Leona?

Is it just me or is there something strange about the cover for the "Deluxe Edition" of Leona Lewis's album, Spirit?

Here's the original, with Leona looking how she always looks, all curly and pretty-eyed -

Lovely

But I spotted the new version in HMV recently and didn't even realise it was her until I read her name;

Leona? Is that you?!

Ok, maybe you can argue that her hairstyle and hair colour plus the angle of her face are the main contributers to her looking so unlike herself. But compare the above photo with this one, from The Evening Standard, October 2008, where she's in a similar pose and with similarly styled hair and the difference is fairly obvious...

Whichever way you look at it, she is quite unusual looking as she's got a long face and wide-set features. I think she's beautiful but not traditionally so, and that's what I like about her. But her new album cover screams 'airbrushing', (or drastic wait loss a la Beyonce in Deja Vu, but I don't think that's it). I mean, her face just looks smaller! It's like they've shaved off the bottom of her jaw and chin!

Now I've always said that if 'face reduction surgery' was possible, I'd be all for it, as I have a face of epic proportions, but as far as I know, it's not possible, which leads me back to the airbrushing. I know everyone does it these days, but she just looks so drastically different. It begs the question "why?" because she looked gorgeous on the original cover anyway!

I blame America...