Did TV Guide Photoshop Padma Lakshmi’s Skin Tone?

By Miral F. Sattar on December 1st, 2010 2 Comments

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Padma Lakshmi Top Chef

Edited: Friday, December 3, 2010

When we initially ran the following story on Thursday, December 2, it was without comment from TV Guide or Padma Lakshmi. Since then, TV Guide has denied retouching Lakshmi’s complexion to make her appear lighter.The magazine issued the following statement: “If her skin appears lighter, it’s because we shot her in a brightly lit diner as part of the cover concept. We did our normal color correcting, which is standard for printing.”

Lakshmi also took to her Twitter account to address the cover, tweeting “Many thx to TVGuide for a great and gorgeous cover. Delightful team, and a really fun and easy shoot.”

Popeater.com has since corrected its story after TV Guide claimed they had not been contacted as a source prior to the Popeater’s allegations that Photoshop had been used to digitally lighten Lakshmi’s skin. Last year, Vanity Fair clarified through Access Hollywood that the “whitening out” rumors around their shoot with Freida Pinto were absolutely untrue and it was just “lighting”.

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This week’s TV Guide cover has Padma Lakshmi and Tom Colicchio on a Johnny Rockets table. At first glance, Padma Lakshmi looks like her fabulous glam self. But wait…something about her looks different. New hairstyle? Different body shape? Aha! Her skin appears a few shades lighter than her natural self.  We suspect photoshop!

Compare the TV Guide cover to this Town and Country cover from 2009 and another cover she appeared on for Industry News.

Padma Lakshmi on Industry

Padma Lakshmi on Industry

Looks like TV Guide isn’t the only publication that doesn’t like brown girls gracing the cover of its magazine. Vanity Fair did a similar photoshop exercise with the unarguably beautiful “Slumdog Millionaire” star Freida Pinto. Leading celebrity blogger Perez Hilton even did a post about it last year.

Freida Pinto Perez Hilton

What’s the matter, TV Guide? Are women only beautiful if they’ve been ‘white-washed’? Please. That’s so ’90s.

Tell us what you think by dropping a comment below!

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  • http://aspreyjandmaeri.yelp.com AspreyJ

    where all tha white women at?

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