The most controversial foreign magazine covers of 2024

After reporting on the most controversial U.S. magazine covers of 2024, it’s time to look at foreign magazine covers that rubbed people the wrong way this year.
What follows are some controversial foreign magazine covers, according mostly to the English-language media.

Italian magazine Sette published a Photoshopped mess of a cover for its April 5 issue.
The cover showed Italian ski champion Sofia Goggia with two left feet.
Goggia wanted to show the large scar on her right leg from an injury, but obviously the magazine wanted to cover it up.
(See articles by SnowBrains and Il Fatto Quotidiano.)

Vogue Arabia ran a cover featuring Imane Khelif, an Algerian boxer who won the gold medal in the women’s 66 kg (welterweight) boxing event at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
The masculine-looking Khelif has faced allegations that she is actually male.
People took to social media to express their outrage that she was featured on the November cover of the women’s fashion magazine. (See post on X, for example.)

The U.K.’s Tatler magazine caught an earful for its July cover portrait of Princess Kate.
Critics branded the painting as “dreadful,” “awful” and looking “nothing like the Princess of Wales.”
(See articles by the Daily Mail, Mirror, BBC and CNN.)

And finally, French magazine Madame Figaro came under fire after it described former president Nicolas Sarkozy’s 13-year-old daughter, Giulia Sarkozy, as “more of a woman than ever” on a digital cover.
(See article by the Daily Mail.)

Photoshopped fakes of Donald Trump, nature and airplanes in lying clickbait

Phony photos continue to be the milkshake that brings all the boys to the yard. They are used in lying clickbait to draw curious web surfers.
My latest installment on lying clickbait looks at such Photoshopped fakes.
Let’s get started.

A recent article distributed by Revcontent was titled “15 photos Donald Trump tried to keep from the public.” It featured a Photoshopped picture of the current president golfing. The picture was altered to give Trump a bigger belly. Included here are the lying clickbait article and the original photo for comparison.

Another Revcontent article was titled “60 unedited nature photos – This is not Photoshop.” Wrong! It featured a Photoshopped fake. The photo of a bear growling and peering into a tent was a composite created for a Photoshop contest. It has been debunked by Snopes.com and Tvurce.

Finally, a recent article distributed by Outbrain was titled “The F-15 is no match for this plane.” It used a picture of a fake aircraft purported to have a dual fuselage design. The original photo is of a Russian Antonov An-124 heavy transport aircraft. It has been Photoshopped to have two or three fuselages. (See article by Popular Mechanics.)

Rihanna Photoshopped with bigger booty, breasts in online fakes

People love Rihanna, the pop singer and fashion icon. But some fans apparently wish she had a little more meat on her bones.
Lately I’ve noticed people posting Photoshopped pictures of Rihanna on Google Plus Collections. These pictures show Rihanna with bigger breasts, bigger butt and chunky thighs.
I’ve called out these Photoshop fakes in the comments section, but some internet trolls treat me like a killjoy for posting the original photos and links to news articles with them.
With the tide of fake news and information growing online, people need to step up and stomp on these types of activities, so the truth will rise to the top.
I’ll post a couple of examples of real and fake Rihanna photos here. (Real photo first, followed by fake photo.)

Presenting Photoshopped fakes as the real deal: clickbait edition

There’s lying clickbait and then there’s bold-faced lying clickbait.
Lately clickbait purveyors have been using Photoshopped images to promote photo collections that claim not to include Photoshopped images.
A recent Taboola article touted “No, it’s not Photoshop, look closer – rare historic photos.” It included a picture of a submarine being swamped by a giant wave. But the photo is fake. The original is a surfing photo by Tim McKenna. (See article by Surfers Village.)

Another Taboola article screamed “No, it’s not Photoshop, look closer – it’s Australia.” It featured a badly Photoshopped picture of a crowd of people standing next to a ginormous anaconda.

Yet another Taboola article titled “This monster airplane is a scientific anomaly” used a Photoshopped picture purporting to show a triple-decker airplane. Well, at least this fake is more convincing than the giant snake. (See articles by Infinite Flight and the New York Post.)

Lying clickbait tactics: Photoshopped fakes, misidentifications

Mariam Offersgaard should be angry.
A Photoshopped picture of the retired Danish gymnast is being used in a clickbait post by Revcontent titled “Most shocking women on Earth (viewer discretion advised).”
The doctored picture makes her look like the Incredible Hulk. Instances of this photo online appear to outnumber the original picture posted below.
I’ve seen that happen with a lot of Photoshopped pictures online.
Offersgaard was part of the Danish national gymnastics team from 2004 through 2010. She now works as a gymnastics trainer and physiotherapist in Norway.

What follows are other recent examples of lying clickbait that I’ve spotted online.

Another Revcontent article titled “New rule in Great Falls, Virginia, leaves drivers fuming” uses a photo of a woman in an orange dress being arrested.
The picture is actually a bad Photoshop job of a stock photo that has nothing to do with Great Falls, Va. The photo is offered on stock image websites as “Bride is arrested on her wedding day” and credited to Zimiri. Someone changed the color of the white dress to orange for the clickbait article.

A recent Taboola article titled “There’s a good reason why the Amish keep these secrets hidden” used a photo of actress Kelly McGillis from the 1985 movie “Witness.”

A sponsored article by Revcontent titled “15 actors you didn’t know were gay” uses a photo of Tom Cruise and John Travolta, neither of whom has come out as gay.
Cruise and Travolta have faced persistent rumors that they are gay, but if either were to come out as homosexual it would be big news. They’d likely get magazine covers like Ellen DeGeneres did in 1997.
However, even if Cruise and Travolta were gay, I’m sure their religion Scientology would have “cured” them by now.

An article by Revcontent titled “He took his own life and no one said a word” uses a photo of former reality TV star Jon Gosselin. He’s still alive though his ex-wife might wish he were dead.

A Revcontent article titled “She never mentions her other daughter, here’s why” uses a picture of Kris Jenner and a woman who is not her daughter.
Jenner has five daughters: Kourtney, Kim, Khloe, Kendall and Kylie. She also has a son, Robert.
The woman pictured with Jenner in the clickbait article had been arrested on a drunk driving charge. The mugshot has been featured on websites that like to post photos of attractive criminal suspects.

Finally an article titled “After losing 250 lbs. Rebel Wilson is unbelievably gorgeous” uses a photo of actress Wilson side-by-side with English model Iskra Lawrence. They are definitely not the same person.
By the way, one online website estimates Wilson’s weight to be 291 pounds, so losing 250 pounds would be a tad difficult.
This isn’t the first time Wilson has been used in weight-loss clickbait articles.
Last November, a Taboola article titled “After losing 200 lbs. Rebel Wilson is actually gorgeous!” used a Photoshopped picture of Wilson.
In February, a Taboola article “After losing 220 lbs. Rebel Wilson is gorgeous now” paired a photo of Wilson with California model Mikayla Carr.

Lying clickbait: Fake locations, fake historical photos

Lying clickbait never rests, so neither can I.
Here are the latest examples I’ve seen while surfing the web.

A sponsored article titled “20 places on Earth you’re not allowed to visit ever” could have included a photo from one of many interesting locations. Instead it chose a Photoshopped fake.
The article used a picture where a star-shaped island was added next to Hawaii’s Molokini Crater reef. The result is an island formation that looks like the star and crescent symbol of Islam.

A Taboola sponsored article promising “actual Wild West photos” uses a modern photo taken by Ed Ross.
Ross, who died last year, used the Collodion process or wet-plates for his final eight years of work. By replicating the early photographic process, Ross created images that looked historical. (See articles by Nerve and Juxtapoz.)

Another article titled “Old love, new life: Finally ties the knot at 68” used a photo of actors Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. They are not married to each other as the headline implies and neither married at 68, for that matter.

The next three examples are variations on lying clickbait that I’ve seen for some time.

A Revcontent sponsored article titled “25 final photos taken before tragedy struck” used another picture from Brazil’s Pedra do Telegrafo. The rock cliff is just a few feet off the ground, but photos can make it look like people on it are in danger.
(See earlier examples from posts on July 31 and Sept. 10.)

A Taboola article titled “Historical WW2 photos that are pretty unnerving” used a picture of model Dee Marie taken in 2014 by photographer Mark Goodman. (See earlier examples from posts on Nov. 16, 2016, and March 19.)

Finally, a Taboola sponsored article titled “65 rare historical photos are truly unnerving” used a photo of actress Brigitte Bardot with Jacques Charrier in Saint Tropez in 1959. The only thing unnerving about Bardot is what an absolute smokehouse she was.