What’s behind all the titillation? Sexy covers sell, but editors claim they don’t deliberately go after nudity. “I didn’t ask [Locklear] to take her clothes off,” says Entertainment Weekly editor James Seymore, “though I didn’t demand she put her shirt on and reshoot either.” Cover subjects, says Seymore, “seemed to like the attention. It’s no longer scandalous. People are dropping trou at the drop of a hat.” The topless covers will soon get boring and go away, says Rolling Stone director of photography Laurie Kratochvil. But Vanity Fair editor E. Graydon Carter has higher hopes. “Our photographs are art,” he declares. “You’re likely to see them hanging in a gallery or a museum.” Probably not, but give Carter points for esthetic climbing: VF’s November cover shows a nude Sly Stallone posed like Rodin’s “The Thinker.” Look out, Louvre.
