Fake Celebrity Pics

The Good, the Bad and the Naughty

Phony photos have probably been around since the camera was invented, but in the digital world of photo-editing, photo forgeries are fairly common, especially online, but can also appear in magazines, newspapers and even in print ads. If you're thinking tabloids hold the monopoly on faking celebrity pics you are mistaken. Even Newsweek has been reported to have altered the photo of Martha Stewart that appeared on a 2005 cover. To give readers an idea of how the empress of interior design might look after being released from prison, the publication placed the head of Stewart onto the body of a thinner model to suggest she would be better than ever after her experience in the slammer.

How to Spot a Phony Celebrity Photo

Don't be duped by another doctored photo! More often than not, fake celebrity pics are produced to generate publicity for whatever publication is printing the image. Recognizing what is real and fake in a photo requires a little attention to subtle details. Below are some tell-tale signs that a photo has been altered.

• Mismatched Background Look at the sky, look at the ground, look at everything behind the subject(s) of the photo in question. If the blue hues of a clear day don't match up or if the grass is actually greener on the other side of a celebrity's body in a photo, it could be a misrepresentation of the truth.

• Erratic Light Sources and Shadows Notice how light affects the subject(s) of the picture. Does the light source(s) create even, uniform shadows or do shaded areas seem to have a mind of their own? If the shadows of celebrities cast in a picture don't seem consistent, there's a good chance that it's a fake.

• Mismatched Skin tones This one could be the work of a bad make-up artist or tanning experience, but regardless, mismatched skin tones of a photo's subject are usually the biggest clue that a celebrity's head has been put on the body of another model.

• Disproportionate Body Shape If you put Tom Cruise's head on Brad Pitt's body nothing adds up to the truth. Pay attention to they way a celebrity's body appears in a photo and compare it to confirmed real photos of that star. Do they look the same? If not, chances are that the photo under scrutiny isn't genuine.

• Unnatural Body Position There are only so many ways the human body can bend. When Paris Hilton's head is tilted one way, her body can't go the other and if her arms are out to her sides, her torso will appear differently than it would if her arms were above her head. Look at the way a star is posing and if the pose is impossible to mimic the photo has probably been altered.

Finding Clean Fake Celebrity Photos Online

Good luck with this one. There aren't a lot of clean fakes out there in the online ocean, but if light-hearted fun is what you're looking for there are several sites to surf that could provide you with humorous, fake celebrity images. Cable TV network Comedy Central is well-known for its fake news programs, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report, and sometimes uses manipulated celebrity images to entertain audiences. Fake news site, The Onion might also provide you with a few chuckles at the expense of a celebrity, but neither site features photo galleries of fake celebrity pics.

Celeb-obsessed blogs like that of self-proclaimed "Media Queen" Perez Hilton and Pink is the New Blog always show-off altered photos, but usually the changes made on blog sites like these do not threaten the integrity of the photo (they are still fun to browse, though). Celebrity slip-ups caught on film are a good source of amusement, but your best bet for finding clean, fake pictures of celebrities online is to look for impersonators.

Joan Rivers is one celebrity that is ofen impersonated.

Fake Celebrity Pics: Impersonators

A lot of people resemble celebrities, but some look so much like their famous doppelgangers that they can turn their looks into a career. Talent agencies like Splitting Images and Royal Talent supply clients with celebrity look-alikes to entertain, to advertise in print ads and even to appear on television and in films. From Darth Vader and Captain Jack Sparrow to Lucille Ball and Frank Sinatra, celebrity impersonators can be found in most all major cities. If you're in the market for hiring a celebrity fake or if you just want to see more look-alikes, the following sites will provide you with plenty of impersonators to peruse without being bombarded by adult content.

• Celebrity Impersonators
• Talent Booking USA
• Bubby Gram
• Look-alikes USA
• Classique Productions