42 AMERICANWAY
MAY 15 2007
C L O S E - U P
Rivers of high-def analysis. While Rivers
hasnever seena red-carpetoutfitnotworth
commenting on, Swann gives viewers the
411onwho looks likewhat inHD.
“Watching in high-def changes people’s
perceptions of who is naturally beautiful
and who is not,” Swann says. As president
andCEOof TVPredictions,whichoperates
TVPredictions.com, a site that tracks the
high-definition industry, and as high-def’s
chief critic,Swannseems tobehavingafield
daywith ranking thegood, thebad, and the
uglyof celebs shown inHD.
“Over the years, theHollywood glamour
machinehasbeenabletodictatetosomede-
greewhowas consideredbeautiful,”he says.
“But with high-def you get to see people
how they really look. It’s true realityTV.”
Swann regularly compiles lists of celebri-
ties who flunk or pass the HD test — ten-
nis player andmodelAnnaKournikova, for
instance, is considered “exquisite.” Scarlett
JohanssonandJessicaAlbaare great. Sting
“looks 10years younger,” and, despitean ill-
placedmole, Angelina Jolie alsomakes the
good-list cut.
On the other list:Rivers, Britney Spears,
Brad Pitt, Jewel, and Renée Zellweger.
Bill Maher “is scary,” and Jamie Lee Curtis
“looks likeaguy.”
While it sounds vain to begin with, and
even a little cruel — shouldn’t we bemore
concernedwith theirwork, anyway?— the
lifting of the veil from our celebrity fan-
tasy creates a reactionwe probably haven’t
experienced in our TV watching since the
transition from black and white to color.
Our passivity is beingawakened, sort of.
“Suddenly, withHD, it reaches an emo-
tional part of us, as though we’re seeing
these people for the first time,” Swann says.
“I often tell people thatHD is akin to look-
ing at someone through a window when
theyfirst get up in themorning.”
“I wouldn’t want to look at myself first
thing in themorning,” admits YunjinKim,
one half of themarried couple on the ABC
series
Lost
. “We’ve talked about being in
HD, so we’re very, very careful withmake-
up. It can’tbe too littleor toomuch.Thank-
fully, beingdesertedon an islandmeanswe
should look scraggly. But everyone is just
trying to find the best makeup possible to
coverupanyblemishes.”
Makeup artists are racing to compensate
for HD, but it’s tricky. Too much makeup
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