The heavy-handed Photoshop retoucher strikes again. This time he’s gone after Demi Moore – gnawing away at about an inch of flesh from the hip area of Demi’s outer thigh. It takes an eagle-eyed viewer to notice it, but once you do, there’s no debating it. In the cover shot above, look at Demi’s left thigh. The area of visible thigh between the upper and lower sarong has had quite a bit removed. Once you look lower, you’ll notice that the next part of visible thigh sticks out about an inch more – where it should be smaller than the upper thigh.

When Demi Moore appeared on the December cover of W magazine, she drew admiring glances for her slender figure and flawless skin. But while most readers are used to a little airbrushing and touch-up on the covers, it appears the 47-year-old has fallen foul of an over-enthusiastic Photoshopper.

A chunk of her thigh appears to have been digitally removed from the cover between her hip bone and a casually draped sarong. There is a good chunk missing from what was her left thigh (our right). Underneath the sarong, the thigh continues but appears to be bulging out an inch more than the photoshopped area.

The section of thigh between the folds of green material appears to have a chunk of flesh missing. The mistake was pointed out by eagle-eye commentators and has been the subject of hot discussion on the internet. According to Jezebel.com, W magazine claimed any retouching was done in-house by the staff of photographers Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott.

And a spokesperson added the photographers ‘did not do anything unusual or out of the ordinary on Demi Moore for the photo on the cover of W. ‘Demi is an extraordinary beautiful woman and we feel our cover reflects that.’ The actress, who is wearing a Balmain metal mesh and leather dress, was labelled a Demi Goddess in the accompanying article. And, as many internet bloggers and commentators have pointed out, Demi looks so slender on the red carpet that there has been speculation that she had gone under the knife. So why the designers cut out a section of her hip remains a mystery.

[From the Daily Mail]

It is truly a strange decision to make. By most accounts, Demi’s had so much plastic surgery you’d think she’d require next to no retouching. The Mail makes it sound like whatever happened, it wasn’t by Demi’s request. But it’s hard to figure out what was going through the retoucher’s head. Maybe he just really, really hates thighs. Or hates Demi Moore. I’ve heard she’s super unpleasant.

W definitely did appeal to Demi’s vanity in their article about her. They described her legs as “chopsticks,” and talked about how she was aging naturally. Then they went on about her teeny, tiny imperfections that were supposed to be proof that she doesn’t go under the knife as often as I eat lunch. Her eyes wrinkle at the corners when she smiles! That means everything on her must be au natural! Still, once you notice the lack of thigh, it doesn’t look good. I doubt they did it because they thought too much flesh was showing – if that were the case, you could just make the sarong cover more flesh, and you wouldn’t be left with the strange problem of leaving too much thigh down below.

Although… given how much surgery she’s had, maybe Demi really is just missing a chunk of thigh. Maybe that’s just how her legs are.