In an attempt to cash in on the Royal Baby hype, as some tFS forum members assumed, Vanity Fair used a shot featuring the late Princess Diana for the cover of its September Style Issue. The photo, taken by Mario Testino, has appeared in the magazine multiple times before and seems to be a questionable choice for the September cover of the magazine. Although Vanity Fair is known for its love to use dead celebrities as cover stars, tFS forum members questioned the magazine’s ethics in this case as the tagline promises to reveal all about “Diana’s true love,” making it seem like we can expect a gossipy article about details of Diana’s life that she may not have wanted everyone to know.
YoninahAliza wrote, “Diana was haunted by the press during her life and it is incredibly sad that even in death she is too. It’s just sad and annoying that people are still speculating about her love life, she was more than just tabloid fodder and pretty clothes. Ugh, sorry, as someone who’s been a fan of Princess Diana since a little girl, covers like this Vanity Fair one just get on my nerves. Of course it is a beautiful photograph but Vanity Fair‘s penchant for profiling dead people is a bit awful.”
She was not the only one who found Vanity Fair’s strategy here ethically questionable. Bertrando3 and justaguy also criticized Vanity Fair for its choice to use Princess Diana for the cover with such a headline. More complaints about the cover arose in other posts.
“Oh, Vanity Fair. It’s a lovely shot of a truly beautiful woman, but really? Trying to be a well-timed cash in on the Royal-moment of William & Kate’s baby no doubt. There wasn’t anyone else more appropriate for their September Style issue?” commented honeycombchild, who was not the only one to point out the not-so-coincidental timing of this article.
GivenchyHomme is not happy with magazines using dead celebrities for their covers in general and remarked, “You know we live in sad times when a major magazine chooses dead subjects rather than relevant (and living) people. Maybe it’s cheaper for them to license out old photographs rather than splurging on something original.”
I can’t say I ever feel disappointed when I see Princess Diana on a magazine cover, as she will always seem more relevant to me than the current crop of Hollywood starlets and reality TV personalities, but the whole intention behind publishing such an article seems dubious and it comes across as rather tasteless. No matter how beautiful this cover is, it looks like this will not be one of our favorite September issues of the year.
