The magazine business is hurting right now. Every month, a handful of magazines announce that they’re folding or going strictly digital. And ESPN magazine is trying its hardest not to be one of those mags that falls from grace.
Its plan? Get a bunch of athletes to get naked for the cover. This month, “The Body Issue” will hit shelves with a naked Serena Williams gracing the cover. Williams is one of six athletes featured on six covers. Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard and MMA fighter Gina Carano are among the athletes that also join Williams in having their own covers.
“The issue honors athletes of diverse shapes, sizes, genders and races within the boundaries of taste and frontiers of creativity upon which ESPN The Magazine and ESPN have built their reputations,” ESPN magazine said in a press release. “It is a testament to the work the athletes do, the effort they exert and the price they sometimes pay in reliance on their most important asset – their bodies.”
The issue will hit shelves Oct. 9 and feature more than 80 athletes, including Jacksonville Jaguars receiver Torry Holt, boxer Manny Pacquiao, U.S.A. Soccer’s Natasha Kai and WNBA’s Cappie Pondexter of the Phoenix Mercury
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Remember The Gong Show? Hosted by Chuck Barris who was character himself, The Gong Show presented a contest between amateur performers of often dubious talent, with a panel of three celebrity judges. The popular show appeared on NBC in the later part of the 70s.
An Australian variety show entitled ‘Hey Hey It’s Saturday’, seem to be a carbon copy of The Gong Show with bad taste.
New Orleans native Harry Connick Jr. was serving as a guest judge on Wednesday night’s show when he became visibly shocked by a skit featuring performers parodying the Jackson Five while in black face.
Four white Australian men with afro wigs and dark make-up calling themselves the “Jackson Jive” sang and danced behind a Michael Jackson impersonator wearing white makeup.
An outraged Connick gave the skit a zero and later confronted the shows host who immediately apologized.
Host Daryl Sommers explained that the performers who are medical doctors down under had actually performed the skit twenty years ago when they were medical students and won the competition.
They were not winners to Harry Connick, who made it clear to audience that this was not acceptable and had he known about the skit he would not have agreed to participate as a celebrity guest judge.
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