Fashion giant  Vanity Fair  has come under fire for unattainable beauty standards, after images of Nicole Kidman’s cover of the magazine  sparked debate  online.

The 54-year-old actress, styled in Italian high fashion label Miu Miu, posed for the cover of the magazine’s “Hollywood Issue”, prompting some to allege the magazine used excessive photoshopping.

 
 
 
 
 
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Many have backed up these allegations with claims Kidman’s knee pops out at an angle that is incongruous with her foot and that the line of her left oblique is right next to her belly button.

One commenter compared the photo to the video accompanying  Vanity Fair’s cover story and pointed out differences between them, despite it being technologically possible for videos to also be retouched.

“No 54-year-old’s body looks like that, not even Nicole Kidman’s. Why are we still doing this s**t?” one popular response on Twitter read.

“She is a beautiful woman and can do whatever she wants with her body. It’s a criticism of the magazine’s stylistic choices and insane airbrushing.”

Other eagle-eyed critics pointed out other inconsistencies, such as flowers cloned behind Kidman and her shoe “becoming one with the grass”.

The cover photo also seems to contradict the accompanying interview, where Kidman opens up about health issues she has experienced as a result of being in the public eye.

She told  Vanity Fair  she often tricked her immune system into thinking that the suffering her characters experienced was real, only to fall ill after filming.

“Parts of the body don’t know, a lot of the time, what the difference is (between acting and real-life),” she explained.

The Australian star spoke of one example where she got sick after filming the TV series  Big Little Lies, in which she played an abuse survivor.

“I’ve started to understand a bit more to take care of yourself,” she said.

Image: @vanityfair (Instagram)