By Ed Lake

 As The Fake Detective on the Internet, I’ve solved about 300 cases involving the faking of celebrity images.  That might seem like a large number, but, in reality, those 300 are only a tiny portion of the 100,000+ fakes in circulation on the Net. 

 Most of the rest are crude and unbelievable, so is there really any point to exposing 2,000 amateurish fakes of Gillian Anderson - including dozens that used the same head shot?

 And most of the best ones shouldn’t fool any sensible person.  If Sandra Bullock is known to have never posed in the nude, is it reasonable for anyone to believe that a picture of her doing cartwheels stark naked on the red carpet at an Academy Awards Ceremony is real - no matter how flawless the fake?

 The best of the rest are fakes signed by the expert fakers who created them with no intention that they should ever be thought to be real pictures.  These fakers have their own little corner of the Internet where they exchange fakes, comment on them and give advice.  There are famous fakers with their own web sites; there are archives of their work; and there are newsgroups dedicated to fakery.

Although the best fakers try to keep their artistic creations inside their little world, occasionally some prankster will remove the signature from one of their fakes and distribute it among collectors of real pictures, trying to fool fans and collectors into believing that the picture is real.  Quite often, the fakery is virtually flawless.  Then it’s only because The Fake Detective is aware of what a celebrity will or will not do, and knows pranksters’ modus operandi that the nearly perfect fakes can still be fairly easily spotted.

 This is an evaluation of ten fakes by ten famous fakers to illustrate just how good fakes can be.

Christina Aguilera by "Fredd38".

 Fredd38 is one of the fakers whose artistic creations cause me the most trouble.  Pranksters often strip his logo from his fakes and distribute them around the Net as being real pictures.  This fake of Christina Aguilera shouldn’t really fool anyone, but that didn’t stop dozens of people from asking me about it.  If her fans believe that Christina has posed this way without the entire world knowing about it, one wonders what else they might believe about her.  Is it possible that they also believe she’s a real blonde?

Catherine Bell by "Zeke".

 "Zeke" is a faker who has created over a thousand fakes [actually, he says it's more like 500] and is very famous in faker circles.  This fake of Catherine Bell from the TV series "JAG" isn’t one of his best - since he forgot to remove pieces of both bra straps - but when you’re creating fakes as fast as he does, some negligence is bound to happen.  Until you see the real and fake pictures side by side, however, the bra strap isn’t that noticeable.  And for fans who have been waiting for pictures of her breasts, who notices anything else?

Sandra Bullock by "Fireman".

 "Fireman" is a faker who has created hundreds of fakes, and he often inserts his signature as a armband around the upper arm of the celebrity, as he did in this fake of movie star Sandra Bullock.  Sandra Bullock is reported to have said many times that she doesn’t care if people create fake pictures of her, just as long as they give her a good set of boobs.  Fireman fulfilled her wish in this creation without going overboard and turning her into a Dolly Parton wannabe.

Sarah Michelle Gellar by "Tazziez".

 It’s becoming very popular to create subtle fakes such as this one of Sarah Michelle Gellar, a.k.a. "Buffy, The Vampire Slayer", which merely gives the faintest hint of her breasts beneath the material of her dress.  It’s done by using a picture of someone else’s breasts, making it semi-transparent, and placing it over the picture of SMG.  The result is that it looks like the material of her dress is semi-transparent.  This fake is virtually flawless, and "Tazziez" signed his work by putting a medallion around her neck with his logo on it.  The fake is made even more believable by being very large to the point where it fills the computer screen and can be examined in great detail without finding flaws.  Undoubtedly, thousands of guys have examined this fake until their eyes began to burn.

Alyson Hannigan by "Xizor".

It says "Faked by Xizor" right on this fake of Alyson Hannigan, so there is clearly no intent on his part to fool anyone.  He just wants people to admire his expertise.  And they do.  For many fans of "Buffy, The Vampire Slayer", Alyson is a hotter babe than SMG.  Collectors of real pictures went bonkers over the original.  So Xizor took things one step further for aficionados of fakery and created this fake to really rev their motors. 

Melissa Joan Hart by "Hasselhoff".

 When sexy real pictures of Melissa Joan Hart first appeared in Bikini and Maxim magazines, TV executives in America were up in arms because "Sabrina, The Teenage Witch" had grown up and was showing off her adult assets.  With this fake of Melissa, the faker "Hasselhoff" merely reversed her head and made her blonder, bustier and barer - which no longer requires all that much imagination.  One has to assume that the faker who uses a picture of David Hasselhoff as his signature isn’t really the actor from "Baywatch".  Even though "Baywatch" has been canceled, would the actor really want to spend the time creating fakes when he could be interviewing real blondes for another TV series? 

Katie Holmes by "LaGrange-5"

 LaGrange-5 is another faker who creates fakes by the hundreds.  This one of Kathie Holmes isn’t his best, but it’s still excellent.  If the signature and the pose aren’t enough to identify this as a fake, one should really wonder why Kathie seems so worried.  Is it because she doesn’t like posing topless?  No, it’s because the head shot is from a scene on her TV series "Dawson’s Creek" where she may have been worried about what her mother would think of her going topless in the movie "The Gift".

Ashley Judd by "BadNewzBearz"

 Expert fakers not only produce fakes by the hundreds, but some of them belong to Faker Groups and "Guilds".  BadNewzBearz is a member of both "Fakirs Guild 8" and the "Pooporazzi" group, so his signature here shows both organizations.  When he saw the real pose by Ashley Judd with beautiful cleavage, it probably didn’t really take much imagination to picture her with one boob popped out.  That’s why fakers love their work so much: they can create and see what others can only imagine. 

Joanna Lumley by "Caroline XXX"

 Caroline is a lass from Wales who is also a member of  "Fakirs Guild 8".  She took a chance and reversed the head shot to create this fake, but the result still seems nearly flawless.  One of the few female fakers expert in a pastime that’s over 95 percent male, Caroline tends to specialize in fakes of British women, such as Absolutely Fabulous Joanna Lumley, who is clearly still very Purdy.

Jeri Ryan by "Wozimodo"

 One key to creating an excellent fake is to start with a high-quality real picture.  It’s hard to imagine a better quality real picture of Jeri Ryan’s face, which a Jeri Ryan fan actually bought from the photographer instead of merely scanning a grainy copy from some magazine.  Jeri may be "Seven of Nine" on the TV series "Star Trek: Voyager", but Wozimodo gets 10 out of 10 for excellent work on this fake.

 There are undoubtedly better fakes on the Internet than these, but as The Fake Detective I do not collect fakes, I collect real pictures.  It’s only when people can’t determine if a picture is real or fake that I investigate.  If it’s interesting, it might become a Case File, but my interest is in real pictures.  Finding a fantastic new real picture of Sandra Bullock on the Internet is like uncovering a diamond.  Finding a new fake is usually like finding something smelly stuck to the bottom of my shoe.

 However, I also admire good artistry, and when I stumbled across the ten fakes featured here, I did put them aside as examples of the excellent work that is being done by clever digital artists on the Internet.

Ed Lake
a.k.a. The Fake Detective
March 5, 2001

1,400 words