Faux Real? Celebrity 'Photos' Tweak Our Obsession

Dec. 17, 2007 — -- At first glance, the grainy photos look like a paparazzi's dream come true.

Paris Hilton showering during her prison stint. Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes reading to their baby from a giant book titled "Scientology for Babies." David Beckham trying on one of Posh's thongs. Queen Elizabeth sitting on the toilet.

If they seem too amazing to be true, that's because they're not.

They're the creations of art photographer Alison Jackson, whose images of celebrity look-alikes in staged photographs have titillated and outraged both stars and fans.

Jackson's latest works have some critics wondering whether she's gone too far. Photographs of the queen on the toilet, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's wife getting an enema and Michael Jackson playing with a toddler whose face is streaked with lipstick have stirred up controversy and angry headlines. "Hideously malevolent and preciously delightful," wrote critic A.A. Gill in The New York Times.

Jackson's clever images have long stoked scandal — soon after Princess Diana died in 1997, Jackson depicted the princess, her lover Dodi al-Fayed and their mixed-race love child. The royal reaction was swift and merciless: "Tasteless vulgarity … absolutely deplorable," said royal adviser Lord Blake. "Utterly contemptible," sniffed royal historian Hugh Vickers. "One can only imagine the photographer is trying to make publicity for herself."

Whether intended or not, there's no question Jackson has succeeded on the publicity front. The artist's second book, "Confidential," released last month by Taschen, is being feted with parties in New York and Beverly Hills, Calif. and she's in talks to create a TV show.

In addition to the image of Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise reading to baby Suri, "Confidential" also includes a picture that appears to be Cruise and Holmes in the midst of giving birth.

"It was a huge news story," Jackson told "20/20's" JuJu Chang. "It hit every headline, every magazine, every newspaper: How was Katie going to give birth during the silent birth? So I depicted the image."

Does she ever go for sheer shock value?

"Absolutely not. I don't consider that I am gratuitous and I don't want to be," Jackson told Chang. "If people are shocked then they are probably shocked by their own thoughts."

The artist has come a long way from her days as an art student at London's Royal College of Art, where she was first inspired to create her unique photographs by observing the public's reaction to Diana's death.

"People here were mourning her death more than if one of their family members had died," Jackson said. "In my mind, Diana is a product, a construct of photography and media imagery. People thought they knew her intimately because they knew her through images. And I thought, if I get a look-alike, would people really mind if she's real or fake?"

Jackson took her Di doppelganger to a party after an all-day photo shoot. "And one girl went bright red and started crying. She said, 'I know this is a look-alike and it's not Princess Di, but it's just doing my head in.' There is this gap between your fantasy of your favorite celebrity and the real person. It's a double confusion and it doesn't really matter whether they're real or not. It's all about imagery."

Jackson claims that even Tony Blair started to accept a fantasy version of himself. After Jackson's faux-documentary "Tony Blair: Rock Star" aired on BBC, about Blair's teenage days in a rock band, he started repeating the film's claims that he idolized Mick Jagger and that he used to dress up and put butter in his hair to style it correctly, according to Jackson.

"He was interviewed later and he regurgitated the script of the film," she said. "He claimed it as if it was really his life."

Or maybe Jackson's faux version of Blair's life was actually factual.

Are there any images that would be too taboo?

"There are limits, of course," Jackson told "20/20." "There are things that I wouldn't want to show. I was shocked that a broadcaster in London showed Princess Diana dying in the back of the crashed car. I think that was totally unnecessary to show that. I don't think it's benefited anyone."

Jackson has never been sued, but she has had some unusual encounters. Relentlessly on the search for look-alikes, she's twice mistaken a real celebrity for civilian.

"I approached Nicholas Cage in a restaurant in Capri and told him, 'You're a great look-alike for Nicholas Cage' and he was rude and waved me off. Later, he came up and apologized to me and I suddenly realized that it really was Nicholas Cage. The same thing happened with [Princess Di lover] James Hewitt."

Such double takes serve to reinforce Jackson's notion of image and celebrity. "My work is meant to be thought provoking," she said. "I'm trying to raise questions about our voyeuristic society, that we have to idolize them like saints."