Long ago (say, 2005) tech Jeremiahs prophesized the coming gross-out factor lurking in the holy land of super-sharp high definition TV and video. And whaddya know? They were right. If the camera adds ten pounds, the HD camera adds acne scars, fatty deposits and pancake makeup. Every flaw that plagues humanity shows up there in 1080 sweet lines of resolution.

Previously hot movie stars fell a little to earth. Overnight, Cameron Diaz morphed from our favorite Charlie’s Angel to Mrs. Shrek as the merciless lens revealed her acne scars, puffed cheeks and tired lines. The monopoly previously held by police mug shots and license photos had come to an end.

And God help the live TV news crews. Those plastic Barbies and Brylcreem leeches never knew what hit them. Take Kate Silverton, the BBC news anchor who sued her plastic surgeon for complications after undergoing acne-smoothing treatment in an attempt to dodge HDTV’s merciless gaze.

And then, there’s porn. Egos aren’t all that deflate here. What’s charming in your amateur stuff can be jarring at best in the highly polished world of big budget "love" making. That sound you hear is the whooshing let down that comes from seeing your average crappy boob jobs with finely outlined scars in crystal-clear clarity. In fact, enhanced Jesse Jane admitted to the International Herald Tribune (of all places) that she went under the knife again to try to smooth out the twins for HD. And then there’s a problem even for your (more) natural stars—razor burn.

Which brings me to the reason why in the Pleistocene era close-ups, Mr. Demille got all Vaseline-y on the lenses. A little haziness can be a good thing. Too much reality can burst our gauzy fantasy image of even the most gorgeous of stars, especially the aging ones like 47-year-old Heather Locklear. Her recent appearance before the California Highway Patrol lens lacked the usual shock value thanks to HD.

Today, TV networks, politicians and porn stars have to adjust to the new HD reality. What isn’t so easy to adjust is your girl. Imagine your home movies, displayed with your new hi-def camcorder on your full HD flat screen the size of a small Cineplex. Don’t have a professional make-up artist in the house? Either your lady’s going to look something like a Lucian Freud painting with its edges sharpened or it’s Tammy Faye time. And then there’s family hour. Oh, the horror. Grandma’s not looking so good? Take heart, she still looks better than Larry King. With near-movie quality digicams on the market, it’s like ugly people have finally stormed Hollywood.

Yeah, real women are flawed. They get an occasional blackhead or go too long between waxings. And it’s unfair to hold up celebrities to a superhuman standard drained of blood and pores. But who am I kidding? These celebs employ battalions of stylists, makeup artists, lighting designers, hydro therapists, dermatologists, photographers, nutritionists and colonic irrigators.

If even the most beautiful and coddled women in the universe can’t maintain a porcelain sheen after age 22, then no one can. And huzzah for that! We can either choose to cry into our soiled-rags or we can choose to enjoy the triumph of reality. At least until digital effects catch up. Or, better still, cellulite-erasing nanorobots are invented. Now, that would be cool.