WHAT WAS VOGUE THINKING?
smoking gun?
Harry Allen - the OG Media Assassin - has been on top of this LeBron/Vogue controversy for a minute now and recently posted up what he claims is the original inspiration for that Vogue cover.
There might be some teensy wiggle room that this could be "just a coincidence" but that's a hard argument to tow and what Allen points out is especially damning is the silence coming from the magazine and photographer themselves.
Question: this is a real suspect look for Vogue and Leibovitz but when's the last time the fashion industry really made a good look when it came to race? Or gender? Or class? The idea that Vogue would do something racially inane is about as surprising as, say, gender inequality in mainstream Hollywood film. Which isn't to say that we shouldn't be outraged and pissed off and vocal but what's the realistic end game here? I get the feeling that Vogue and the Leibovitz will just ride the storm out unless this somehow gets elevated to Imusian levels (paging Oprah! Paging LeBron's political consciousness, if it even exists!).
By the way, do listen to that NPR piece by Peter Sagal, bashing Horton Hears a Hoo for being yet another example of Hollywood's rampant and oft-ignored sexism. Daughters of the world, unite!
