John Stossel's Give Me a Break

June 27 -- We used to say pictures can't lie. But now they can.

The new issue of Redbook touts "The Real Julia" Roberts, but there's not much that's real about the cover photo. The editors grafted a photo of Roberts' head onto a picture of her body — taken four years ago! The magazine said it did it to get a "cover that would pop on the newsstand."

Last month, they did it to Jennifer Aniston. I think she looks good enough as is, but her publicist says Redbook lengthened her hair, took her pants and left hand from one picture, her right arm from another, and her head from still another.

In January, actress Kate Winslet complained about her ultra-skinny cover photo in Britain's GQ. The magazine admits they shrank her legs. "I don't look like that," Winslet said, "and I don't desire to look like that."

George magazine once altered Barbara Walters' cover shot, making her thinner and taller. Walters says she didn't mind, since thinner and taller are good.

Others change pictures to be more politically correct. Marketers changed the cover of the Beatles' Abbey Road album for a poster by removing a cigarette from Paul's hand. Steven Spielberg removed guns from the cops' hands in the re-release of E.T.

A Real Bermuda Triangle

Others do it to save money.

The island of Bermuda has beautiful beaches … good scuba diving … and a different culture … people really wear Bermuda shorts with jackets and ties.

And Bermuda sure looks great in the government's print ads, but island photographer Graeme Outerbridge noticed something odd about the ads.

"It hit me right away that the, some of the pictures weren't, in fact, Bermuda," he said.

Outerbridge recognized one picture as a stock photo taken in — Hawaii!

"I thought, they can't be this stupid, to actually run pictures that are not the destination and think the people that live in Bermuda wouldn't recognize it," Outerbridge said.

Word of the pictures quickly got out in Bermuda; people told us they were shocked.