Is Kate Winslet for real in Vanity Fair photo shoot?

When Kate Winslet (pictured) appeared on the cover of GQ in 2003, she famously chided the magazine for airbrushing out her thighs. However, according to photographic experts she has let the production staff at Vanity Fair, on whose cover she appears in the December issue, have free rein to make her look her very best.

In a series of images which pay homage to Catherine Deneuve in the film Belle du Jour, Winslet, 33, appears half-naked and draped in fur reclining on a chaise longue. While the magazine insists that only skin tone was adjusted, Chris Bickmore, a "touch-up" specialist, tells the Daily Mail that it has been doctored wholesale. He says: "There is no real detail in her face. Any detail or wrinkles have been removed. There are no eye bags, contours and smile lines. I'd say her lips have possibly been made slightly fuller as well."

Bickmore adds: "Her back and lower body have been pinched in to make her look thinner and to give her some curves. Her bottom has been rounded off so it looks nice and pert. I would be very surprised if her bottom was like that naturally. Her thigh appears to have been made slimmer so it appears more toned. And in the shot of her sitting down on the front cover, it's possible her legs were made slightly thinner so they also appear more toned."

Kate herself has not commented on this aspect of the photoshoot, but perhaps now, six years down the line, she has a more relaxed attitude to this sort of thing. A spokesman for Vanity Fair insisted there was "just a little smoothing of the skin tone and covering of blemishes. There was no change in the body shape. She really does look that hot."