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When it comes to selling treatments that claim to get rid of fat and cellulite, these days doctors and estheticians can impute magical powers to a big slab of metal and plastic, throwing in words like "laser" and "light energy" and "high frequency," and pluck out of the air a price with a vague connection to both how much they paid for the machine and just how desperate/gullible/rich their potential customers are. Women will then eagerly sign up for the treatment, regardless of whether or not it actually does anything. And, according to today's Wall Street Journal, it probably doesn't.

Despite the booming business in cellulite-busting devices, there is nothing, says Robert A. Weiss, president-elect of the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery, "that has been shown in any objective way to create improvement for cellulite." What has been shown in an objective way, however, is that the quickest and cheapest way to feel better about your cellulite is to look at photos of Mischa Barton in a bikini.

The Latest Cellulite Treatments Sound Too Smooth to Be True [WSJ]