In the most ridiculous news of the day, Natalie’s print ad for DiorShow New Look mascara has been banned by the ASA. Fashionista has the details:

According to an article by the Telegraph (since removed from their site) referenced by the Huffington Post, the brand’s beauty department is under fire after a mascara ad featuring Natalie Portman was reported to the Advertising Standards Authority in the UK. And who filed the complaint? Rival beauty company (and also a former ASA ban victim) L’Oréal UK, who allege that the ad for Dior’s Dior Show New Look Mascara exaggerates the effects of the mascara with Photoshop.

Dior claims that the image in question was originally intended for a lipstick ad, and that Portman is not wearing false eyelashes, per Vogue UK. Still, Dior has voluntarily withdrawn the ad rather than wait out a formal investigation, which would require that they argue that the allegations of digital enhancement were false. Further, Dior does admit to retouching Portman’s lashes to “separate/increase the length and curve of a number of her lashes and to replace/fill a number of missing or damaged lashes, for a more stylised, uniform and tidy effect.” We’re not initiated in beauty advert speak, but that kind of sounds to us like they did in fact digitally exaggerate the effects of the mascara.

Seriously scratching my head over this one considering it’s fairly tame as far as cosmetics advertisements go (unlike the over-the-top computer generated eyelashes I’ve seen in L’Oreal’s). If we’re going to ban beauty ads for being misleading, I think it’s only fair to ban them all.