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by Ken Sanes At first glance, ABC's two-page spread in People magazine looks normal enough. It shows many of the network's most prominent performers gathered together for a group portrait to advertise the fall TV season. But the more you look, the more obvious it becomes that this is a doctored photograph. One problem is the actors' faces: many of them look pasted on. Like the face of Alan Rachins, who plays Larry Finklestein on "Dharma & Greg," on the upper left. And the faces of Barry Bostwick, who plays Mayor Randall Winston on "Spin City", and Bill Maher of "Politically Incorrect." But the real giveaway that something is
wrong is the image of Regis Philbin of
"Who Wants to Be A One of Regis' right thighs is part of a whole right leg. It faces diagonally off to the side, along with the left leg. The other right thigh, which faces front, ends at the arm of Lara Flynn Boyle, who plays Helen Gamble on "The Practice". Unfortunately, Ms. Boyle's arm has its own problems: both her arm and hand look like a serpent slithering onto the handrail. Maybe that really is her arm or maybe it too is the work of a computer graphics program. The problem, of course, is that once you start noticing things like this, you can't be sure what looks real but isn't and what looks fake but may, in fact, be real. What is clear is that this two-page group portrait, which appeared in the Sept. 17 issue of People, is a composite. In addition to including authentic photographs, it is full of invented images of actual people who (mostly) play fictional characters. The more you look at it, the less certain you are what you are seeing, which makes it a lot like what we get on television.
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Millionaire." It isn't just
his face, which,
once again, has that pasted on look. But someone put Philbin's right thigh in
two places. That's not possible, even for a millionaire.