TMZ says Beyonce Knowles has found herself in the middle of one of the most heated debates of 2013. Were her GQ magazine cover shoot photos airbrushed or heavily Photoshopped before publication in the gentleman’s Magazine? The celeb gossip website ran a special feature story about the scandalous new image of the 31-year-old mother gracing the cover of the famous print publication on Jan. 11.
Knowles, the pop music singer and Pepsi spokesperson who is married to rap star Jay-Z, recently gave birth to her first child. The celebrity couple’s daughter, Blue Ivy Carter, caused a scandal for the celebrity mother as conspiracy theorists posited that the two star celebs had faked her pregnancy.
In the now famous photo for GQ magazine, there is no evidence whatsoever visible that Beyoncé ever had a baby. In it, she is wearing something that appears to be either a bathing suit bottom or tiny panties. Photographers had wardrobe people couple the red and black animal print bottoms with a very tight blue half shirt of sorts, one that covers her ample top half while still looking suggestively revealing.
Whether or not the photo was actually extensively airbrushed, no one really seems to know. Photos of the star wearing a bikini that were never touched up show the same body shape, definition, and curves.
But more importantly, the only people that really seem to care whether or not the photos have been airbrushed seem to be women. In a video segment featured on TMZ, only Harvey Levin brought up the question of whether or not the photo people see of Beyonce was really all her body or if she was a digitally enhanced celebrity.
The women in the office unanimously agreed that the photos had been airbrushed. However, all of the guys who are featured prominently on the entertainment news show were too busy drooling to really care much about how much digital editing went into the photo. All they seem to care about was how seriously hot the new celebrity mom seems to be.
So what do the folks at GQ seem to think about their magazine cover causing a celebrity scandal? If their post about the controversy is any indication, they could not be happier than to have started the debate in a public venue.
Regarding whether Beyonce’s cover photo was airbrushed, they dodged the question in a way that was actually pretty cute. The noted publication shared the leaked photo with their online readers, writing, “If you’ve been anywhere near the Internet this week, you have heard talk of Beyonce being on our February 2013 cover. Well, the rumor is true, and here is your first official peek at her GQ debut.”
Then they added a link, saying, “And now, you can see ALL of our photos of Beyonce, the first of our 100 Sexiest Women of the 21st Century. (You’re welcome.)”
The only thing they forgot to say was something to TMZ. They really should have added a link to the entertainment news site for all the free press that came from them starting the debate as a nice way of saying, “Thank you, dudes…. thanks for everything.”