Did Vanity Fair tamper with Beyoncé Knowles' skin tone for its latest cover? Radar Online says it did, but the magazine vehemently denies the charge. We'll let you decide since neither side is backing down.
The trouble began Friday when Radar Online, a pop culture magazine's Web edition, featured an article claiming it was told by a high-level anonymous source at Vanity Fair that the magazine digitally altered Knowles' photos, making her appear several shades lighter.
"We reported this based on information we got from an impeccable source who we have spoken to before and have interviewed for this [the article]," said Christopher Tennant, Radar's online editor. "The item stands for itself and we stand behind it."
Vanity Fair spokesperson Beth Kseniak said the company is outraged by the allegation and called the article "completely ridiculous."
This is not the first time the CondéNast publication has run into controversy for its content. Not since 1998 has a black person graced the cover of Vanity Fair. That cover featured Michael Jordan, Will Smith and a clown-faced Chris Rock. The last time a black person stood alone on the cover was Tina Turner in 1993. Since then, the magazine has been criticized for its lack of racial diversity by many organizations and celebrities including Halle Berry, whose cover mysteriously never made it to print.
Vanity Fair was in the news two years ago for the insensitive comments on the need to learn Spanish made by satirical advice columnist Dame Edna. The comments so offended Latino groups that they called for a boycott of the magazine and Dame Edna performances. (See also: Dame Edna's Vanity Fair Comments Infuriate Latinos)
The current cover shows Knowles in a typical fashion-magazine pose with windblown hair, dressed in a shiny Zaldy dress. In addition to the feature piece on her career and relationship with hip-hop artist Jay-Z, two other articles are about hip-hop artists and the history of the music genre, complimented by the four-page ad for Roca Wear, Jay-Z's line of clothing.
The Radar article states that the glamour magazine's declining newsstand sales, which currently stand at 1,136,824, according to June 2005 Audit Bureau of Circulation numbers, has the publishers uneasy. Radar's Andrew Goldstein wrote, "Convinced that a series of gloomy covers has contributed to the slump, says our source, the wing-haired editor [Graydon Carter] ordered his art department to lighten up its act. Unfortunately, staffers got so carried away they ended up lightening Beyoncé as well." The source also told him that Knowles' medium-dark complexion' was airbrushed to a 'Jennifer Lopez shade of bronze to fit in with the magazine's cheery new aesthetic.'
"I told [Goldstein] if you must know the truth, her publicist said she's probably a shade darker because of all the makeup and the lighting," said Kseniak, who added that she is asking Radar to pull the article off its Web site. This, however, appears to be unlikely.
Earlier today, Radar added an update to the story in which Knowles' personal publicist, Yvette Noel-Schure, who did not respond to DiversityInc's telephone calls, commented on the argument over her client's cover. She said in the Radar story that while she is unaware of the procedures of the magazine's art department, she did not think they lightened the photos. "There are very fair-skinned black people in this world, and Beyoncé is one of them," she said.
It's par for course with this kind of story that they try to defend themselves, but we stand behind our sources and the article," said Tennant. "I wouldn't say it's the most diverse publication on the planet. You can judge for yourself by looking back on all their other covers. But if you look on the inside, at the picture of [Knowles] where she is being held up by a group of white guys, she looks like a Caucasian girl."
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Sunday, October 16th 2005 at 1:18PM
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