Vogue’s Photoshop Hell

Kate Hudson, Nicole Kidman & Penelope Cruz

What in God’s name is happening with Vogue’s November cover?!? This is one of the most hellish, budget, ugly messes I’ve ever seen. The cover story is all about the women of Nine, which will likely be one of the biggest movies of the awards season. Nine stars Daniel Day-Lewis, Judi Dench, Kate Hudson, Nicole Kidman, Stacey “Fergie” Ferguson, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz and Sophia Loren, amongst others. For such a major film, it’s no surprise Vogue decided to put some of the more prominent leading ladies on the cover. Unfortunately, there is absolutely no way that Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz and Kate Hudson were all at the same location at the same time for the cover shoot.
It looks like they just cut-and-pasted Nicole Kidman on the end, and what’s with the totally weird lighting on every single woman? Marion looks like she has a spotlight on her, while Penelope looks half-shadowed. Meanwhile, Kate looks like she smelled something. Yikes. Ten bucks says this shot is by Annie Leibovitz, and twenty says she is not happy with it. Plus, Nine takes place in Rome – why not do a fashion shoot in Rome? Why do these women have to be looking pissy at the beach?
Anyway, Vogue hasn’t put up the cover story online yet, but they do have an interesting feature – nine great looks from each of the cover ladies. I tend to think that would have been a better cover – just put older images from these ladies, and jam them together on the cover. Or, better yet, just put the immortal Daniel Day-Lewis on the cover and call it a day. Out of the whole cast, I’d say Daniel has the best shot at winning an Oscar for Nine. Sigh. And now I’m looking forward to Daniel’s press.