CBS makes Katie Couric ditch 20 lbs... using photoshop

[Grimmlok]

August 30, 2006 -- Talk about a miracle diet - Katie Couric has become the Incredible Shrinking Anchorwoman.

Thanks to a computer "slight" of hand, the Tiffany network has made the new face of "CBS Evening News" instantly drop about 20 pounds.

In a picture widely distributed to the media last month, a normal-looking Couric wore a frumpy light gray suit and her trademark smile.

But thanks to Photoshop, the popular editing software, the same photo, printed in a CBS magazine, shows her looking much, much thinner - and her suit has become a few shades darker.

Couric, who was made aware of the picture's alteration yesterday, joked that she liked the original better.

"There's more of me to love," she quipped.

The picture was taken in May when Couric, 49, appeared at the CBS "Upfront" presentation at Carnegie Hall.

It was later widely distributed by CBS as an official photo of its new $15 million-a-year anchor- woman.

Then the computer generated version appeared in the latest quarterly edition of Watch!

It's produced and edited by the CBS press department and distributed to network employees, news-media outlets, affiliates, network gift shops and Paramount-owned theme parks.

Network officials say the magazine has a circulation of around 400,000.

"The picture was retouched without the knowledge of Ms. Couric or CBS News management," a CBS spokesman said.

As far as the magazine goes, an insider insisted the publication was just following normal industry practice when it shrunk Couric.

He claimed that just about all magazines tinker with photos - even though some top photographers and photo editors at news organizations have lost their jobs in recent times for doing just that.

Most media experts say that whenever a photo is altered in any way, the public should be alerted, although it's more of a problem if it occurs at newsmagazines rather than a magazine a company publishes about itself.

A top health expert joked that if Couric dropped the weight as rapidly as she appeared to, it would have cost her an arm or a leg - literally.

"Besides Photoshop, the only other way to lose 20 pounds in a matter of seconds would be to hack off a limb," joked Samantha Heller, the senior clinical nutritionist at NYU Medical Center.

"I mean, liposuction is pretty fast - but that takes longer since you have to prep for surgery and everything."

On a more serious note, she said, "Of course the healthy way to do it wouldn't be fast.

"If you lose weight too quickly it scares your body - the body is not designed to lose weight quickly. [Instead], cut back on the junk, pretty standard stuff. Katie could eat more vegetables, cut down on carbs and increase her exercise," said Heller.

"I know she has a trainer because she talked about it [when she was on 'Today'] so she could have the trainer pump up her exercise a bit."

http://www.nypost.com/news/nationaln...don_kaplan.htm

[Sojiita]

she looked better in the original. The altered one makes her look too angular IMO

[Bellatheball]

Her suit looks like it needs to be altered in the first photo.

[Sojiita]

They really suck for doing this the assholes.

[irishpig]

"If you lose weight too quickly it scares your body - the body is not designed to lose weight quickly. [Instead], cut back on the junk, pretty standard stuff. Katie could eat more vegetables, cut down on carbs and increase her exercise," said Heller.

"I know she has a trainer because she talked about it [when she was on 'Today'] so she could have the trainer pump up her exercise a bit."

This pisses me off!! Why does this woman assume that Katie wants to use weight? Katie is fine the way she is...I am so sick of women being made to feel they have to diet to the point of having the figure of a 12 yr old boy. We are soft, curvy and smell good, damn it!

[jocelyn]

what's the point? she isn't even fat.

[aabbcc]

That picture would've been perfect if they'd photoshopped her right out.

[SammysMom]

That smile needs to be toned down not her body.

[Palermo]

the only yuck thing about her is that gummy smile

[suede]

WOW.

That's so sad.

[GoldDust77]

What pisses me off about this is, there's such a double standard regarding gender with issues like this. First of all, Katie looks FINE the way she is (NOT that that should have any significance to her ability as a news reporter), and secondly & IMO more importantly, CBS had no problem with, for example, having Dan Rather's ugly old mug on their newshows & ads for them, and Mike Wallace's 87-year-old ancient face appearing in ads which isn't exactly *attractive*... But yet since Katie is a WOMAN, they have to photoshop her so that she fits some ridiculous "standard" of (apparently, in their opinion) *how a woman should look*????!?? Stuff like this really makes me angry. (if you can't tell!)

[audrey]

At least she had boobs in the original. Why did they make her look so flat?

[southernbelle]

To me, it looked more like they did it to make her ill-fitting suit more tailored and professional, and in the process gave her the waist that she would have if the blazer fit like it was supposed to. Then I noticed that they seem to have slimmed down her cheeks as well.

[RaisedonElvis]

This is so wrong on so many levels I just can't even begin. Eventually, movies will be all perfect CG characters and young girls and boys will line up to purchase that perfection from corporate America because some CG Oprahesque show will say that you too can achieve CG perfection.

[pacific breeze]

And the more perfect women are expected to look at all times in all situations will be matched only by the obesity epidemic out here in the real world. The double standard is alive and well. CBS has sunk to a new low for what was once the "best" network news organization in America.