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Why celebs are afraid to bare all

Why celebs are afraid to bare all :: celeb_nudity_photo_sarah_jessica_parker_40x40-1

The buzz in Hollywood is that the jumping-off-a-cliff nude scene in 'Brokeback Mountain' was not exactly authentic. We hear one of the two stars had a stand-in.

Hollywood's biggest stars are increasingly afraid to take off their clothes -- on screen, that is. But the reason almost never involves morality. It's all about vanity.

"As our perception of beauty is altered by plastic surgery," one studio exec told TMZ, "it becomes increasingly intimidating to put yourself on screen."

Even if you're great looking, the new age of altered-pefection scares stars stiff. Take British beauty Keira Knightley. In the action flick 'Domino,' she played a totally fearless bounty hunter. But the then 19-year-old Knightley wasn't that bold in an explicit scene; it's not Keira's butt, but 28-year-old body double Roberta Lorincz's backside on screen instead -- Ms. Knightley actually even selected Lorincz at the audition!

"Actors are profoundly vain, but business savvy too," explains film studies professor Miranda Banks. "It's all about selling fantasies." That's why, Banks says, Julia Roberts opted for a body double for her leg close-ups in 'Pretty Woman.' Banks said it was simple, "The double had hotter legs."

Industry folks tell TMZ the amount of nudity in movies currently in the pipeline is about the same as a decade earlier. One exec said it must be relevant to the movie, "In a male-action movie, there's a good chance a hot girl will be showing something."