Keira Knightley's Breasts Officially Unmarketable
After an intense period of debate, stroppy siren Keira Knightley has reportedly rejected Paramount Vantage's request to digitally enhance her breasts in publicity photos for its fall drama The Duchess. It's a devastating blow to what remains of the studio's thinning clout, what with pink slips subbing for napkins in the cafeteria, its Oscar legacy threatened by a genre-mediocrity torrent to come, and one of its biggest stars steadfastly refusing to be... well, one of its biggest stars. It's not like there's not precedent here, however. Follow the jump for more, including a glimpse at Knightley's previous brush with the 'brush.
A little research at Vantage would likely have revealed Touchstone's own means of dealing with rack challenged starlets, as recalled over the weekend in published reports: Photoshop first, and ask questions later:
The actress drew negative attention in 2004 with her larger-than-usual breasts in publicity stills for King Arthur. "Those things certainly weren't mine," Fox News quoted her as saying in 2006. According to Knightley, the studio marketing team was behind her suddenly C-cup breasts, but gave her final approval on the photos. "I was like, 'OK, fine. I honestly don't give a s—-,'" she recalled.
Alas, after laying off the top-secret crew whose muscular augmentation of Daniel Day-Lewis's moustache put There Will Be Blood over the top in 2007, Vantage brass have lost their secret weapons in the even more subtle art of bosom heaving — a craft having long since fallen out of favor with critics from Scarlett Johansson to Liz Smith. But it could be worse — like that time Into the Wild attempted to pass off Emile Hirsch as a leading man? There are some miracles not even Photoshop can approximate.