Well, Eve, look at the cover. In honor of Bill Clinton turning 50, it features a blond Drew Barrymore dressed up as Marilyn Monroe, with the bold-faced readout, "Happy Birthday, Mr. President."
Miss Monroe must be the most restless corpse in the ground, with all of the turning she does in her grave.
Imagine, it's been decades since her death and a career of being exploited as a Hollywood sex symbol, yet her achievements as an actress are still usurped by her tawdry reputation as main squeeze to President Kennedy. This stunt pretty much verifies that his son will do whatever it takes to sell his product.
Junior tries to look liberated and focused on politics.
In his editor's notebook, Kennedy recalls campaigning for his uncle back in 1980. He knocked at one residence and began his pitch to a young woman holding a baby. Then a man came to the portal, looked at the leaflet in the lady's hand and said, "We're votin' Reagan this year," before slamming the door.
Wrote JFK Jr., "In many families across America, the men are the decision makers when it comes to voting . . . But that's changing and we're better for it."
Are we really changing, John-John? Not according to some of the features in your magazine:
"The Best States for Women" ranks Hawaii as the niftiest place in the nation for wahine because "they get paid nearly as much as men; Hawaii has the smallest income gap of any state." They do? What exactly is the source of verifiable data for this stunning pronouncement? This short, glib feature is already being bandied about by status-quoers in the islands as proof that all is well for the female population in the land of aloha.
"The 20 Most Fascinating Women in Politics" profiles the most intriguing ladies "from the realms of fiction and film, law enforcement and legal aid, Capitol Hill and the White House." This ranking would have been more meaningful, however, if these same women had been featured in a piece titled, "The 20 Most Fascinating People in Politics." A ladies-only format is like saying, "After all the fascinating, influential, powerful men, here are the folks who are left."
The "George Centerfold" shows celebrity Brigitte Bardot, in a sarong, in bed, with her dogs. OK, so she's 61 years old, way older than the girls in Playboy. But the Miss September "Data Sheet" still asks Bardot for such superficial and silly stuff as her height, weight, bust size, turn-ons and "what she can never have enough" of. When is it possible to stop thinking of women as pin-up material? When they're 62?
THERE you have it, Eve, my verdict on George magazine and its famous publisher. Like many men in modern-day society, JFK Jr. might want to believe that he's a New Male but he's the same old story.
It's reflected in his choice of articles and art. It's mirrored in the way he berated his latest girlfriend in public, which unfortunately for him was caught by the paparazzi.
In other words, JFK Jr. is very much like the majority of people in this still patriarchal world - which is why his magazine will be a bonafide hit. My advice: Buy stock.