Liz Taylor's nude photo was fake!

New York: A supposedly naked photograph of Elizabeth Taylor published in the media earlier this month has been revealed as a fake.

The nude image, seemingly of the movie icon who died last month at the age of 79, was printed in several newspapers.

According to the Daily Mail, the picture was taken by actor and photographer Roddy McDowall, a friend of Taylor who promised her that the shot would be tasteful. Taylor was said to have given the photograph to her third husband Michael Todd soon after he proposed in 1956.

However, readers commenting on the Mail article noted that the image is a doctored version of a photograph by Peter Gowland of dancer Lee Evans, which features in Classic Nude Photography: Techniques and Images.

The original photograph - without Taylor's face overlaid - appears on Gowland's website with the description "3/4 key-light on Lee Evans, known as Rembrandt lighting, with no hair light".