The Daily Mail has picked Katie Holmes apart for having the nerve to leave her home without a full face of caked on makeup. According to the rag, she looks gaunt and worn out. In fact they describe her in a way that makes you think she’s either the ugliest thing you’ve ever seen, or she’s at death’s door. They also cherry picked the worst photos to prove their point.

The long hours of theatre work appeared to be taking their toll on Katie Holmes as the actress was pictured in New York looking gaunt and worn out. The 29-year-old, dressed all-in-black with a bright orange handbag, appeared to be feeling the strain as she returned to the Gerard Schoenfeld theatre in Broadway for rehearsals.

Holmes has thrown herself back into work after taking a couple of years off to raise her only child and has been starring in Arthur Miller’s All My Sons for the last five weeks. The play has so far been well-received, and it has already become the highest-grossing play on Broadway in its first full week of previews, raking in $684,002 so far.

The star made a return to television recently as a lawyer in the US show Eli Stone. Dressed in a black unitard, Katie displayed her impressive singing and dancing skills while performing Duke Ellington’s Hit Me With a Hot Note. A respectable 8.8m watched the first episode she starred in.

Last week the former Dawson’s Creek star unwittingly revealed an unslightly snaggletooth grin but just days later he Hollywood smile was back.

[From the Daily Mail]

The horror! Here are pictures of Katie on the very same day the Daily Mail is talking about. In fact it’s probably the same outing – though you’ll notice she looks worse in the photos from X17 than from Splash. That just has to do with an individual paparazzi’s lighting setup as well as the natural light around her. Some photographers (with a little bit of talent) will compensate for poor lighting conditions while others will maximize it to make a celeb look their worst.

Here are the photos of Katie yesterday from Bauer Griffin. I think she looks not only fine and healthy without makeup, but shockingly beautiful. Everyone can take a few bad pictures now and then, but I think it’s pretty clear it had to do with outside factors and not some shocking laziness in putting on some makeup.

Here’s Katie Holmes leaving her Manhattan apartment carrying a bright orange purse yesterday. Images thanks to Bauer-Griffin.