Lena Dunham complains about being photoshopped for magazine cover, but glossy claims they didn't do it

Something was lost in translation over a Spanish magazine's cover of Lena Dunham — a percentage of the "Girls" star's body.

But an international incident is brewing over who exactly is responsible for the alleged photoshopping job and whether any body part was actually ever altered.

The actress touched off the controversy with an Instagram post late Monday night criticizing Tentaciones magazine for retouching her thighs into a barely recognizable shape for the latest issue of the glossy insert published by Spain’s El Pais newspaper.

 

"Oh hello El Pais! I am genuinely honored to be on your cover and so happy you licensed a pic by @ruvenafanador, who always makes me feel gorgeous, BUT this is NOT what my body has ever looked like or will ever look like- the magazine has done more than the average photoshop." Dunham wrote, name-checking the photographer who took the original picture for Entertainment Weekly in 2013.

"Of course, we are aware that any media outlet needs to be responsible for what it publishes, but this photo was previously approved by the agency, the photographer and your publicist," the letter reads.

Tentaciones also linked to the original photo of Dunham shared by EW photographer Ruven Afanador on his Facebook page at the time he took it to compare with the magazine's seemingly identical cover image.

That salvo seemed to point blame towards Entertainment Weekly, which ran the shot originally on a table of contents page three years ago, but a spokesperson for the magazine told the Daily News they denied the implied charge.

“We don't retouch bodies ever, including in this photo,” said the rep. “It was color corrected for her skin tone, which was too 

agenta when we first received it, and the hem of her dress was heightened, but that’s it.”
A visual comparisson by a Daily News reporter between the original photo and the one that ran in 2013 supports the EW account.

Dunham responded to the Tentaciones open letter with another Instagram post Tuesday, clarifying that she wasn't blaming the magazine, but that she was pretty sure "that will never be my thigh width."

Feminist critics have long decried the rampant use of Photoshop by fashion magazines and advertisers to make women celebrities look unreasonably thin

Kate Winslet, for example, introduced a no-Photoshop clause in her contract with L'Oreal makeup.

"We're all responsible for raising strong young women, so these are things that are important to me,"Winslet told E! News last year.

But celebrity lifestyle expert and TV host Dorothy Cascercerisays the practice is rampant in the glossy magazine business.

“Presentation is everything in the business,” says Cascerceri. “Part of the reason for photoshopping celebrities is to make magazine covers absolutely beautiful. If there are several magazines on a newsstand, which one is a customer going to buy? As human beings we're naturally attracted to beautiful people.

“It’s already artificial, cover shoots take an entire day, with an entire team for hair and makeup and the best lightning,” she adds, “It’s not like Kate Winslet is saying, ‘I’m going to roll out of bed, not brush my teeth and just show up on the cover.'”

Dunham has credited part of the success of her HBO series to the fact that she is just like many of her viewers.

"I hope 'Girls' is remembered as a show that depicted women as they really are: Complex, messy, imperfect, strong, angry," she told the Daily News last year.