Touching up J-Lo's bum

One thing that has always endeared Jennifer Lopez to fans of both sexes is her large and curvy figure.

Women were impressed by a female star apparently unconcerned that she was not fashionably waif-like. Men were simply impressed.

But J-Lo, whose best asset was recently voted the perfect bottom in a women's magazine poll, could face a backlash after apparently having it shrunk.

A poster for new romantic comedy Gigli, in which she stars with fiancè Ben Affleck, is said to have been digitally altered to reduce the size of her rear, it is being claimed in Hollywood.

The star's breasts were also said to have been made to look bigger by publicists for film-maker Columbia.

'Columbia's marketing division airbrushed her butt to make it smaller and pumped up her chest,' a source, who claimed to have seen before and after shots, told the New York Post.

Lopez, 33, had been unhappy with the way she looked in the pose so had the photos altered, said a Columbia spokesman. 'She had graphics retouch her. But nothing was done to her chest,' he insisted. A spokesman for J-Lo - nicknamed La Guitarra after her guitar-shaped figure, laughed off any criticism, saying: 'I'm absolutely shocked. Who would ever think this could possibly happen in Hollywood?'

J-Lo - rumoured yesterday to be marrying Affleck in September - has reportedly insured her prized asset for £700million.

She once said:'I have curves, I have hips and I have a big bottom. Men have always loved that look.'

However, for feminists the photo change will smack loudly of betrayal - as when GQ magazine airbrushed photos of Kate Winslet to make her look slimmer.

Sarah Michelle Gellar also complained recently that Seventeen magazine had touched up her picture.