Of bellybuttons and supermodels

Tonight's hard-hitting journalism comes to us via the BBC:

Underwear model Karolina Kurkova has no belly button. Is a barely-there navel for cosmetic or medical reasons?

(Photo: BBC)

The newspapers call it the "riddle of the £2.5m beauty". The beauty in question is Czech supermodel Karolina Kurkova. The riddle is her non-existent belly button.

Its absence was noticed this week when the 24-year-old graced a US catwalk for lingerie giant Victoria Secret. While most of us have an "outie" or an "innie", Ms Kurkova has a smooth indentation (although sometimes a tummy button is airbrushed onto her photos in post-production).

The UK Daily Mail has more (Photos: Daily Mail):

Victoria's Secret model Karolina Kurkova put her bombshell curves on show during a photo shoot in Miami over the weekend, but it was her peculiar belly button that was attracting all the attention.

The Czech blonde's unusual navel had onlookers perplexed as she frolicked on the beach over the weekend in a tiny white bikini.

It's not the first time her almost non-existent belly button has drawn attention.

A source has revealed magazine and catalogue art directors routinely airbrush one in for in post-production.

'Karolina’s body is amazing, but her belly button is unusual,' a fashion insider told Page Six magazine.

'It disappears in photos, so we keep a collection of belly button shots in different positions, and Photoshop them on to her whenever she’s doing a bikini picture.'

Still, if she was at all self-conscious, she didn't let it show as she posed up on the foreshore.

The following day she was once again strutting her stuff at the lingerie company's catwalk extravaganza.

Scandalous! We can't be having our Supermodel royalty in need of photoshopped body features -- what's the world coming to? I think this calls for an in-depth and close up investigation to get to the, uh, bottom of it all. I for one would be willing to put in the long, grueling hours needed to compile a detailed report on Ms. Kurkova's alleged anatomical anomaly, as well as investigate the possibility of further imperfections in her physique. In person examinations and interviews will no doubt be necessary. It'll be tough work, but hey, someone's got to do it. :)