We have discussed these shots at length. I still don’t know the original source, but let’s assume for a moment that they are real. (I think they probably are.) The quality is poor, so I asked AI to take a shot at them, as per a request in the comments. I don’t think the results were especially good. As you may recall, Elizabeth’s face wasn’t as beautiful in 1988 as she would become later, once she learned what to do with her heavy eyebrows. AI has an inclination to please and beautify, even when you tell it not to, so it tried to make her face prettier than it really was in those days. This created a situation where the images were far from our expectations because:
1. 1988 Liz Hurley did not look like mature Liz Hurley.
2. The AI images of 1988 Liz Hurley don’t look exactly like real 1988 Liz Hurley.
As a result the images are kind of “third generation” from what we expect her to look like.
For what it is worth, here are the results:
Obviously, the originals are on the left.
Just out of curiosity, I asked AI to re-create what the movie frame would have looked like. It is quite good at this sort of thing, and it created a gorgeous image, but still doesn’t convince me that we are looking at La Liz.
For reference, here is what Elizabeth really looked like in that era:
The photos aren’t from Aria. They are by John Stoddart from 1992. You can find a load on Getty Images.
In discussing Aria, I’m not talking about the B&W image, but the color ones. The B&W Stoddart photo is only in there to show you what she looked like in that era, because if I didn’t post it, some poor schmuck would post, “that doesn’t look like Hurley” without realizing that Hurley looked VERY different then.
She was beautiful then but actually became even more attractive as she matured.