Angelina Jolie’s strange neck phenomenon is the biggest story of the day, I swear to God. And I still don’t have a good answer for what’s going on, other than the simple fact that Angelina is a veiny, skinny bitch and that maybe all sorts of weird things pop up and out of her that I would find amazing. Us Weekly, of course, has a different view. They assembled a crack team of investigators/plastic surgeons to see if there was a better, more complicated answer to what the hell is going on in these photos. Their answer? Botox. And probably “some Gor-Tex injected into her face”. And a “mini-facelift”. And nothing, just having less than 10% body fat. So… yeah… this crack team can’t agree either.

Angelina Jolie was photographed in Venice, Italy Wednesday afternoon with two protruding muscles where her chin meets her neck.

The photo was not altered, as Jolie, 34, sported the same facial protrusion at the BAFTA awards in February 2009.

UsMagazine.com consulted a number of plastic surgeons to find out what’s really going on because, as Beverly Hills-based Dr. Gabriel Chiu tells Us, “it’s unlikely that the banding can occur from strong facial muscles alone.”

Dr. Elie Levine, who has not treated Jolie, says that it appears she’s “received Botox to her face and likely her neck” because she shows “no wrinkles along the sides of her eyes (the crow’s feet) despite that very large smile… and her forehead is smooth.”

Botox paralyzes muscles, causing one to “recruit other muscles that are not regularly used to twisting the neck and smiling widely” to compensate, he adds.

Dr. Chiu believes Jolie may have had a “minimally invasive procedure” — such as Gore-Tex injected into her face — to lift and suspend “the tissues in her neck, jaw line and lower face.”

Dr. Brian Glatt concurs. “Angelina appears to have had a procedure done to tighten her lower face, neck, and jaw line such as a mini or lower facelift,” he says.

If she had a mini-facelift, Dr. Andrew Jacano says the skin was not lifted far enough back.

“Think of it like making your bed,” he says. “If you don’t pull the sheets tight enough, they’ll appear wrinkled and bunched at the corners.”

But Dr. Lyle M. Back believes Jolie has not received any cosmetic surgery. He credits the protrusion to Jolie’s “very thinned out skin — tented and pulled over the edge of the angle of her jaw” as the result of her having less than 10 percent body fat.

“Body builders love to employ a variety of techniques to get their skin looking this thin so that the judges can actually see the striations and fiber lines in their muscles through their skin,” he adds.

[From Us Weekly]

Eh, I guess I could buy the Botox argument. I’ve noticed that some of the women who get that done do look like they’re going to bust something as they try to move their face (cough cough Courtney Cox cough). Perhaps Angelina was using a weird muscle to move her face because of the freeze. I don’t honestly know, but I do think the most absurd statement is that Dr. Levine’s, about how Angelina doesn’t have any wrinkles. She has wrinkles! She has crow’s feet and laugh lines and all of it. She just has good skin, so the wrinkles look fine. Here’s a photo of Angelina from December… look at her eyes and mouth, there are fine lines.

Angelina, Brad and Pax in Venice on February 17, 2010. Credit: INFphoto.com. Angelina on December 30, 2009, credit: Fame Pictures.