Ever find yourself a little confused while watching television? Ever catch yourself enjoying a performance by your favourite actor, except that when the credits rolled at the end it was someone else? This was the situation movie fans may have found themselves in when watching TV news coverage of the premiere of the new "Superman" movie.
The report was accompanied by many loving shots of Lindsay Lohan? No, it was Sienna Miller, except that the newscaster shrieked: "It's stunning Kate Bosworth!"
And that's not all. You pick up a fashion magazine to soothe your confused mind and oh, look who's on the cover, it's that Bosworth girl. But no! It's Kate Hudson! Are you really so old that you can't tell your celebrities apart? Or are all celebrities actually beginning to look alike?
The latter is likelier. Let's see, there's Hudson, who looks like Miller, who looks like Bosworth, who looks like Paris Hilton, who looks like Lohan, who looks like Mischa Barton, who looks like Keira Knightley. Then there are the Olsen twins, who look like Nicole Richie, who looks like Jennifer Aniston, and so on.
This has long been a phenomenon among older actresses who used the same plastic surgeon or at least the same procedures. For the Bosworths/Hudsons of the world, the cause is somewhat similar: Most of them use the same stylists, each of whom dresses his or her "girls" up in a very similar way; hence, stylist Rachel Zoe's clients, Richie and Lohan, looking like Pucci twins on a night out in LA. Ditto for make-up artists.
Also to blame are celebrity publicists for being so image-obsessed that they allow their clients to have only one certain look (last year, according to Tatler, was all about "dead socialites"). Rightly so: to look slightly different on the red carpet is a one-way ticket to celebrity hell to be singled out for ridicule by gossip columnists. A pity, really.
How any of this explains why, at the couture shows in Paris, Cher bore the most extraordinary resemblance to Pete Burns is anyone's guess.
The Guardian
(China Daily 07/19/2006 page1)
