EXCLUSIVE: Kim Novak's Plastic Surgery Disaster — Top Doc Warns Screen Icon's Face is 'Proof' Hollywood's Obsession With Cosmetic Procedures 'Ruins Beauty'
Kim Novak was met with social media backlash over her appearance.
Oct. 3 2025, Published 6:15 a.m. ET
Shocking new images of a once flawlessly gorgeous Kim Novak revealed monster plastic surgery has turned her from screen siren to scream queen, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The Vertigo star, 92, stunned fans with her puppet-like mug and cartoonishly puffed cheeks as she accepted a lifetime achievement award at the Venice Film Festival on September 1, leading one doctor to gasp at what he termed a "non-professional facelift."
New Face Alert
Plastic surgeon Dr. Joel Shahar called Kim Novak's procedure a 'non-professional facelift.'
"The work is horrible, horrible, horrible!" said New York plastic surgeon Dr. Joel Shahar. "This is a completely unprofessional job."
Shahar, who has not treated Novak, said he believes she had an overly aggressive facelift that raised her skin unnaturally and in a horizontal direction, leaving a severe and highly visible "ridge" dividing her face above her lips.
"The upper part doesn't match the bottom," he said. "It looks bizarre!"
Online, disturbed fans reacted similarly.
Social Media Reactions
Novak's Venice Film Festival appearance spotlights a dramatically altered look.
"Kim Novak's face is another Hollywood WARNING label, proof that surgery obsession ruins beauty faster than time," one seethed, while another lamented: "Beautiful actress. It's a shame she let a plastic surgeon mess with her beauty."
A third wrote: "It's sad what Hollywood does to women."
Shahar also noted that the worst part of the botched work is that "it cannot be reversed."
Rare Appearance
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Fans called Novak's look a 'Hollywood WARNING label,' saying surgery obsession 'ruins beauty faster than time.'
Novak's rare appearance at the film festival – where she also premiered her new documentary, Kim Novak's Vertigo – was her first in more than a decade.
In 2021, the actress ironically noted in her autobiography Kim Novak: Her Art and Life that she was "both dazzled and disturbed" to be "packaged as a Hollywood sex symbol."
