Justin Bieber for Calvin Klein: Seeing May Not Be Believing – The New York Times

After days of fevered speculation, charges of Photoshopping and retaliatory threats of legal action, as well as hundreds of tweets and retweets on the subject, Elle magazine sent out a news alert on Sunday afternoon that seemed designed to put the first big controversy of 2015 to rest:

“Justin Bieber’s team officially confirms the size of his bulge.”

Yes, the subject of whether crucial body parts of this 20-year-old pop singer had been digitally enhanced in a new ad campaign for Calvin Klein underwear was the talk of the Twitter universe last week, shortly after the first images of those ads surfaced, including on Mr. Bieber’s Instagram account.

The controversy was fueled by the website BreatheHeavy­.com, which seemed to have gotten its hands on an “unretouched” picture from the photo shoot by the fashion photographers Mert and Marcus, showing a decidedly less muscular Mr. Bieber and missing the trail of body hair leading down to his filled-out boxer briefs.

The news was quickly jumped on by both fans and nonfans of the young singer — among them Rhea Durham, the wife of Mark Wahlberg, perhaps the best known of the former Calvin Klein underwear models and whose own photo shoot from 1992 was a direct inspiration for the new campaign.

Ms. Durham tweeted: “My baby was the 1st and the best. And not to mention ­wow the retouching ­”

The photos, some of which also featured the model Lara Stone wrapped seductively around Mr. Bieber, quickly became an Internet meme, and were the subject of dozens of parodies, including one by the talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, who posted an image of her head imposed on Ms. Stone’s body.