By Alexander Monahov.

Is your sidewalk covered with graffiti of naked ladies or indecent inscriptions? Tell the authors it isn't fashionable now. Today all those who want to spend their time on sidewalk graffiti have migrated to the Internet to fabricate photos of nude movie stars. World Wide Web is filled with forgeries.  Some people consider "undressing stars" as a new form of art. Others are engaged in exposing fakes.

The author of "Good day" has interviewed a very well-known specialist of the world in this field.

"One rainy evening I sat in a Chicago pub "Cool Sam's", and redheaded woman took a seat near me. I recognized her as FBI agent Dana Scully. "I need your help, detective", she said. "Fox Mulder thinks computers are alien devices which are developed to drive mad mankind". After what she poured in the counter pack of photos. She was nude on them. "Stop staring", hissed she after a minute, "they are computer fakes. I want to clear my good name". She started to cry. I can't resist a woman who cries. I woke up, remembered I had downloaded three photos of nude Anderson from the Internet day before, and decided I will uncover fakes. It was on 21 October 1996".

This is just a legend. But since then Fake Detective, Ed Lake, created a web site on the Internet (at http://www.lairofluxlucre.com/detective/) with results of his investigations. Today there are 218 successfully finished cases. Usually people send picture with naked celebrities to him, and he carries out technical expertise of image, finds similar pictures and puts on the stamp "The Case Is Closed".

- When you are performing an investigation, detective, how often do you reach a impasse when nothing can tell it's a fake except your intuition: "It's fake only because it looks too much like real photo"?

- Most people who are occupied with the creation of fakes are not very good painters. Moreover, I am not interested in bad fakes. Everybody can reveal them without my help. I deal only with the cases when too many people are fooled. And some cases are really good examples of falsification art. In other words I deal only one picture from a hundred.

Falsifiers are becoming better and better. Sometimes their work is so good that there is no easy way to prove they are fakes. I only know this celebrity doesn't pose nude - it becomes a matter of knowing the odds that the picture is a fake and then proving it. There are only about 30% of such fakes from total today's quantity.

- You were occupied with production of pictures with nude celebrities before. Did anybody occasionally send you your own works for examination?

- I stopped doing such things two years ago. Only four or five persons have sent me my own works and asked if they were real?

- What are top celebrities which are undressed by somebody?

- I don't collect fakes so I can't tell you exactly. Some years ago Princess Diana surely was in the top-list, but now I think they have stopped making fakes of her. I can suggest this top-ten:

1. Gillian Anderson.
2. Melissa Joan Hart.
3. Christina Applegate.
4. Sandra Bullock.
5. Dolly Parton.
6. Alicia Silverstone.
7. Gates McFadden.
8. Marina Sirtis.
9. Jennifer Aniston.
10. Kathy Ireland.

- Interesting, there are only four or five celebrities from this list are known in the Russia. Tell me, please, detective, how often did you find out it isn't fake but real photo of nude celebrity?

- There were six or seven such cases for last two years. A photo of Princess Diana in swimsuit was one of them. A picture of actress Mel Harris fooled me too. And some photos of models Cindy Crawford and Vanna White were real. There were two more similar pictures.

- Which case were the most difficult?

- Case 200 took me one and a half years before I was able to prove the topless picture of Lynda Carter was a fake.

- Which cases are you working on now?

- I have Wanted Poster images of Gillian Anderson, Dolly Parton, Sally Field, Raquel Welch, Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor. Additionally I want to create a section dedicated to women-doubles which were candid photos of unknowns who look like celebrities.

- There were several photos of Anna Kournikova among cases you have investigated. Did you do any examination of pictures with another Russian celebrities? For example the pictures with figure skater Oksana Baiul?

- I investigate cases only with celebrities which are known for me. I have seen fakes with Oksana Baiul somewhere, but I didn't deal with them. I even don't remember if they were made good. I don't know Oksana so I didn't pay attention to those pictures. Sorry.

Soon after we received this answer "Good day" found images with Oksana Baiul nudes and sent them to private detective for evaluation. We will familiarize you with results after investigation is finished.

Variants of fakes creation:
1. Add head of star to other's nude body.
2. Add lower nude part of body to star's half-length portrait.
3. Use doubles.
4. Paint necessary parts.
5. Use several above methods.

Ed Lake's rules for fakes revelation:
1. Most stars do not pose nude.
2. The stars who pose naked don't do it for only one photo.
3. Very few stars are the subject of candid  nude photos. Only women who want to make pornography pose for such photos.
4. I have never seen real photos of nude star which are made by her boyfriend, school-friend, etc.
5. Stars don't pose for pornographic photos.

Translation by Alexander Prokofyev - 18 April, 2000