What's the Deal With Angelina Jolie's Neck?

Photos of the star's jaw are not flattering, so what exactly is going on?

I am looking at pictures of Angelina Jolie. Her neck looks very weird. Has she had plastic surgery?
—Clarissa, via the Answer B!tch inbox

I see the photos you mention. Other than revealing Angie's origins at an underground robotics lab run by Skynet, what could cause those raised lines that seem to join her face with her neck?

The answer may truly shock you...

...because, according to two very reputable plastic surgeons, the photo suggests the following:

Angelina has not had a face-lift.

They're not saying a knife has never touched Angelina; her nose does seem to have thinned all by itself over the years, for example. But as far as a minilift is concerned, surgeons say it's doubtful.

"It doesn't look like a scar," says Dr. Richard Fleming, facial plastic surgeon and codirector of the Beverly Hills Institute. "We all would have seen that before now."

Instead, fellow plastic surgeon Lavinia Chong tells me, this may be a combination of natural aging and a lack of body fat around the face and neck.

"If she'd had a miniface-lift, you'd see a lot more" markings or scars in the area, Chong tells me.

"It would be much more apparent. The three oblique bands, which are extending from the angle of Ms. Jolie's right jaw, may represent slips of the platysma muscle, which is a large sheet muscle."

Those sorts of muscles become looser as we age, and if there is very little fat in the area, the loose muscles stick out like that, Chong tells me. Turning in certain directions—say, to coo up at your boyfriend, Brad Pitt—may make the loose muscles stick out even more, surgeons tell me.

Jolie may also have very thin skin—literally, not figuratively.

"And as she ages," Chong posits, "the skin is going to look more cadaverous. I don't think this is a tip-off that she has had anything done. In fact right now I would say, add some volume to make your face a bit plumper. Still, she's one of my favorite faces to look at; she's just gorgeous."

Right. And totally not a secret robot.