Tempest in an A Cup

Over the last two days, I’ve received hundreds of hits on a four year old post about Disney giving Keira Knightly bigger boobs in the KING ARTHUR publicity stills and poster art. So why the renewed attention? It turns out that Knightly has refused to let another studio do the same thing for her new film DUCHESS:

“Keira Knightly is essentially giving young women permission to stand
up in their communities and their schools and their families and say,
‘Look, this is the way I look and it is OK,” said “Perfect Girls,
Starving Daughters” author Courtney Martin.

The 23-year-old’s chest has been the subjected to scrutiny
before. In promotions for “King Arthur” in 2004, the actress’ A-cup was
morphed into a C-cup on posters. At the time Knightly admitted, “those
things weren’t really mine,” though she still went along with the
publicity campaign. “I think that’s incredibly brave and could have a
huge impact on young women,” Martin said of Knightly’s decision.

3 thoughts on “Tempest in an A Cup”

  1. I don’t know why Hollywood keeps doing this (there was a similar kerfuffle about a Harry Potter poster, made all the more kerfuffley because the ‘enhanced’ person was an underage girl). I guess it must work, but if you’ve seen Keira Knightly in a film you probably know that whatever her wonderful qualities as an actress or an attractive woman, large breasts are not among them. Making her boobs large in a poster strikes me as nearly as absurd as the poster for Vacation, where Chevy Chase is gifted with a body builder’s physique. Only this time it’s not satirical.
    If someone’s not familiar with Keira Knightly and goes to the movie in the hopes of seeing a large chested woman they will be disappointed and unhappy.
    So what’s the plan, exactly? Do they just assume that seeing the breasts will please people on a subconscious level and sneakily make them want to see the movie more? The movie seems targeted towards women, so are they trying to reduce male hostility towards it with the promise of heaving bosoms (and thus increase the date demographic?) Do they just not know how to make a poster with an actress who doesn’t have surgically or digitally enhanced breasts? There must be a thought process here, but it’s either too complex and nuanced or too stupid for me to suss it out.

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