ASSOCIATED PRESS: LeBron James is striking a pose. The Cleveland Cavaliers‘ superstar will appear on the April cover of Vogue, joining actors Richard Gere and George Clooney as the only men to do so in the influential fashion magazine’s 116-year history. Wearing a tank top, shorts and sneakers from his own Nike clothing line, James appears on the cover dribbling a basketball and screaming as if in game mode while throwing one arm around supermodel Gisele Bundchen with Tom Brady nowhere to be found. The pairing of the All-Star forward and the runway icon was shot in January by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz in James’ hometown of Akron, Ohio. “It’s pretty good,” James said Thursday night before the Cavs’ game in Washington. “Me being a big guy and a big supporter of fashion, to be on the cover with Gisele, on the cover of the biggest fashion magazine ever — it’s pretty good.” MORE
JEZEBEL: Have you heard? There’s a black man on the cover of the April 2008 Vogue. (Richard Gere and George Clooney are the only other men ever to be on the cover, reports Time magazine.) Vogue does not have a history of embracing African-Americans on its covers. Back in November, Portfolio‘s Jeff Bercovici pointed out that while 4 out of 12 covers of Men’s Vogue had black men; when Jennifer Hudson hit the cover of Vogue last March, she was only the third African-American celebrity to do so, though the magazine was founded in 1914. But on the cover of new issue, Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James seems to be embodying ugly stereotypes about black men: The wild, savage, white-woman-obsessed beast. MORE