Last updated at 11:23 04 September 2007

She is famous as a pioneer of size zero skinny chic.

But this worrying picture of stick-thin star Teri Hatcher suggests she is undergoing an even more frightening metamorphosis.

With her wrinkle-free forehead, wide eyes and dark hair, the Desperate Housewives' star has begun to bear an uncanny resemblance to Michael Jackson.

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Her appearance is a long way from the latest publicity shots for the fourth series of the hit TV show, which launches in American later this month.

Dressed in a sultry blue thigh-skimming dress , Teri, 42, along with her co-stars Marcia Cross, Nicollette Sheridan, Eva Longoria and Felicity Huffman looks stunning.

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But their bronzed bodies and too-perfect faces seem to be the result of some heavy-handed airbrushing.

One blogger described the cast as rating "somewhere between Betty Boop and Jessica Rabbit on the scale of Authentic Looking Women You'd See in Real Life."

Highlights of the new series include a gay couple moving into Wisteria Lane, as well as the ongoing trials and tribulations of the original Housewives.

Teri Hatcher's unlucky in love character Susan will try to settle down to domestic bliss with her new husband Mike, while Eva Longoria's Gabrielle is set to begin an steamy affair with her tempestuous former husband Carlos

Meanwhile, the reason Bree (Marcia Cross) has staged a fake pregnancy will be explained and Felicity Huffman's Lynette will continue her battle with cancer.

The new season premieres in the US on September 30 and is expected to air in the UK next year.