from Maxim Magazine
Maxim's December issue is out with one of those popular flip-covers that provide a valuable opportunity to maximize advertising/trick hapless readers into buying two copies at the newsstand. On one side they've got Angelina Jolie and her beestung lips as "Woman Of The Year" and on the other they've got Borat and a cover that would be totally played out by now were it not for the coverlines done up in still-not-quite-old-yet Borat-speak. But upon closer examination, a discovery: Neither subject actually provided an original interview to accompany their covers.
Both Jolie and Borat were selected as recipients for the much-coveted Maxim "Awesome Awards," with Jolie earmarked for the "real" cover and Borat chosen for the flipcover to package Maxim's holiday gift guide (or, as the kids say, "100 ways to ROCK the holidays!"). As "Woman of the Year," Jolie had the cover plus four-page feature, with 3 1/3 pages of photos and a short write-around interview that reads like it could have been published in Parade: ""[Y]ou probably never imagined this impossible beauty...would become the self-determined woman she is today"; with a heart "as big as Jupiter" and "fiery beauty" that is "a natural extension of her personality." (I checked to make sure this wasn't a press release but no, it was written by executive editor James Heidenry and contributor Jason Kersten). According to a Maxim source, the Borat pic was from an original shoot (as part of a previous feature) while Jolie's were from Corbis Outline. The mag confirmed that Jolie's camp had provided the images and signed off on the "Woman of the Year" designation, though they had declined to provide an interview.
Given the level of Maxim's usual cover girl it's not surprising that Jolie would decline to sit for a Maxim cover (three "One Tree Hill" girls do not an Angelina Jolie make). Even so, it provides a stark contrast to access afforded the other men's magazines: For example, Esquire with their "Sexiest Woman Alive" Scarlett Johannsen (interview, cover and photo gallery), and GQ's "Obsession of 2006" Lindsay Lohan (interview and photo shoot) (though, to be fair, Maxim did have Jessica Simpson, who sold very well...in July). While write-arounds are obviously not unheard of, they are not exactly the stuff of breathless press releases, either (and a note on those: Maxim's had exactly one since June). Still, editor Jimmy Jellinek said earlier this month that cover decisions are the product of "a tremendous amount of research, testing, polling, [and ] focus groups" so perhaps the tradeoff appeal of Jolie's cover hotness cancels out the fact that the mag actually has nothing new to offer (even for the most, ah, basic of Maxim reader needs; the accompanying article focuses heavily on Jolie's charitable work and even provides links for getting involved. One would surmise that seeing "globalactionforchildren.org" would cancel out whatever stimulative effects a scantily-clad Jolie might have. And if you don't get where we're going with by now, then never mind).
At any rate, the write-around Jolie cover may be what Maxim needs to goose its newsstand sales, which are down here (by approximately 14% as of June 2006 per ABC, and a whopping 35.8% circulation drop in the UK). But all things considered, it's an eyebrow raise.
