10 magazine covers that created news

Rolling Stone

The Passion of Kanye West

• Never one to shy away from an attention-grabbing gambit, superstar rapper Kanye West graced the cover of Rolling Stone just weeks before the Grammy Awards, complete with a crown of thorns and bloody, Christ-like wounds. Even for a man who comes blessed with one large egosaurus, was comparing himself to Jesus too much? Conservative and Christian groups thought so, but when all was said and done, the world was ready to forgive and forget when West unveiled a new album and some nifty glow-in-the-dark tour effects.

Time

Bill Clinton, with horns

• It’s an honour to be named Time’s Man of the Year, no doubt. But what, per chance, was Time trying to tell us by framing President Clinton in front of the letter ‘M’? Are those devil horns, or just the tips of an ordinary, harmless and completely innocent consonant?

Vogue

Gisele Bündchen and LeBron James

• Famed photographer Annie Leibovitz again incited hysterical reactions when she photographed Gisele Bündchen and LeBron James for the April 2008 cover of Vogue. The issue marked the first time a black man had graced the cover of the magazine. But the stark juxtaposition of the two caused a stir, with one critic on ESPN.com concluding, “Vogue’s quest to highlight the differences between superstar athletes and supermodels only successfully reinforces the animalistic stereotypes frequently associated with black athletes.”

Time

OJ Simpson, digitally enhanced

•Shortly after the arrest of OJ Simpson in 1994, Newsweek and Time ran photos of his original police mug shot. The one on the cover of Time, however, was altered to look a bit darker than the original police photograph. Newsweek ran the shot untouched. Heated discussions about race in America quickly followed.

Rolling Stone

John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s nude embrace

•Photographer Annie Leibovitz has said the original concept for the now legendary John Lennon and Yoko Ono Rolling Stone cover was for both to appear nude, designed to mark the release of their album Double Fantasy. As legend has it, Lennon was game, shedding his clothes quickly, but Ono felt uncomfortable. That same night, December 8, 1980, he was shot and killed by a fan in front of his Manhattan apartment.