Yeah, about those ‘un-retouched’ Justin Bieber Calvin Klein pics

So those supposedly original photos from Justin Bieber’s Calvin Klein photo shoot showing a much skinnier and less well-endowed Biebs that hit the Internet late last week? Totally fake. Maybe the fact that they were leaked to a Web site you’ve never heard of before should’ve been a clue. Or maybe a closer look at Bieber’s crotch — and again, I’m really sorry I have to keep suggesting you look at that — would have clearly shown that the “un-retouched” photos were actually more Photoshopped than the official versions. That Web site, Breatheheavy.com, by the way, removed the image and posted a retraction, saying it had received a cease and desist letter. The Calvin Klein folks swear that Bieber acted like a perfect little gentleman the entire shoot, and Bieber’s camp insists the final image is 100 percent Bieber’s Canadian bacon.

Here’s the thing, though. Despite the leaked image being a fake, it still made a lot of people spend far too much time analyzing the official CK images, and you know what? All I can see now is retouching and image manipulation. For instance, that massive back muscle that pushes out past his shoulder blades? Yeah, no. And the bloated pecs, I’m not buying. Maybe if Bieber didn’t insist on spending so much of his life shirtless and in front of cameras, we wouldn’t have plenty of un-doctored material to compare it with. Like, for instance, this photo shoot by Karl Lagerfeld for V Magazine. I’m just saying.

Follow Ned Ehrbar on Twitter:@nedrick