plasmamaniac
The actors probably DID have pancake makeup on and you may have been seeing this for the first time. This is commonly reported as the "clay face" effect, but it may not be. The clay face effect is a loss of detail on the face. However, if your equipment is up to it you truly can see the makeup on the actors. Sometimes when watching LOTR TTT I swear Gimli and Legolas look like they've got a quarter inch lathered on. The difference is I can also see every detail of the face.
I'm a bit confused about your comment that your P50 scaled it "again". That shouldn't happen. If the source component is handling the deinterlacing of the 480i material to 480p, then the P50 should be displaying the source without modification. If the P50 is fed 480i then it will perform the deinterlacing of the signal and convert it to 480p. Some units, like my NEC 42VP4D, have deinterlacer circuitry that is superior to that of most DVD players. My non-progressive Sony looks almost as good as my Panasonic xp30 with its Faroudja chip on the NEC. Almost.