Wow. I never thought about it that way. Who would have thunk it?

So I was reading an article (no link, forget where) that although poorly written brought up an interesting point: with the advent of HDTV broadcasting and the resulting clarity of almost every pixel, the beautiful stars of Hollywood suddenly look less beautiful. So for now at least, the curtain is pulled back and we see Star City for what it is: a bunch of expert makeup artists and crafty lighting techniques.

Now, I’m not saying that people in Hollywood are not beautiful in real life (read: HDTV), but perhaps now they’ll be less “out of this world” beautiful as we have been led to think all along. Think about it. Most of us have this unrealistic picture of Jennifer Aniston and her skin tone or Cameron Diaz’s perfect body. But everything really does look better obscured just a tad. Try taking a digital photo and softening/blurring it just a tad. The softness blends away tiny imperfections (heck I do daily in my job, touching up people’s faces through a variety of techniques) that normally would appear on regular film.

This is great.

Not that I have it out for Hollywood, but I do confess that I have a rather active dispassion for the star worship that goes on, and I cannot even escape the unrealistic images in my head of most stars and how perfect they are. How can we blame ourselves. Not many of us have actually met stars in person, to see their pores and follicles up close. We rely on TV transmissions and film reproductions that although we know consist of makeup and lighting, I’m not sure we take into account film or TV quality. At least I never thought of this before now.

So until makeup artists and lighting technicians relearn their trades to continue the lie (apparently Friends set designers painted its primary set in light purple because the resulting aura supposedly gives the cast a healthy glow even in HDTV), perhaps we’ll learn to worship stars for their perfection because they will fall to earth before us. Not that I’m wishing anything on them. In fact, maybe it’ll be a good thing for them as well. Maybe they’ll get stalked less. Or at the very least those damned makeup commercials will result in a few less exclamations of, “seriously, who has skin like that?” from my living room. Bring on the HDTV.

(also interesting to note: apparently Cameron Diaz’s longtime battle with acne is not-so-covered up when viewing in HDTV.)