Beauty Is Only Skin Deep, Thanks to HDTV

The Ottawa Citizen carries an interesting article that notes that HDTV has sufficient resolution to show a clearer picture of an actresses skin than she might actually want shown. Current TV resolution and makeup technology is sufficient to hide blemishes and other imperfections, but HDTV shows everything.

Aaron Sands
Stop the presses -- Cameron Diaz has skin problems, according to high-definition television, which is threatening to expose the previously invisible "flaws" of the world's most physically beautiful people.

As HDTV spreads its digital clarity into homes worldwide, Hollywood is sounding the alarm. The stars are running for cover, warts and all, only to find the most advanced makeup wizardry to date failing to save perfect face.

Plastic surgeons are drooling. The makeup industry is strategizing. As the ugly truth reveals itself to an ever-expanding digital audience, some of the beautiful people have come clean.

Faced with the horror of a sudden acne attack, Ms. Diaz reportedly skipped a premiere showing of Gangs of New York.

"I want girls to realize that nobody looks like the women in the glossy photos without the help of a load of talented people," she recently confessed to Glamour magazine.

Those talented people, who make up the "Hollywood glamour machine," are looking for new answers, television industry columnist Phillip Swann explained in Television Week.

On Ms. Diaz, a regular on People magazine's list of the world's most beautiful, Mr. Swann writes, "the magazine's editors -- and most of the Western world -- do not have high-definition TV. If they did, they would see that Diaz's face is spotted with small pockmarks, the unfortunate consequence of a longtime acne problem.

"When seen on film," Mr. Swann says, "Diaz's skin imperfections are not noticeable, thanks to Hollywood's talented makeup artists. However, with HDTV, the picture is so precise that the acne damage cannot be hidden. In a high-def broadcast of Charlie's Angels on HBO, Diaz looks like a different person. She's still very pretty. But to be frank, I doubt that she would make People's most beautiful list."

A revolution in makeup, still in its infancy, is underway to cover the blemishes broadcast by HDTV. The art of airbrush makeup, a thin water-based liquid spray-painted onto face and body, is still being perfected.

"Airbrush is absolutely the wave of the future," said Amy Coffman, an airbrush artist with The Airbrush Shoppe, Etc. in Kansas City. "With high-definition TV, you can see every single flaw. And the only way to really disguise those flaws is to use the airbrush. It's still a really new thing; there are not a lot of people that actually have the skills.

"The airbrush comes out in such a finely atomized spray --in such a light coat that you can't even tell that it's there," said Ms. Coffman, whose company has applied makeup for Playboy, Mardi Gras, the Winter Olympics and the Super Bowl. "It does the job and it's the only option with HDTV. It's catching a lot of attention" in Hollywood and out.

© Copyright 2003 The Ottawa Citizen