous is ham-handed photoshopping. I merely up the gamma setting on the area in question in the original photograph via Radaronline, and the photo’s retouching becomes obvious:
Note where black has been added to crop the front tooth
Black has been layered in at the corners of the mouth to create greater “depth,” which is something that I know a little about from drawing (see Friday’s “How I Spent My Summer Vacation“). And it’s been layered on in the middle, in a patently impossible “shadow.”
Not only is the black addition apparent, but it neatly stops precisely at the “break” in the broken tooth. My guess is that the incisor at right is her real tooth, minus “veneer” which is a fake front glued on to give Oksana resized and perfect teeth. You can guess this from the more natural color of the tooth. I might even suggest that it’s been ground into that rounded end for the veneers, but that’s where the fakery is taking place, so I’d be careful about drawing any final conclusions. But this much is clearly evident:
The photo has been clearly (and amateurishly) tampered with. Good grief.
How ham-handed can you get?
Who knows when it was taken? At any rate, she’s in Los Angeles County and has lodged a “domestic violence” complaint against Mel, and, like I said, if nothing else, Oksana Grigorieva has set a new world mark in the “humiliate and destroy the ex-boyfriend” sweepstakes, and that’s something that Kim Basinger will just have to live with, or perhaps try to top. But her work is really cut out for her.
(L to R) Daughter Ireland, Father Alec Baldwin, divorced from Mother Kim Basinger.
I really don’t care about rich actors with anger management issues and their gold-digger paramours, or their fight over their mutual bastard children, but really, this kind of ham-handed photo fakery is repugnant — if only as testament to a blind and manipulative gossip culture.
And, it’s bad graphic art, which I am foursquare against.
Courage.
