Hollywood's beauty image is going back to basics

Following the trend of employing 'real women' and healthier-looking models in fashion and beauty ads, it seems as if Tinseltown's casting directors are hopping on the bandwagon, urging actresses to stay away from plastic surgery.

Botox, breast implants, and collagen-injected lips - in short: the 'retouching' of movie stars - are starting to lose popularity among casting directors, reports the New York Times. Marcia Shulman, for instance, who is in charge of casting for Fox Broadcasting's scripted TV shows, told the paper that "I think everyone either looks like a drag queen or a stripper," causing her to recruit more natural-looking actresses from Australia and Britain, and Up in the Air casting head Mindy Marin, added: "What I want to see is real."

The article, published this week, follows a recent job advertisement by Pirates of the Caribbean director, Rob Marshall, who in March called for "beautiful female fit models. Must be 5ft 7in - 5ft 8in, size 4 or 6, no bigger or smaller. Age 18-25. Must have a lean dancer body. Must have real breasts. Do not submit if you have implants."

When it was first posted, an industry source told the Daily Mail: "In the last movie [At World's End] there were enhanced breasts to give that 18th-century whoreish look and men were pretty well padded too and no one worried. [...] But times are changing and the audience can spot false breasts."

And another casting agent told the New York Post: "I think the 'Pirates' story is indicative of a larger trend in Hollywood. Large implants, in my opinion, take the projects and the actors to a sleazier level. They become a joke."

TV stars such as Heidi Montag have contributed to this almost cartoonesque image, let alone to the awareness that implants can be hazardous: troubled singer Amy Winehouse was hospitalized for the second time earlier this month when she again had complications with her implants.