To cleanse the palate, an answer to the eternal question: What would happen if we threw one of the most attractive people in Hollywood into that teleportation pod from “The Fly” with one of the least attractive?

The result, as you’ll see, is an abomination, an affront to God and man. An A-list Brundlefly. (Well, B-list. Sorry, Steve.)

You know what deepfakes are by now, or you should. Some use the technology for disinformation, some use it to bring fantasies to life, some use it for … this. My thought while watching it was, “If I didn’t know who Lawrence and Buscemi were, would I recognize this as a fake or would I think this was a real, very unfortunate-looking woman?” I think I’d know. I’d definitely know if you put me on-guard by asking me if I thought it was a real clip or a deepfake. Buscemi’s face seems slightly too small and low-set for Lawrence’s head. And of course it’s odd that this is a media availability at the Golden Globes and the “actress” isn’t wearing any make-up.

But if you didn’t give me a hint and I came to this clip cold, just stumbling across it online one day and watching it half-paying attention?

I don’t know. Deepfakes are already that sophisticated. Imagine them in five years.

The uncanny part, as always, is how the tech is able to take the template of a face and contort it into perfectly realistic expressions. This is a good demonstration of it too, as it includes laughter, sarcasm, earnestness, and so forth. I haven’t watched the original video but I assume what we’re seeing here is a true-to-life re-creation of all of Lawrence’s actual facial expressions as she made them that day. We’re just seeing them with Buscemi’s face overlaid. God help us.

I've gone down a black hole of the latest DeepFakes and this mashup of Steve Buscemi and Jennifer Lawrence is a sight to behold pic.twitter.com/sWnU8SmAcz

— Mikael Thalen (@MikaelThalen) January 29, 2019