Gary Gershoff/WireImage; SPW/Splash NewsOK, so Ali Lohan has a new look. OK, so Lindsay Lohan has her sister's back. OK, so the younger Lohan's modeling agency has attempted to shut down plastic-surgery specuation with a statement that chalks up Ali's transformation to "pastoral care" and the "natural" aging process.
OK, so that last part raised Conspiracy Corner's eyebrows almost as dramatically as Ali Lohan's.
And, no, we're not talking about pastoral care, whatever that is.
To wit: Does a 17-year-old, like Ali Lohan, really have a "natural" aging process? One that would radically alter one's appearance?
It was time to call in a forensic expert, because even though no crime had been committed or alleged, it seemed like the official-sounding thing to do.
Diana Trepkov, a forensic artist who has created age-progression sketches of young adults and children, and is the author of the just-released Faceless, Voiceless, answered the call, and agreed to look over a side-by-side Ali Lohan photo comparison.
Her opinion?
It's possible.
Age, time and the understructure of the human skull may well have naturally turned young Ali Lohan into a somewhat-older Jennifer Connelly.
"As a girl maturing into adulthood, [a] face will change dramatically," Trepkov told us in an email.
And not just a girl's face, but a girl's eyebrows, too.
"At around the age of 17 and up, the brow does become thicker," Trepkov said. "Especially, once makeup is applied to the brows, the whole face changes the previous look."
As for the understructure of the human skull, Trepkov said that comes to the fore at about Ali Lohan's age.
"The baby fat usually has disappeared, and a young adult face appears," she said.
Case closed?
Well, Ali Lohan is a Lohan, so there is some interfamily business to sort out.
Speaking to Radar Online, father Michael Lohan said it was "scary to see [his] daughter looking like this," and essentially argued a "drastic" weight loss (as opposed to surgery) was behind Ali Lohan's metamorphosis. (For what it's worth, Trepkov said "leaner" facial appearances are to be expected in older teens.)
Speaking to E! News, mother Dina Lohan said her ex-husband "needs to focus on his sobriety and paying child support and stop trying to destroy another one [of] our children's lives." She also said she "100 percent" supported Next Model Management's version of things.
And finally, Ali's very own rep made his mark on the discussion today, saying in a statement to E! News:
"Aliana has never had any type of plastic surgery in her life, nor has she ever considered it. Her success as a model lies with her natural looks and she has no interest in changing that. During the past two years, she has gone through a normal teenage growth spurt that has made her taller and slimmer. It has also slightly changed the composure of her face, all of which is typical of what happens to kids in their mid to late teens. It's what most people refer to as the awkward stage. Ali is growing up; that's all."
Case closed?
Probably not.
If, according to Trepkov, "the human head is truly fascinating," then a Lohan head is never less so.