Shape Editor Apologises for LeAnn Rimes Cover

Shape magazine has said sorry for putting an annoying, vapid, cheating whore on their cover. And aside from my editorialising and adding of the word ‘whore’, that’s pretty much what they said and the sentiment behind how they said it. Seriously. And, I effing love them for it. I also have a newly-renewed faith in the dying print journalism industry. The magazine’s editor has issued an apology for using Rimes on the October 2010 cover; a cover clumsily-titled ‘LeAnn Rimes: How Working Out Saved Me’, suggesting exercise healed wounds she didn’t have as the co-perpetrator of two family break-ups. Rimes previously admitted she’d cheated on her ex-husband with someone who was married and who has children. Generally, she was being a brazen tart and lacking in self-awareness to a level that was more alarming than any celebrity behaviour I’d seen in some time.

Valerie Latona, editor of Shape, sent a mass-email to subscribers. She felt compelled to address the situation because many readers complained about the tackiness of the cover model and themes in the interview. She was right to do so. There was almost entirely negative commentary about this cover. People didn’t like it, or her. ‘You are all in good company, as you all agree Shape has made a terrible mistake in putting LeAnn Rimes on the cover,’ Latona began. ‘Please know that our putting her on the cover was not meant to put a husband-stealer on a pedestal but to show (through her story) how we all are human,’ she continued. ‘And this woman in particular found strength in exercise in what she said was her most difficult personal moment.’ However, ‘It did not come across that way. And for that I’m terribly sorry. I hope that we can do better the next time for those of you that will give us another chance’.