It’s widely known that photos of celebrities frequently are touched up before they’re published, but it recently was revealed that Britney Spears’ most recent music video had been retouched, too—and according to an insider interviewed by Leslie Gornstein of OMG.Yahoo.com, the practice is pervasive in movies and television.

Gornstein watched a demo reel from a source she calls “Deep Pixel” and saw a number of recognizable stars have excess fat digitally removed, bald spots digitally replaced and jawlines digitally reset.

“Stars may want you to think beauty is all just a matter of hair, makeup and lighting,” Gornstein writes. “They don’t want you to know there are people out there [such as] Deep Pixel who essentially make them look skinnier and smoother on film and video, in the same way magazines touch up still photos,” Gornstein writes. “But now you do.” (Yahoo)

Paul Asay has covered religion for The Washington Post, Christianity Today, Beliefnet.com and The (Colorado Springs) Gazette. He writes about culture for Plugged In and wrote the Batman book God on the Streets of Gotham (Tyndale). He lives in Colorado Springs with wife Wendy and his two children. Follow him on Twitter.