White mischief: was Beyonce retouched for L’Oreal ad?

L'Oreal, the beauty products multi-national, has provoked outrage after allegedly digitally "whitewashing" the face of the singer Beyonce Knowles for an advertisement in the latest US edition of Elle magazine. When the 27-year-old singer, whose father is Afro-Caribbean and mother is Creole, signed to be the face of L'Oreal, she undertook not to make any "radical changes" to her appearance. It seems possible that the beauty giant did not make similar promises in return.

The new ad shows Knowles with strawberry blonde hair - perfectly acceptable because the ad is for a hair-lightening product - but pale skin which has proved less acceptable to some commentators. Under the headline "Beyonce the Pale", the New York Post calls the image "shocking" and says L'Oreal has made the singer look like a "weird nearly white version of herself". The company insists: "It is categorically untrue that L'Oreal Paris altered Ms Knowles' features or skin tone in the campaign."

On celebrity websites, Knowles has been attacked for not "being herself". But whether she will kick up a fuss is not clear. Her contract for L'Oreal is worth £2.3m over five years.