John F. Kennedy Jr. had a tried and true way of selling George, his magazine, which had the tagline “not just politics as usual,” sexy women on the cover.
In “JFK Jr., George, & Me,” out Tuesday, the glossy’s former creative director Matt Berman tells how his handsome boss got involved in booking Cindy Crawford to pose as George Washington, with an exposed midriff, for the inaugural 1995 issue. Later, they got Claudia Schiffer to pose in nothing but a Clinton-Gore banner.
Berman also tells how, at the last minute (and to the tune of $20,000 wasted), Pamela Anderson cancelled a cover shoot where she was to pose nude as Eve. The editors had to scramble to get Kate Moss to replace her.
“Kate didn’t need a partitioned set. She handed her robe to the stylist, walked into our dreamlike garden, and took her position amidst the foliage and the live animals as naturally as Eve herself.
The book includes the story of how Martin Scorsese held a private screening of “Casino” for JFK Jr., who wanted Robert De Niro for a cover.
“Five minutes into the movie, I heard snoring, looked over, and saw John, People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive, with his head back, mouth open, dead asleep. I hoped Mr. Scorsese couldn’t see him.”
Berman seems to have saved every photo and scrap of paper from those days, including a note criticizing a page layout with a photograph of Norman Mailer.
The note reads: “Matt, Norman is the biggest deal we have in the magazine but his head is the size of a zit. Could we make it a bit bigger. JK”