Julia Louis-Dreyfus, “Seinfeld” veteran and veep in the HBO series “Veep,” appears mostly naked on the cover of an upcoming issue of Rolling Stone magazine, with something that’s supposed to look like the Constitution tattooed on her back.
On Twitter, Louis-Dreyfus blamed alcohol. “In my defense, “I was in a drunken stupor” [sic] #crackexcuse,” she wrote. The media — Slate, The Huffington Post, Jezebel, et. al. - zeroed in on a fact-checking error in the photo. Though John Hancock’s signature appears on Louis-Dreyfus’s lower back in the image, the president of the Second Continental Congress didn’t sign the Constitution, but the Declaration of Independence.
The cover of the April 24, 2014, issue of Rolling Stone magazine. (AP Photo/Rolling Stone, Mark Seliger)
The last time an HBO star courted controversy with a magazine cover, the conversation was much different. When “Girls” creator Lena Dunham appeared on the cover of Vogue in February, she became a target of feminist criticism. Jezebel paid $10,000 for allegedly unaltered images from the shoot and published them.
“It’s clearer than ever what kind of woman Vogue finds Vogue-worthy: The taller, longer-limbed, svelter version of reality,” Jezebel wrote. Dunham, in turn, criticized Jezebel.
“They made such a monumental error in their approach to feminism,” she told Grantland. “It felt gross.”
No word on whether the Louis-Dreyfus cover was altered — or whether she, like Dunham, will be pilloried for her choice.
“There is sexism – I’m not denying its existence,” she told Rolling Stone. “But I’m saying that I will deny its effort against me. I just pay it no nevermind and say, ‘Get out of my way.’”
