As much as they hate to admit it, many celebrities (both young and old) have had some work done here and there. From the most obvious ones such as Donatella Versace and Dolly Parton to those who have been somewhat less honest about it like Bella Hadid and Kendall Jenner, it’s almost impossible to find a celebrity who hasn’t been under the knife nowadays.
But with the rise of AI, no one seems to be safe from being unmasked. After being used to imagine what deceased celebrities would look like if they were alive today and proven to generate fake faces that are more trustworthy than actual, real ones, AI has once again shown what it can do. This time in the hands of artist and Bored Panda contributor Hidreley Diao, here’s what 20 of our favourite celebrities would look like today if they never had plastic surgery.
Calling herself the “poster girl for plastic surgery,” Cher has always been pretty open about her ‘tweakments’, admitting over ten years ago, “Yes, I have had a facelift, but who hasn’t?”. Trying to break the stigma that cosmetic surgery is something to be ashamed of, she once said, “It makes me happy. [And] you know, if I want to put my tits on my back, they’re mine to do so.”
It’s not hard to see that the American socialite has had extensive cosmetic surgeries to her face. Her catlike appearance has led media outlets to nickname her ‘Catwoman’, ‘The Lion Queen’, and ‘The Bride of Wildenstein’. Meanwhile, she’s denied having any plastic surgery, citing her Swiss heritage instead…
“Young Mickey Rourke never smiled in movies. Not because he was always playing sad people but because he’d lost some teeth as a child, and only smiled with his mouth closed,” The Independent once wrote about the former boxer.
Speaking on the topic of plastic surgery, Rourke told the Daily Mail in 2009, “Most of it was to mend the mess of my face after the boxing. I went to the wrong guy to put my face back together.” Rourke had cartilage taken from his ear to help rebuild his nose, an operation he called “one of the most painful.”
It’s never been clarified whether Versace went under the knife to enhance what nature gave her or if she simply wanted to stop nature from taking its course. Anyway, if you look at her old photos, it’s pretty obvious that her face has undergone a lot of changes.
“If something is bagging, sagging or dragging, I’ll tuck it, suck it or pluck it,” Parton told The Guardian in 2011. More recently in a 2019 interview, the country singer told CBS News, “My look is really based on a country girl’s idea of glam. I wasn’t naturally pretty, so I make the most of anything I’ve got. You should have seen me this morning before I got ready to see you. I’m serious, though. I’m not a natural beauty, but I can enhance it. Whatever it takes, I do. I try to make the most of everything.”
The singer is definitely no plastic surgery virgin with her ever-changing looks.
According to her daughter, the now-deceased comedian and TV host Joan Rivers underwent a staggering 348 cosmetic operations throughout her life and was never happy with the way she looked, “which fed into her sense of being ‘less than’.”
In 2008, the Italian-French singer-songwriter and 90s supermodel married Nicolas Sarkozy, then president of France, becoming First Lady. If you look closely, you might recognise someone else who’s never openly admitted to their own tweakments—Bella Hadid.
Amanda Lepore is a transgender American model, singer, and performance artist. A former New York Club Kid, she has appeared in advertising for numerous companies. Lepore is noted as a regular subject in photographer David LaChapelle’s work, serving as his muse, as well as many other photographers, such as Terry Richardson—ew—and Ruben van Schalm. You have to admit, she’s captivating to say the least.
It’s often a stereotypical subject when it comes to plastic surgery that only women do it. And yet, that’s not the case at all in Hollywood. Among the various male actors with accusations of obvious plastic surgery work, John Travolta definitely makes the list. Come on now, denying it is not even an option here.
The fact that Britney somehow ended up on this list is both slightly surprising and highly offensive. Leave Britney alone, period.