Book 2 of The Fake Detective's Case Files

Click on the Case Number to view the image.

CASE #101 - This fake of Pamela Anderson-Lee has been around a long time and has apparently fooled a lot of people - but not The Fake Detective, of course. It's not the type of fake that The Fake Detective likes to work on, but this is the exception that proves that rule. Making a case file for it seems to be the only way to get people to stop asking us if it is a fake or not. While one can generally assume most celebrities would not pose for such an explicit picture, that is clearly not the case for Ms Anderson-Lee. Rating this fake was a problem for us. We don't like the explicitness, but, as much as we'd all like to, we can't ignore the artistry involved.

Addendum: We have the original body shot for this, but we didn't use it since it would require too much censoring. Also, after the infamous Pamela and Tommy Lee tapes went into mass distribution, this fake was widely distributed as being part of that video, but most knew it was a fake that we had exposed.

CASE #102 - This fake of Winona Ryder has been around for a long time, is fairly well done and has fooled many people. We thank "Black- Priest" for bringing it to our attention and for providing the real body shot.

CASE #103 removed by order of the celebrity and her lawyers.

CASE #104 - This fake of Courtney Cox only recently appeared. When compared side by side with the real picture, the background around the head on the fake seems in need of more work, but otherwise it's a fairly good example of the art of fakery, and The Fake Detective thanks "Wyatt Earp" for providing the real body shot.

CASE #105 - This fake of Elle MacPherson is probably in more picture collections than the real photograph. It's been around a long time. It's fairly well done and is just subtle enough to be believed.

CASE #106- This fake of Julia Louis-Dreyfus is being foisted upon people as being an accident - like the Lucy Lawless exposure at the Ducks game. Give us a break! While it's very well done and shows considerable expertise with photo retouching software, it's clearly a fake - even though Ms. Louis-Dreyfus shows almost as much in both pictures. Elaine Benes would never wear such a dress!

Addendum: In case you are not aware of it, Elaine Benes is the character that Julia Louis-Dreyfus played on "Seinfeld". We all enjoyed Elaine's quirkiness, but Julia seems to be just a hard working actress/mom.

CASE #107 - This fake of Demi Moore (and Michelle Johnson) deserves some attention since it's not only well done, but it's a modification of a "video capture". We don't see those very often. It's just a simple photo retouch job, but it's certainly a believable fake if you don't remember the movie as well as The Fake Detective does.

CASE #108 - These two fakes of Shania Twain both use the same original head shot. The fake of Ms. Twain in the shower has been around for a long time and is very well done. It apparently fooled a lot of people, since it is frequently posted and we've been questioned about it quite often. The other fake with the nipples painted on appeared only recently, but it's a good example of the kind of very subtle work being done to create pictures that people will believe to be real.

CASE #109 - This fake of Tea Leoni is a text-book example of just how subtle a fake can be - and it is The Fake Detective's most embarrassing case. At first he believed the picture that shows her nipple was the fake, since the versions he'd seen looked fake, and because he'd never seen any pictures of Tea Leoni that could be classified as "nude". But "Moe" has furnished us clear evidence that the magazine merely censored the real picture by painting out the nipple, thereby creating a rather routine "fake non-nude". Live and learn. And we still have a good example of the art of fakery.

CASE #110 - This fake of Sigourney Weaver is very good and could easily fool a lot of people - particularly since the breasts are about the right size when checked against all those video captures from "Half Moon Street". But she has never posed for this kind of picture and almost certainly never will. Since The Fake Detective is a fan of Ms Weaver, and she therefore falls under his protective umbrella, he decided to create a case file for this one. We are grateful to "Phantasyman" for supplying the head and body shots.

CASE #111 - This fake of Paulina Porizkova would have been rated much higher if it wasn't so dim. It appears to be a very good job of photo retouching. The retouched portions even have sand on the body, so "cloning" was probably the primary technique the artist used. The Fake Detective is grateful to "Tom Mix" in France for his help in solving this case.

CASE #112 - This "fake" of Mary Tyler Moore is actually one of a series of pictures of actress/model Lauren Hutton published in the September 1986 issue of "Penthouse" Magazine. Since from a certain angle Ms Hutton looks something like Mary Tyler Moore, someone who enjoys deluding the public went to work and posted the picture as being of Mary Tyler Moore. That type of fakery takes no talent nor intelligence, so the "fake" is rated "D". We thank Walter Teague for providing information and supplementary pictures.

CASE #113 - This fake of singer Tori Amos is certainly popular among her fans, but - sorry to disappoint - it's not real. When Tom Mix in France sent us the real body shot, The Fake Detective was at first uncertain whether it would make a good case file or not, since he's a jazz and blues fan and doesn't know Tori Amos. But when he began checking her out by searching for the real head shot, he found an endless supply of shots that were similar but not identical to the one used in the fake. The frustration of the search made him decide to create a case file rather than to have wasted all that time.

CASE #114 - This fake of Fran Drescher could easily fool anyone -even The Fake Detective. Since the fake appears to be a sharper image than the version of real body shot that we have, and since this photograph isn't all that far removed from what Ms Drescher might actually pose for, and since the artist did a very good job job of copying some stray strands of hair from the different colored background, we had to locate the real head shot to confirm that the fake is truly a fake. We thank Matthew Kruk for supplying the body shot and for bringing this case to our attention.

CASE #115 - This fake of Sandra Bullock is an excellent example of the art of fakery. The artist didn't just replace the head, as is the case in most fakes, but he replaced the entire body from the armpits on down - a lot more difficult thing to do. And he also had to retouch the background to eliminate parts of the overalls. While The Fake Detective didn't believe for a minute that this fake was real, he does admire the expertise required to create it.

CASE #116 - This fake of Teri Hatcher isn't very good, but it IS very peculiar. It's been around a long time, and The Fake Detective has always wondered why anyone would fake this particular picture of Ms Hatcher. We've all decided that using a computer in the nude must be some kind of a turn-on for the artist. That's understandable. Some editing skill was needed to insert part of a nude body shot between the head and the arm. Too bad he failed to get rid of the end of the sleeve. We thank Naom in Israel for sending us the real picture.

CASE #117 removed by order of the celebrity and her lawyers.

CASE #118 - This fake of Kathie Lee Gifford illustrates a distressing trend to add fake information to a fake picture in further hopes of fooling more people. The fake has been around for some time, but The Fake Detective has resisted exposing it since the "real picture" also shows signs of digital editing. On both pictures, what looks like the front of her neck is apparently her armpit; her left arm is raised but hidden behind her head. There may have been some editing to try to make this look less peculiar than it already does, perhaps by removing part of her hand from the back of the neck. We can't be certain. We thank "DroopAlong" for his assistance in helping us close this case.

CASE #119 - This fake of Jennifer Aniston was thought by The Fake Detective to be a picture of a look-alike, since he saw very little resemblance to the real Jennifer (particularly in the size of the breasts), but Jim G. Fortune quickly responded to our Wanted Poster #25 and provided the real picture. We thank him. It turned out to be nothing but a routine head swap, with some writing added in an attempt to make it more credible. The crooked head-band on the fake should have been a tip-off, plus a slight difference in skintones shows up with some software/hardware. Ah well. That's why we put out Wanted Posters: because after looking at the endless stream of countless fakes on the newsgroups every day, we sometimes need some help to get our eyes open and to see what we should see.

CASE #120 - This fake of Kathie Lee Gifford is very good and certainly one of the better Kathie Lee fakes around. It's even plausible, only a little bit beyond what Mrs. Gifford might actually pose for. While The Fake Detective wasn't fooled for a minute by it, his mission in life is to help recover "the sullied reputations of damsels in distress", and he feels Mrs. Gifford certainly meets that criterion these days. Like so many fakes, when seen with the real picture errors become much more apparent - in this case with the skin tones of the face and the hand-made left shoulder. We thank "Juice" for providing the real picture in response to our Wanted Poster #22.

CASE #121 - This "fake" of Goldie Hawn was previously exposed by "Graphic Response", who got the information from "Celebrity Sleuth" magazine. We get frequent inquiries regarding this fake, and creating a Case File is the easiest way to answer those questions. The woman in the pictures is really Italian actress Dalila di Lazarro, and whoever began circulating the pictures - claiming they were of Goldie Hawn - undoubtedly knew this. Since no intelligence or skill was needed to create this "fake", we give it a "D" rating.

CASE #122 - This "fake" of Shania Twain and the picture beside it are pictures of Penthouse Pet Sabrina West, not Shania Twain. Both are frequently posted as if they were pictures of Ms Twain, and by looking at the real picture of her it is very easy to see how one could make the mistake. However, the confusion undoubtedly began as just another attempt to fool people with a "look-alike". The Fake Detective is grateful to "Michel Saucier" for responding to our Wanted Poster #26 with the identification and additional pictures.

CASE #123 - This fake of Cheryl Tiegs is very good, very impressive, and demonstrates how realistic complex changes can be. Moving the bathing suit strap off the left shoulder took a great deal of expertise in the art of digital photo retouching - and undoubtedly lot of time. We thank "Ision" for bringing it to our attention.

Addendum: Ision was also the one who created this fake. We don't like to credit the fakers for helping us expose their own works, but at the time we wanted to use this fake as an illustration of excellent digital editing.

CASE #124 - These fakes of "Fran Drescher" are probably the worst examples of "look-alike" fakery around. The artist not only tried to pass off two different women from two different porn films as Fran Drescher, but he also used copied lettering and a cartoon from the "Nanny" TV show, and then he declared that his fakery was copy-righted by Celebrity Sleuth Magazine! Celebrity Sleuth had nothing to do with these fakes! The Fake Detective and his entire staff are all grateful to "Holly Lover" and "Stephane Simard" for responding to our Wanted Poster #23 so we could close this sleazy case.

CASE #125 - This fake of Janet Jackson shows considerable expertise in digital retouching, but the artist seems to have an anatomy problem. After studying this picture for some time, The Fake Detective and his staff concluded that as a result of having her breasts massaged in the real picture, Ms Jackson ended up with things slightly off kilter in the fake. Her right breast is hangs low, her nipples are too high on both breasts, and the right nipple is too far off-center. We think another massage is needed to put things back in place. But we are grateful to "IMMICKEY" for his assistance in solving this case.

CASE #126 - These "fakes" of Gates McFadden have been circulating on the Net for over a year and have even been published in Celebrity Sleuth Magazine, which claimed they were pictures of Ms McFadden from a movie called "Warrior Island". In reality, they are video captures of actress Camille Keaton from a very bad 1982 movie called "Raw Force". The Fake Detective is grateful to Craig Hosoda, the author of "The Bare Facts Video Guide" for providing the tip that allowed us to close this case, plus Barry L. Stern of Graphic Response who provided the excellent video captures. This is one case we all are very happy to see closed. The fake is rated "D" because it required neither talent nor intelligence to create it.

Addendum: This case still stands as our most famous. It took many months to solve.

CASE #127 - This fake of Valerie Bertinelli has been around for a long time and apparently a lot of people believe that it is real. It isn't, of course. It's fairly well done, but we think the head seems a bit off center (too far to her right). It may just be that the artist didn't include enough of the curve between her head and shoulder. It's probably underrated at a "C", but it's hard to rate a small black and white fake any higher.

CASE #128 - This fake of Jennifer Aniston is very good and may have fooled a lot of people - but not The Fake Detective, of course. The slight difference in skin tones and textures between the face and the body is the giveaway, and the fact that traces of the original background color can be seen between some strands of her hair is another. But it's still a good example of the art of fakery.

CASE #129 removed by order of the celebrity and her lawyers.

CASE #130 - This fake of Kim Basinger is excellent. Although there are real nudes of Ms Basinger around, none is quite like this. It shows little or no signs of being a fake, it's not far beyond the kind of picture she would pose for, and it's the kind of fake that a lot of people (including The Fake Detective and all of his staff) wish was real. We thank "Raptor" for sending us the real body shot.

Case #131R - This is a RETRACTION of Case #131. Cristina Ferrare was on the cover of the March 1977 issue of Harper's Bazaar and Mel Harris was inside the same issue (but not identified). An error was made in identifying Mel Harris pictures as being of Cristina Ferrare. Cristina and Mel were both models at the same time. The Fake Detective regrets the error and thanks John Bartelt for bringing it to our attention, and ESPECIALLY for supplying us with more lingerie shots of Mel Harris.

Addendum: This is our only full retraction. Although we were told that the picture was identified as being of Cristina Ferrare in a 1983 issue of High Society magazine, we were later confronted with a massive amount of information from John Bartelt which proved once and for all time that the picture is truly of Mel Harris.

CASE #132 - This fake of Jennifer Aniston was originally thought to be a video capture of some look-alike, but it's just a retouched video capture of Ms Aniston from a old TV series called "The Edge". We thank Lux Lucre for his assistance in the identification.

CASE #133 - This fake of Pam Dawber is really pretty bad, but it is one of many being distributed on CD ROMs which are being peddled all over the world with false claims that they contain "rare nude pictures" - pictures which are really just crude fakes. We thank "Kingpin" for providing information and the real body shot.

Addendum: This fake was one of a series of fakes distributed as part of a CD ROM which called them "rare celebrity nudes". As far as The Fake Detective is concerned, the term "rare celebrity nudes" can be considered a synonym for "crude fakes".

CASE #134 - This "fake" of Mayim Bialik is just another picture of a look-alike taken from some skin magazine. The picture has been around for a long time, and many people have asked us about it. We are not fans of the TV show "Blossom", but we investigated because we liked Ms Bialik when she played a young Bette Midler in the movie "Beaches". We rate such fakes very low because neither talent nor intelligence are needed to create them. We thank "Crosis" in New Zealand for sending us the pictures needed to close this case.

CASE #135 - This fake of Amy Jo Johnson isn't very good, but it is one we keep getting asked about, so we're creating a case file for it. We're not fans of the "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers", but we did manage to sit through the first 15 minutes of the movie and that qualifies Amy Jo for our protection.

CASE #136 - This fake of Sarah Michelle Gellar only recently appeared, but it's good enough to cause several people to ask us about it. The Fake Detective and his entire staff watch "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" every Monday (mainly just to watch Ms Gellar), so we had to leap to her rescue to expose this fake. Buffy would expect no less from us.

CASE #137 - This fake of The Spice Girls is apparently fooling a lot of their fans. The fake probably took a lot of effort to create, but it's hard to believe that anyone could be fooled by it. However, Newsweek Magazine says that the average age of a Spice Girl fan is 12 - which probably also means that half of their fans are UNDER age 12 - and that could explain a lot. All right, kids, The Wise Old Fake Detective has exposed this fake. It's not real. Okay? Now please stop pestering him. Besides, isn't it past your bedtime?

CASE #138- This fake of Rosanna Arquette caused us all to do a double take when we came across it on a newsgroup. It's excellent and very well done - almost perfect. If it wasn't for the fact that The Fake Detective and the rest of us have all seen Rosanna in the nude many many times, it might have fooled us for more than a second or two. But we all know her body is a lot thinner than this, and her breasts are more mature. We congratulate the artist on a job well done. For a moment we even hoped it was real.

CASE #139 - This fake of Jacqueline Bisset is excellent. It was apparently created entirely by painting the breasts over the halter top, not by any cut and paste method. Jacqueline Bisset is one of our favorite actresses, and it's a pleasure to find such a tasteful fake - obviously the work of another great admirer of hers.

Addendum: This case file, along with Cases #123 and #129 are all signed by the artist. Generally speaking, we do not expose fakes signed by the artist, since that identifies them as fakes. But this artist ("Ision") usually hides his name and does such good work, that he was an exception for awhile.

CASE #140 - This fake of Carrie Fisher is a fake only because there never was a Playboy cover like this. The photo of Ms Fisher is real. We have to admit that this fake fooled us all, primarily because we never suspected that anyone would bother to create such an elaborate fake for no apparent reason. When we consulted with the experts at alt.mag.playboy, they could not believe that anyone would be fooled by it. January issues, they say, usually have dark backgrounds for the photographs and almost always say "Holiday Issue", there is no bunny image on this cover, and they had many other reasons too numerous to mention. Live and learn.

CASE #141 - This fake of Christina Applegate is fairly well done, but it is just a typical "cut and paste" fake. The Fake Detective took it on as a case only because so many people asked us about it. Normally, we would have assumed that everyone would realize this is a fake, since it uses that same old head shot also used in Case #84, and Ms Applegate has never posed for a picture of this type. We thank Mark and "AcerX" for supplying the real body shot.

CASE #142 - This fake of Carrie Fisher has been around for quite a awhile and we keep getting asked about it, even though the real and the fake pictures have been previously posted side by side by some-one else. So, we're just verifying that it's a fake - an excellent fake, but it loses some points because the wording forces us to rate it as a fake of Princess Leia instead of as a fake of Carrie Fisher.

CASE #143 - This fake of Jaclyn Smith isn't very good, but The Fake Detective found it worth exposing since it was created from a very good picture of Mariel Hemmingway, and the results are unappealing. We think Jaclyn Smith's head is a tad too small, making her seem almost as muscular as Arnold Schwarzenegger. Fakes are supposed to be "fantasies", yet when these pictures are placed side by side, we always find ourselves fantasizing about Mariel Hemmingway.

CASE #144 - This Fake of Heather Locklear is excellent, and it was apparently done entirely with digital retouching techniques. The Fake Detective and his entire staff like this fake almost as much as the original. Too bad both pictures are so small.

CASE #145 - This fake of Marina Sirtis is nicely done, although judging from the video captures of nude scenes she's done, we don't think her breasts are anywhere near this size. We've received several versions of this fake. It uses the same head shot as used for Case #61, and this version of the fake is known to have been trimmed down from something much more explicit. But the art work is so well done that The Fake Detective decided to expose it anyway.

CASE #146 - This fake of Uma Thurman has been in circulation for a very long time and appears in many collections. It's difficult to tell if the body was totally painted in (if so, it's a nice job) or if it was copied from a picture of some other woman. However, there's no doubt that it's a fake since every detail of the hat, hair and face on both pictures is identical.

CASE #147 - These two fakes of Mariah Carey are only two of the many that are in circulation (including some very annoying look-alikes). The retouched fake with the painted-in nipple recently appeared, and it's fairly well done. The fake on roller-blades has been around for a long time. It's less well done, and we doubt that many were fooled by it. However, we included it because it's frequently posted. To the best of our knowledge Ms Carey has never appeared in the nude and all such pictures of her are fakes.

CASE #148 - These fakes of singer Jewel Kilcher have been around for a long time, but we haven't exposed them because we are not Jewel fans and feel no need to protect her. However, we now find that the color fake is being used to entice people to visit at least one web site that advertises "rare celebrity nude photos", so The Fake Detective feels it's time to expose both photos as a public service.

CASE #149 - These fakes of Tyra Banks are very well done. We've been asked about them from time to time, but we've always declined to take them on as case files because they are signed by the artist - an act which is supposed to clearly identify them as fakes and therefore not in need of exposure by The Fake Detective. In these cases, however, the artist's symbol/mark has been mistaken as the mark of the person who scanned the pictures. Recognizing a faker's signature or mark can be necessary for anyone who wants to tell a real picture from a fake. These excellent fakes (created by photo retouching) are proof of that.

CASE #150 - This fake of Daphne Zuniga has been around for a long time and is posted frequently as being real. It's not, of course. It's just a basic cut and paste job with nothing special about it. The Fake Detective took it on as a case in order to add Ms Zuniga to our protection list - and because it was the most interesting fake we could find in order to complete an even 150 cases in our first year of on-line operations - Dec. 20, 1996 thru December 19, 1997.

CASE #151- This fake of Gillian Anderson is a fairly obvious fake. The face is too bright and shows signs of the cut-and-paste work. Yet, people keep asking The Fake Detective about it. We have concluded that it fools a lot of people because the black lingerie makes it look as if it might be one of the pictures from Gillian’s famous FHM spread. It’s not. We thank "Greyman" for providing the real body shot. This is the first Gillian Anderson fake we’ve exposed in a full year, and we expect it will be just as long before we expose another. There are just too many to bother with.

CASE #152 - This fake of Yasmine Bleeth is being used as a come-on to get people to enter pay "nude celebrity" web sites. It’s a fairly good fake, but just a fake. We’re not fans of Ms Bleeth, but we have been expanding our protection list to include more beautiful celebrities who are being sullied by fakes, so when Peter Colpaert in Belgium sent us the real body shot we decided to add her to the list.

CASE #153 - This fake of Christina Applegate has definitely fooled a lot of people. The Fake Detective had no doubt that it was a fake from the first moment he saw it, but proving it according to our high standards was another matter. It’s a good demonstration of why we dislike blurry fakes. Blurring hides most details and all traces of editing. In this fake, Christina looks as if she has no neck, so we’re probably overrating it with a B-, but points are given for originality. We would have preferred to close this case with the real body shot, but too many people keep asking us about it - and the real body shot is probably a snapshot taken at some frat party.

CASE #154 - This fake of Mary Hart is what we feel a fake is supposed to be: a delicious fantasy. We watch Ms Hart on "Entertainment Tonight" every weekday evening, and this fake is an image straight from our collective fantasies. We thank the artist for creating it! We had a lengthy debate about censoring it a bit, but no one would do it. We’re grateful to "DS" for supplying the real body shot so we could add this piece of art to The Fake Detective’s collection.

CASE #155 - This fake of Connie Sellecca is nicely done. One member of the staff feels the head is a tad too small, but we all agree it is an excellent example of the art form. We thank "DS" for supplying the body shot.

CASE #156 - This fake of supermodel Stacey Williams is a nearly unique example of digital art. The entire right forearm and hand were moved away from the body to expose the breast. And it was all done by expert digital retouching techniques. This is a long way from the basic cut-and-paste jobs normally associated with fakes! The Fake Detective and his entire staff were greatly impressed.

CASE #157 - This fake of Halle Berry isn’t very good, but that doesn’t stop it from being used to get people into some "rare nude celebrity" sites. There has even been some debate about whether it is real or not, perhaps because it is fairly new and there aren’t many pictures of Halle Berry around to determine what she might pose for. But it’s just a cut-and-paste fake. We thank Michel Saucier for providing the real body shot needed to close this case.

CASE #158 - This fake of Gwen Stefani of "No Doubt" has fooled many people, and even The Fake Detective was uncertain if it was real or not. We created Wanted Poster #24 over 3 months ago and nearly everyone who commented on it said that the picture was probably real. We are grateful to "The Magus" who spotted the original picture in an old copy of the British magazine FHM, scanned it and sent it to us. Even then we worried that it might be a fake with clothes painted on, but, when we carefully examined the two pictures side by side, we found a few differences in skin tones that indicate which is the fake.

CASE #159 removed by order of the celebrity and her lawyers.

CASE #160 - This fake of Elizabeth Taylor is not particularly well done, and we’ve probably overrated it with a "B", but The Fake Detective wanted to expose it because we occasionally wonder if the "real picture" is truly the original - or if it was retouched with airbrush equipment in a photographer’s studio before it was printed in some magazine. Even if Liz is wearing a body stocking, her nipples seem a bit too visible. We have since seen another shot taken moments later that confirms the transparency of the body stocking.

CASE #161 - This fake of Gillian Anderson is unusual enough to make it worth a case file - even though we are all very tired of looking at Gillian Anderson fakes. This is the first case The Fake Detective has solved by matching pillows and quilts. The moment he spotted this fake he recognized the bedding as being identical to those in Case #14 - one of our most famous cases. And since she is wearing the same wristwatch and has identical breasts, it’s certain that the same woman’s body was used. (For traditionalists who require matches on head and/or body shots, see Case #161a.)

CASE #162 - This fake of Leeza Gibbons is fairly well done as long as you don’t see it side by side with the original. Then the missing right shoulder makes it seem very odd. The fake has been the subject of much dialog by Leeza’s fans, but there has never been any doubt in these offices that it was a fake. We thank Devon Hart for supplying the real picture, and "bendover" for the tip where to find it.

CASE #163 - This fake of Natalie Wood is very well done, defying almost any examination. The Fake Detective sensed that Natalie’s hair would never have been so unkempt, but it definitely fooled a lot of people, perhaps because they wanted it to be real. People were comparing freckles (they seemed to match), swimming pools (not a match) and nipples (inconclusive). Finally "OutlawArt" settled the matter by supplying us with the real body and head shots.

CASE #164 - This fake of Jeri Ryan ("Seven-of-Nine" on "Star Trek: Voyager") is excellent, and The Fake Detective is certain that it fulfills a lot of dreams of her many fans. But it is just a fake, one several excellent fakes done by someone who calls himself Oliver Klosof ("All of her clothes off"). Usually "Oliver" signs his fakes, but when this one appeared without his signature, The Fake Detective decided to make a case of it - to illustrate the type of realistic work that has been appearing from some fakers lately.

CASE #165 - This fake of Carrie Fisher attracted our attention because it clearly took a lot of effort to create. The artist used only the head and the right forearm from the Carrie picture, apparently combined it with some Playmate’s body, then copied the bracelets and the pigtail from the original to the fake. It wasn’t done perfectly, but The Fake Detective gives some points for the effort involved.

CASE #166 - These 24 fakes of Neve Campbell are so unique that The Fake Detective once again decided to "expose" a fake (for educational purposes) even though it was identified as a fake. The first picture in each row was signed by the faker who calls himself "The Imposter". Each fake is the size of an average fake, but most are far above average in how well they were done, and we are all impressed by the skill and effort that went into creating these fakes. For example, when comparing the example head shot, you can see that the faker just replaced the face so the hair would match in all the pictures.

Case #167 - This fake of Jaclyn Smith wouldn’t be worth mentioning if it didn’t contain an error that caused The Fake Detective to decide to use it as an illustration of how a person can have his eyes fixed on a naked woman and miss everything else around. The error causes it to lose a lot of rating points. (Hint: it’s in the upper left corner.) We thank "Raptor" for providing the real body shot.

CASE #168 - This fake of Stephanie Zimbalist has been around for a very long time and is probably the only picture many people have of her. But it’s just another fake. We thank Walter Teague for supplying us with the real body shot.

CASE #169 - This fake of tennis star Steffi Graf is nicely done and may have fooled a lot of people - but not The Fake Detective, of course.

CASE #170 - This fake of Jewel includes the faker’s signature, which means The Fake Detective would not ordinarily "expose" it. But it is becoming a trend to use "artistic signatures" which cannot be easily distinguished from the signatures used by people who sign REAL pictures they have scanned. After we were contacted by several Jewel fans who asked if this picture was real, and after The Fake Detective discussed it while being interviewed by Rocco Pendola on his KTCK radio show in Dallas/Fort Worth, we decided it was time to make a Case File of it.

CASE #171 - These fakes of Alicia Silverstone are apparently fooling a lot of people - even though it is well known that Alicia has never posed in the nude. The Fake Detective decided to expose these three after we were asked about one of them and an investigation found two more fakes that used the same head shot - allowing us to close three cases for the price of one.

CASE #172 - This fake of Alicia Silverstone impressed us because of the amount of effort required to create it. It certainly fooled a lot of people, but The Fake Detective immediately suspected it to be a fake because the light on the face seems to be coming from a different direction than the light on the body. The real head shot had to be flipped, rotated and converted to sepia tones to create this fake. And since it isn’t really a "nude", that makes it even more believable. A very nice job. Our compliments to the artist.

CASE #173 - This fake of Nicole Kidman is very well done and shows few signs of digital editing. Only Nicole’s face was copied onto the real body shot. It was created by a faker known as Phantasyman from the "Fake University" and was used in the French magazine "L’Echo des Savanes" in an article about fakes on the Internet. When people began sending copies of this fake to The Fake Detective asking him if it was real, he immediately recognized it from the article (which also mentions The Fake Detective and uses several of his cases as illustrations), so it was a "no brainer" requiring no effort to solve.

CASE #174 - This fake of supermodel Laetitia Casta is not particularly well done, but it has created some controversy. True fans of Laetitia know that she has larger-than-typical areolas (or areolae), a fact which the faker apparently was not aware of. People from Argentina to Bahrain pointed that out to The Fake Detective - a little tidbit of information he has added to his vast storehouse of knowledge.

CASE #175 - This fake of Shelley Long probably never fooled anyone, but it is still worth exposing as an example of what can be done with photo-retouching software to create a good "fun" fake. Glancing from one picture to the other, once can almost hear Diane say "Wake up and pay attention, Sam!". The artist did an excellent job of standing Diane up and inserting the body shot behind the railing. But we all think Norm would have noticed and perked up. The Fake Detective is indebted to "Moxnix" and Marilyn West for providing the real picture.

CASE #176 - This fake of Tiffani-Amber Thiessen is a good example of replacing the body to create a fake, instead of simply replacing the head. While not perfect, it is nicely done, with a good match on skin tones and keeping the rock in position in front of the body. Our only problem with it is that the original is already considered a "nude", so the fake just made Tiffani nuder. The Fake Detective and his staff thank Thorsten Konetzko for supplying the body shot.

CASE #177 - These fakes of Sandra Bullock and Gillian Anderson are both nicely done - by different artists. Although we were reluctant to expose any more fakes of either Sandra or Gillian, since all posed nudes of them are known to be fakes (Neither has ever posed in the nude), this pair of fakes seemed unusual enough to be worthwhile. It makes us wonder if the world is running short of good body shots.

CASE #178 - These fakes of Diana Rigg (from the old TV series "The Avengers") bring back good memories. We vividly remember Ms Rigg in skin-tight leather and in see-thru mesh with only a bikini underneath. The artist(s) took things a few steps farther on these fakes. On the fake of Emma Peel behind bars, at first we thought he used a different head shot, but after close examination we realized that the real head shot from behind bars was used to create the fake of her behind bars. One of the bars had to be moved in front of her face to match the body.

Addendum: A volunteer assistant who goes by the name of "Horsefly" pointed out to us that the breasts pasted onto Ms Rigg's body belong to Madonna, but we haven't had the time to figure out where to add that information to the case file graphic.

CASE #179 - This fake of Sela Ward is nicely done, and we appreciate such a tasteful creation. Such a beautiful smile goes well on such a beautiful body. This is the kind of fake we really enjoy finding.

CASE #180 - This fake of Ashley Judd may have fooled a few people, but we made a case of it because it is a good example of how decompressing a jpg image to do photo-editing and then re-compressing it so it can be sent out over the Net will cause the image to be slightly blurred. Reversing a head shot is not recommended, since faces are not perfectly symmetrical - and it leaves the impression that something is just not right about the image. It’s better to flip the body. And there is something about the neck that just doesn’t seem right. But over all it is a fairly well done fake.

CASE #181 - This fake of Ann-Margret is nicely done and has definitely fooled a lot of people, but it is just a fake. Flipping the head shot usually causes some feeling that something is wrong with the picture, but here that does not seem to be the case. Perhaps Ann-Margret may be one of those rare beauties who have perfectly symmetrical faces.

CASE #182 - This fake of French actress Sophie Marceau (best known for starring with Mel Gibson in "Braveheart") shows some originality. Creating a fake that looks like the dress is wet and semi-transparent would have worked better, however, if more of the dress had been retouched to give it a wet look. The Fake Detective and his staff thank Nino Di Franco in Italy for his assistance in closing this case.

CASE #183- This fake of Salma Hayek is a good example of a growing trend toward advertising "nude celebrity" web sites by misappropriating and modifying fakes created by others. In this situation, a fake was first created and signed by a group of fakers who call themselves "The Pooporazzi". That fake was then modified by removing the signature and adding in a phony text describing how the picture came to be taken. The purpose was to turn an "obvious and signed" fake into something that appears real. The resulting faked fake was then used to advertise a "nude celebrity" web site. Fakers stealing from other fakers! Tsk tsk. What is this world coming to? You can’t trust anybody these days. (To view the original body shot, click HERE.)

CASE #184 - This fake of singer Debbie Gibson does not appear to be particularly believable, but many of her fans have contacted The Fake Detective to inquire about it. The breasts may have been created by pasting in body parts from someone else. It’s difficult to say. But if it was all done by digitally painting over the clothing with photo-retouching software, the addition of tanning lines from a bikini was a nice touch.

CASE #185 - This excellent fake of screen legend Rita Hayworth has been circulating for some time and The Fake Detective was asked about it so often that we finally created Wanted Poster #40 to track it down. As it turns out, the fake was originally created by a artist who calls himself "PhantasyMan" and always prominently signs his work. But - as is being done more and more often - someone else with much less talent cropped the picture to strip it off his signature, and to PhantasyMan’s (and our) dismay, the revised version was then posted around the Net in an attempt to fool people into thinking it is real. We thank PhantasyMan for responding to our Wanted Poster.

CASE #186- This fake of screen legend Jane Russell is fairly well done, and creating it in black and white was a nice touch to make it appear authentic. But of course it is not. It is a fake created by a well known faker who calls himself "von Fakenheim". The many people asking us about it, however, couldn’t tell the faker’s signature from a photographer’s or scanner’s signature. To us, the lighting on the body seems much softer than the lighting on the face. We don’t know how many people it fooled, but The Fake Detective wasn’t one of them.

CASE #187 - This fake of Teri Garr has been around for a lot longer than The Fake Detective has, apparently being widely distributed on a CD-ROM - even though it is not a particularly good fake. Since it was fooling a lot of people, The Fake Detective decided it was worth creating a Case File. We thank Olaf Wähmann from Germany for sending us the body shot in response to Wanted Poster #38, and Doug Pearson for supplying the head shot. Their assistance is greatly appreciated.

CASE #188 - This fake of Elisabeth Shue is probably wildly overrated at D+, and it’s difficult to believe that anyone would accept it as being real, but it can be found in many many collections of "real" nude celebrity photographs. Not only is Ms Shue’s head about half the proper size on the fake, but the lighting on her face is from a different direction than on the body shot. We thank "Red Anne" for providing the body shot to enable us to clear this one off our books.

CASE #189 - This "fake" of Rene Russo appears constantly on celebrity newsgroups and on many Web sites, and nearly everyone seems to have accepted it as real. But NOT The Fake Detective, of course. In response to our Wanted Poster #41, "Pentzek" from Germany provided solid proof that the woman in the picture is really French actress Arielle Dombasle in a scene from an episode of the Showtime series "Red Shoe Diaries". We are grateful to "Pentzek" for his assitance. The fake is rated "D" because it took no artistic skill to create it.

CASE #190 - These fakes of Lisa Marie Scott and Shannon Doherty are a bit unique. When the fake of Lisa Marie first appeared with a costume painted on her, The Fake Detective was amazed by the excellent work on the full-size version. However, he immediately recognized it as a fake because a "look-alike fake" has been in circulation for a long time claiming the real nude picture is of Shannon Doherty. So we have a fake being solved by another fake. That’s a first. We thank Sotiris Petropoulos in Greece for his assistance in helping us close this case.

CASE #191 - This fake of Shelley Long fooled quite a few people because there is a similar lingerie shot of her in circulation. When an anonymous fan of Samantha Fox recognized her body and advised us, we had to search through all the Samantha Fox lingerie shots on the Web to find the right one (a tough job, but someone has to do it). Putting the two pictures side by side shows that the head is a tad large, and the artist didn’t even bother to remove the strands of Samantha’s hair from the shoulders, but it’s still a fair job of faking.

CASE #192 - This fake of Lisa Hartman(-Black) is fairly well done and has apparently fooled a lot of people - perhaps because it is not an explicit nude and is therefore somewhat believable . The artist seems to have used cloning techniques to remove the clothing (i.e., copying flesh from elsewhere on her body to cover the swimsuit). It’s a good example of that process.

CASE #193 - This fake of Bernadette Peters has fooled a lot of people. It’s easy to see why. It’s not very explicit (which helps make it believable), and it’s nicely done in the way the artist cut off the top of the corset and moved the strap to the right position. As a result, it certainly looks like it could have been in the December 1981 issue of Playboy, where the original was found.

CASE #194 - This fake of Gwen Stefani seems to be constantly fooling people even though there is no evidence that Gwen has ever posed in the nude. It’s just a cut-and-paste job; nicely done, but definitely not the type of picture that she would pose for, and therefore not the type of fake that should fool anyone. But it is fooling lots of people. Or perhaps her fans are just hoping the picture is real.

CASE #195 - This fake of Neve Campbell is constantly being sent to The Fake Detective by people asking if it is real or not. It is difficult to believe that anyone would think that Neve would pose for such a picture - or that it would ever be used in an ad for milk, but people continue to ask. When "Smoothie" sent us the real body shot, we decided it was time to add this fake to our Case Files. It is, after all, a fairly original fake and kinda funny at the same time.

CASE #196 - This fake of Cindy Crawford looks like a basic cut & paste job, but actually it was done mostly by cloning - by covering over the bathing suit with sections of skin copied from elsewhere on her body. The nipple, etc., appear to be painted on. It’s a fairly well-done fake and has apparently fooled a lot of people. We are grateful to "The Gambler" for his assistance in solving this case.

CASE #197 - This fake of tennis star Anna Kournikova is as subtle a fake as we’ve seen. The added nipples don’t even show up on some graphics software. Many people have asked us about it, but even long after an fan who wishes to remain "anonymous" supplied us with the real color picture, we still weren’t sure how to illustrate this fake. We’re sorry if the nipples aren’t clearly visible on your computer. But the changes in the shadows and the added outline of the breasts should be.

CASE #198 - These two fakes of tennis star Anna Kournikova were probably created by the same artist who did Case #197. People had been assuming that because there were several pictures of Anna around showing her nipples, that they must all be real. No, they are just all done by one artist with a fascination for Anna. Again the artistry is subtle and may not show up very well with some software. We thank "Mike K." for his assistance on Case #198 and "Akira & Curlz" for their assistance on Case #198a.

CASE #199 - This fake of Claudia Schiffer has fooled a lot of people, probably because it is well done. Also, while it is not the type of picture Claudia poses for, it’s not far over the line, either. And it demonstrates once again that all fakes are not just celebrity heads pasted on the bodies of unknowns. In this case it appears to be the breasts of an unknown pasted on the body of a celebrity.

CASE #200 - This fake of Lynda Carter was The Fake Detective’s most difficult and lengthy case, taking over a year to solve. But finally "General Guderian" sent us a copy of the October 1982 issue of "Expose" Magazine which contains the article for which this painting of Lynda Carter was apparently created (although they claim it was done by someone else). The article is about how airbrush artists can use airbrush techniques to put the heads of celebrities onto the bodies of relative unknowns - an unusual practice back in 1982, before digital manipulation made it commonplace. We are forever grateful to "General Guderian" for his assistance. With this case we close Book #2 of The Fake Detective’s cases and begin a long, well-deserved vacation.

Addendum: Strangely, the "Playboy Centerfold" of Colleen Camp that was supposedly used as the "model" for this fake is also a fake. It was created for the movie "Apocalypse Now" and was published in a pictorial about that movie in the October 1979 issue of Playboy. Additionally, I think there is probably another shot from the same Colleen Camp photo shoot around that was the actual picture used as "the model". There are just too many small differences between the "centerfold" and the Lynda Carter fake.