Angelina Jolie Hardly Seems Natural in First Louis Vuitton Ad

Here's the first Louis Vuitton ad with Angelina Jolie, photographed by Annie Leibovitz in Cambodia's Siem Reap province, where the actress filmed Lara Croft: Tomb Raider in 2000 and got the urge to pursue humanitarian activism. Women's Wear Daily got the exclusive on the image and the interview with Vuitton evp Pietro Beccari. The whole piece goes on and on about how natural Jolie looks. It opens with this: "She's barefoot, wearing her own clothes, no makeup, and toting her own elegantly weathered monogrammed Alto bag. Yet Angelina Jolie looks radiant and completely in her element, reclining on a wooden boat in a verdant, lakeside landscape." Then Beccari says: "People are not used to seeing Angelina in this situation. I like the fact that it's a real moment." Wait, is it just me, or does this image not seem like the most unrealistic, highly stylized portrait imaginable? No makeup? She's been airbrushed to the point of looking plastic. A real moment? It couldn't look more staged. None of Vuitton's ads ever look spontaneous—they all look heavily worked over, almost like paintings. Which is fine, but why pretend otherwise?