Just imagine what Miley Cyrus could've done for Vanity Fair's September issue. After all, the racy pics of the 15-year-old shining beacon of the American economy in the June issue have landed Graydon Carter his best-selling issue of the year. A very respectable 435,000 units moved on the newsstand. And she wasn't even on the cover.
With the numbers in hand, we can finally analyze what this issue became: An exercise in publicity.
It's likely Carter and photographer Annie Liebowitz didn't know they were sitting on circulation gold; they just thought they had secured pop culture's biggest rising star for a photo spread in the well. Instead, once the photos hit, they were met with cries of exploitation, which forced the Cyrus camp to claim the girl was taken advantage of, while Carter and Liebowitz stood by their decision.
When it came to media coverage, the story wasn't just relegated to insider media coverage — there was the celebrity factor too, which meant Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood were weighing in, splashing the magazine's cover (of Bobby Kennedy) and the Cyrus pictures in an endless loop of free VF advertising. The magazine racked up countless millions of image exposures — as 915 letters and a 20X traffic spike on the website — and left the confines of anything Conde Nast publicity could control.
And when it comes to the numbers, it was to their benefit.
But not every magazine can capitalize on continuous drum beating about a controversy inside their pages. And that includes a Conde Nast cousin. CONTINUED »
Remember that Vogue-King Kong controversy that ambushed the media chattering classes back in March? Anna Wintour and Annie Leibovitz were gouged by politically correct knives for repeating a racist and stereotypical image of King Kong and a lady of liberty, making cover star LeBron James look like a screaming ape next to a helpless (though smiling!) Gisele Bundchen. Now that the dust has settled, it's time to look at how Americans at large viewed the issue. In a word, poorly. CONTINUED »
At last night's Costume Institute Gala – which is a cartoon version of Fashion Week, which itself is a cartoon version of reality – celebrities and Anna Wintour wore frilly costumes to The Met in keeping with the theme of "Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy," walking up the red carpeted steps in front of a throng of photographers.
Ms. Wintour was described in this way: "She seemed to be broadcasting a message of total earthly control." She imagined herself as Storm, from X-Men. "I control the weather," she said. (It was in the 50s with a few clouds in the sky.)
David and Victoria Beckham blessed the crowd, along with Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen, Mary J. Blige, George Clooney, Julia Roberts, and Giorgio Armani.
Many guests were "unusually" prompt. Not all of them. The mayor showed up late, as did The Donald+Melania, fat people-adverse Karl Lagerfeld, Marc Jacobs, Janet Jackson, Donatella Versace, and Donna Karan.
Some women, like Iman, correctly wore her clothing. Others, like Mischa Barton and Anna Wintour, did not. CONTINUED »
Gisele Bundchen earned $35 million in the past 12 months. Impoverished Heidi Klum earned only $14 million. [NYDN]
In all the blog chatter about Vogue's King Kong cover, have we, perhaps, missed the most fundamental issue? CONTINUED »
Slate's Wesley Morris: "Between the outrage over Obama's Jeremiah Wright problems and Bill Clinton's unbelievable mutation from American's first black president into Karl Rove, I don't have the bandwidth to fight Anna Wintour. Seeing that cover as purely racist doesn't give the people looking at it enough credit. It dates Vogue for relying on the allusion but it also dates us for going crazy over it. Racial hysteria is the old black. Maybe it's so old it's avant-garde—very Vogue." [Slate, earlier]
Yesterday we tried to explain, but did not excuse, Vogue's "King Kong" cover, and assumed neither Anna Wintour nor Annie Leibovitz had any idea their LeBron James-Gisele Bundchen photo would cause so much controversy.
But maybe, in fact, they did. Or at least they should have.
Here's a World War I enlistment poster (via) from 1917, famous from its era, that encouraged men to sign up with the army to fight the German enemy. (Interestingly, the Germans found it so convincing, they Nazis used the same concept for their own World War II poster.)
It's hard to imagine Wintour or Leibovitz, or their staffs, in all their years studying photos and imagery, never came across this poster, or understood its racial ramifications with the ape carrying the helpless Lady Liberty. They understood it well enough to put Gisele in an eerily similar dress.
We doubt when choosing the April cover, with LeBron James and Gisele Bundchen, Vogue editor Anna Wintour ever conjured up the thought, "This is just the type of controversy we're looking to court." In fact, the idea the cover would cause any rift within the media or black communities probably never crossed her mind. Instead, she saw: Pretty model wearing fantastic gown, giant athlete wearing synthetic fibers. Even photog Annie Leibovitz probably didn't foresee the coming scandal.
But that doesn't let her off the hook for this "King Kong" cover, even if LeBron himself doesn't have a problem with the photo. Sure, the NAACP, which SPEAKS FOR EVERY BLACK AMERICAN EVER, has barely weighed in and says it has bigger problems to deal with, but inside baseball players like Men's Fitness editor Roy Johnson calling foul: CONTINUED »
Brady was supposed to ride off into the sunset with a Lombardi trophy under one arm and a supermodel under the other. Looks like he'll limp off with Gisele and a whole set of questions for a long offseason.
Andrew Perloff, "An Inconvenient Truth," SI.com
If there are two things the New York Post cares about, it's sports and gossip. They'll cover terrorism, fires in Queens and violent deaths when necessary. But honestly, the paper cares about its back and its sixth pages above all else.
So with Tom Brady chilling out with Gisele before the Super Bowl, the Post is in Nirvana, which for them involves stalking Brady in the West Village.
While Giants quarterback Eli Manning was home dissecting game tape, Tom Brady spent 24 straight hours behind closed doors with his sexy supermodel girlfriend at her intimate Village pad.
What do you think they were up to all night?
Before you guess having sex, the rest of the article describes what kind of take-out they got. The correct answer is fucking and eating.
[Photo]
Tom Brady agrees that the most interesting thing about Tony Romo is his love life. The Patriots QB told Romo to keep Jessica Simpson away from his games.
It's hard to tell if this is good advice. On the one hand, Brady had a perfect season. On the other hand, Brady's girlfriend sent passive aggressive baby gifts to Bridget Moynahan. But ultimately, we agree that Jessica Simpson is annoying and should go away.
[Photo Credit: WireImage]
• Aw, fake news anchor and all-around nice guy Jon Stewart has pledged to continue paying his writers' salaries for up to two weeks! At which point, they'll all be fired.
• Is creating a website to find a random girl on the 4 train creepy or endearing? And, more importantly, will it get you laid?
• When you're standing next to a drag queen, it's hard not to look manly. And yet, Carson Kressley pulls it off masterfully.
• Zac Efron dresses up as Katie Holmes for Halloween.
• And speaking of makeovers, Neal Boulton's apparently tired of people confusing him for a lesbian rocker circa 1993.
• If Gisele Bundchen was photographed picking her wedgie today, does that mean Bar Refaeli is going to be photographed doing the same thing tomorrow?
• Collagen injections are just like potato chips: you can't have just one. Unlike potato chips, however, if you don't get your fill you'll end up with a pursed pucker that resembles a "deflated balloon."
After splitting with his Israeli ex Bar Refaeli, Leo DiCaprio (still recovering from his breakup with longterm lady love Gisele Bundchen) was spotted trolling for new model-slash-girlfriends to take his mind off Bar Gisele. Meanwhile, Refaeli was up to her old tricks again, namely cementing her status as Gisele's second-tier replacement.
LEONARDO DiCaprio is looking for a new model - he's split with his post-Gisele Bundchen babe, Bar Refaeli. On Friday night at Sweet Paradise on Orchard Street, DiCaprio was with Josh Hartnett checking out the arm candy at the after-party for the new skateboarding film "Nothing But the Truth." And, in an odd twist, Refaeli's new squeeze is surfer Kelly Slater, who dated Bundchen after she and the "Titanic" star broke up.
If Leo's having difficulty finding true love, we have a feeling it might be because (a) let's be honest, he's put on a few, (b) he starred in one of the longest, cheesiest (and most incessantly mocked) chick flicks of our time, and (c) being a "modelizer," he's only willing to date approximately .0005% of the world's population.
• It turns out this isn't even the first time Ellen DeGeneres regifted a stray dog. She's reportedly been peddling those second-hand bitches all over town!
• If you had to make out with one of these two Kid Rocks, which would you choose? (And no fair saying "assisted suicide.")
• Young urban black communities continue to ignore the risks of smoking in favor of the allure of nicotine.
• Jake Gylennhaal tries to pull a Larry Craig, gets confused and ends up in a women's lavatory with Susan Sarandon instead.
Editorial Director
