The Invention of Photoshop?

My first reaction upon seeing the below poster artwork for the Invention of Lying was confusion. Isn’t it a little too soon for this film to have a p0rn version, with a cast that looks only vaguely like the original stars?

But no, I quickly realized that that is Ricky Gervais & co., having been airbrushed quite liberally. Because, y’know, nobody would want to go see the REAL Ricky Gervais in a movie. They’d much rather go see the Madame Tussaud wax figurine version of Ricky —much more believable as a leading man, as many a faux-confused journalist would’ve told you a year ago when Ghost Town came out.

This fact didn’t escape Gervais himself, who blogged yesterday:

I look like some sort of facelifted old queen. And fucking Louis… Jesus. Imagine what he looked like before. Fat ginger div kid. It’s a good job we’re comedians. We’re meant to look shit I suppose.

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Purely for curiosity sake, I would’ve liked to see Jonah Hill on that poster, just to see what he would have turned out like. Or maybe that IS him in the upper left.

Design disaster aside, I’m thrilled to be seeing the World Premiere (capitalized out for pomposity sake, rather than CP style) of The Invention of Lying in a mere 10 days at the Toronto International Film Festival. I will certainly report back on the film itself, and any activities at the screening by our aforementioned Photoshopped friends.

Tags: film, Jonah Hill, Louis CK, Ricky Gervais, Tina Fey

About the Author

Sharilyn Johnson is the author of the book Bears & Balls: The Colbert Report A-Z. Called "one of the city’s most discriminating comedy critics” by NOW Magazine, Sharilyn has been covering comedy for longer than she cares to admit. She served as the comedy reporter for Winnipeg's Uptown Magazine for five years, and was the host of the radio show Laugh Tracks for three seasons. Her work has also appeared in the Toronto Star, the Winnipeg Free Press, The Apiary, and on CBC Radio's national comedy programs LOL and Definitely Not the Opera.