Another week, another Newsweek cover ginning up controversy — or at least column inches.
Tina Brown’s latest contribution is a sexually suggestive photo of asparagus spears dangling into the open mouth of an unidentified woman. The adjoining cover story lists the world’s 101 best places to eat, as chosen by a few dozen celebrity chefs.
While the magazine’s Michele Bachmann cover photo and its illustration of Princess Diana at 50 were contentious and original efforts, the asparagus photo has been featured in at least two other magazines. Eater.com reports that the UK’s Observer Food Monthly ran the photo on its cover in April 2008. In May 2012, the photo also appeared in the Russian edition of Harper’s Bazaar.
Realizing at least its international readers may have seen the photo before, Newsweek turned on the self-deprecating charm:
Asparagasp! sorry for our crudite…wish we’d been first but
@obsfood beat us to it…great mags eat alike; bit.ly/MLni4N— NewsBeastPR (@NewsBeastPR) August 7, 2012
Below is the magazine’s full cover:
