
McSweeney's, Number 5, 2000; and Vanity Fair, June 2006.
Back in the summer of 2000, when they were getting set to launch their fifth issue, the gentle hapless crew over at McSweeney's figured that maybe the problem was that they just hadn't been being hip enough with their earlier covers. They studied the competition places like Esquire and Vanity Fair and the like, and figured, Hey, maybe that's the ticket: Put some bigtime sexy celebrity on the cover, somebody huge and charismatic and irresistible, somebody like, you know...Ted Koppel! They weren't being entirely cynical. I mean, the issue did include a conversation with Koppel (Sarah Vowell, as a matter of fact, discussing with him his lifelong passion for Marcus Aurelius). But putting Koppel on the cover like that was surely meant as a kind of gently joshing joke, as much at their own expense as anything else, a flagrant exhibition of their own mainstream cultural cluelessness.
What then to make of this month's cover of the actual Vanity Fair? The fact that the editors there, in offering Anderson Cooper up as the studmuffin du mois, apparently intend no joke of any kind may in fact be an occasion for some serious concern.
Lawrence Weschler is the author of Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder and Everything That Rises: A Book of Convergences. He is also the curator of the Convergences contest currently transpiring at McSweeneys.net.
Comments [23]
06.08.06
12:35
06.08.06
12:51
06.08.06
01:15
06.08.06
01:57
"I'll take Anderson Cooper." Kate
Hilarious. Er, no you won't, Kate! He plays on ball in Chelsea if you know what I mean.
06.08.06
02:28
That magazines sometimes put celebrities and newspeople on their covers? And, that sometimes they use a photo that makes the person look good?
Why would putting a seasoned and trusted newsman on the fron of a magazine be considered a "gently goshing joke"?
Could it be possible that McSweeney's just thought that Koppel was a good subject? Why does this make them clueless?
Time Magazine putting Ann Coulter on their cover was clueless.
06.08.06
09:00
06.09.06
09:21
Concern for what, may I ask? Really, we'd like to know; or is this something we are meant to stroke our proverbial beards over? I almost feel like the 'Continue Reading' link was mistakenly omitted.
Or is it more likely that this otherwise pointless post is meant to generate interest in McSweeneys convergences contest?
06.09.06
10:05
06.09.06
11:22
06.09.06
04:55
Does he play cricket?
06.09.06
05:23
Also, is this a plug for McSweeneys or an article to stir intellectual conversation?
And Joe, please tell me you're kidding.
06.09.06
06:02
06.09.06
09:22
BTW (to Joe M. - Felix S. is insinuating that Mr. Cooper is gay)
06.10.06
03:04
06.10.06
05:27
06.10.06
08:23
The Chelsea
Source: 2 friends who are CNN producers
06.10.06
08:35
06.10.06
09:45
06.11.06
02:25
OK, half time is over, back to the game.
06.11.06
12:55
Are you trying to be clever? I don't think it worked. Keep watching the cup, boy.
06.11.06
07:22
You just did! ;)
06.12.06
05:44
> And he is, of course, the son of famous heiress and fashion designer Gloria Vanderbilt.
Those bedroom eyes have been in front of the camera since a very young age. Notably, that of one Diane Arbus (trying to prove she could take photos of the beautiful people, too).
06.14.06
02:54