Perhaps the two most yearned for achievements of the new Trump administration entail a couple of pure vanity projects meant to do nothing but satiate the unsatiable Trump need for accolades, indications that they have reached the top of elite culture (ironic) – and these are personal, screw the country. As is well documented, Donald Trump is willing to kill to get his Nobel Peace Prize – though unwilling to cross or pressure Putin, and Melania has yearned for that Vanity Fair and/or Vogue cover probably before her days as First Lady 1.0 and then pouted as if being denied a birthright. We have seen Trump really go to the mat lately for the Peace Prize, and Conde Naste, the owner of Vanity Fair, is apparently in such fear of the Trump administration that they are now considering the previously unthinkable- putting Mel on the cover of Vanity Fair.
We have a report from Rawstory on the situation over at Vanity Fair:
The new global editorial director of venerable publication Vanity Fair is confronting a firestorm of his own making by floating the prospect of putting Melania Trump on the cover of the magazine in the near future.
Since takintg over, Mark Guiducci has been forcing out longtime writers and restaffing the Condé Nast publication in an effort to put his own stamp on Vanity Fair.
No problem with a new executive editor wanting to put his own stamp on Vanity Fair; big problem that it involves a woman who cannot be bothered to even really show up as First Lady, and never mind that she tends to be aloof and entitled when she does. She is the matter/anti-matter to Jill Biden, America’s gorgeous sweetheart. The staff at Vanity Fair is dead serious about quitting the publication should it put Mel on the cover. No real surprise because if they were to do so, it would be so against Vanity Fair tradition and standards as to render it a new publication anyway.
One editor speaking with the Daily Mail tabloid, “I will walk out the motherf–-ing door, and half my staff will follow me.” Another staffer complained, “We are not going to normalize this despot and his wife; we’re just not going to do it. We’re going to stand for what’s right,” before adding, “If I have to work bagging groceries at Trader Joe’s, I’ll do it. If [Guiducci] puts Melania on the cover, half of the editorial staff will walk out, I guarantee it. ”Another bluntly stated, “It sickens me – even the idea of it.”
The latest divide over MAGA coverage and loyalty is just another example of a bipolar country, where the political halves divide up their loyalty and business to align with their politics, creating consumer halves. It doesn’t matter if it is Cracker Barrel, Target, Chick-fil-A, or even Bud Light, Americans are increasingly staying home when it comes to supporting those businesses that support the other side.
The irony is that there have been a few examples of companies that have attempted to cash in by favoring Trump, only to learn that most of their customers come from the Left – Elon Musk’s Tesla being the prime example, followed by Target, and now possibly Vanity Fair. It is hard to imagine how many customers any of the companies above might expect to get from the Right, even if they made a hard move toward Trump.
And just like in politics, there seems to be little middle ground. Sure, companies like Chilis, energy producers, and even the beef industry are largely unaffected by politics. However, any company that even touches on culture, whether it is music, programming, restaurants, or department stores, seems to be left with having to pick sides. Most know that while the billionaires may all be sucking up to Trump, it is the suburban Democrats that have the money to spend to move the needle (See Target.)
But for Vanity Fair to cave, it looks like it is pure intimidation. Melania may exude style in her weird sense – always wanting to look like a model in Paris, and never like an American mom, but Vanity Fair has also always required a decent story to tell. Unless one wants to get into her distant past, during which she was allegedly willing to do anything for money, including soft-core porn, there isn’t a lot of substance on which to report nowadays. She is less of a presence in this administration than in the last. (Incidentally, had she come out and said, “I was a young girl in NYC, lied to about modeling possibilities, and did all I could to survive,” one would have to probably tip their cap and say, “Yes, that is understandable, and none of our business.” It is the piousness that is so offensive, as if she were better than all that which is in front of our faces.)
So Vanity Fair now faces a dilemma. They can acquiesce and give Mel her longed-for cover, hardly earned. And thus avoid the wrath of Melania and the guy in the White House, or they can hold to their principles and not lose half of the most elite writers and editors anywhere in the world.
But isn’t it typical that the way to the Trumps’ hearts isn’t through actual productive or historical accomplishment, but personal vanity that is ultimately as ephemeral as Donald Trump’s Ukrainian peace plan? Same as it ever was. Only this term, Melania can be said to have done even less to earn a spot on the cover.
The bar is so low that she could be a star, at least on the Right and middle, if she just made half an effort. Of course, that is halfway too far. Melania cares about Melania. Period.
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I’ve never done an actual internet search for them but years ago saw some images in some articles of her semi-nude, as I recall one being pouty with another gal. I’d imagine that long before Trump took office again a lot went into burying that stuff. Payoffs and NDAs etc. But images are out there and semi-nude and posing with other models also semi-nude or nude IS soft porn by anyone’s definition.
It wouldn’t be a big deal. Many an actual REAL model, even supermodel has done semi-nude or nude shoots including ‘full frontal.’ Or “flashed” some in a movie scene, Some later come to regret it as they got convinced to do it when they were young but they don’t try to be all preachy about being above such things. And some of them just don’t care that those pics are out there. No big deal to them. Melania’s trying to pretend she was a successful model (she wasn’t) and never having done anything “racy” to pay the bills is her putting a target on her own back.
Did she ‘escort’ a little too as we’re told a lot of models do? I remember seeing the movie Klute when I was growing up (I was tall and my oldest sister had me wear dress slacks and a nice shirt and shield my face as much as I could – it worked) and Jane Fonda’s character was a run-of-the-mill model that would turn a trick now and then. In NYC. It’s easy enough to imagine many such models doing that, including Melania. But for those who want to see her boobs back when I assume they were natural as the X-Files tag line (pun/reference intentional) ‘The truth is out there”
Screen Flashes::: Brings to mind the recent Sharon Stone interviews, IIRC she has a book out now.
“pretty people eating, drinking…thinking they’ve got it made…you better take that diamond ring…you better pawn it babe”. Dylan, Like A Rolling Stone.
jill biden, America’s gorgeous sweetheart??
bwahahahahaha!!
Lousy piece about a bunch of whiny cry babies who will walk out of their job(I swear!) if a former model is put on the cover of a fashion magazine? Can’t make this shit up!