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Report: Cristiano Ronaldo Outraged He Shared VF Cover with Drogba

Page Six reports footballer Cristiano Ronaldo's diva-like behavior after he learned that he shared the June 2010 Vanity Fair cover with rival Didier Drogba.

"Rivalry between two of the world's best players is strong, and Ronaldo's team, Portugal, will take on Drogba's Ivory Coast in their opening World Cup match June 15. One source told us that Ronaldo... has complained Vanity Fair widely used his image to market its June issue. 'Ronaldo is freaking out,' the source said. 'He says he wants to sue Vanity Fair for using his image to promote the issue everywhere. Even though this is pretty standard practice in the magazine world, he and his managers insist only they have control of his image and where it can be used. But no legal action has been launched, and there are whispers that what really upset Ronaldo was that, having stripped off to his underpants for the shoot in Madrid, he didn't envisage sharing the cover with another player photographed in Milan.' Ronaldo, 25, became the highest-paid soccer player in the world last June when Real Madrid bought him from Manchester United for a record-breaking $130 million."

In related news: The football diva had a rather forgettable night Monday against Cape Verde, not scoring and "[having] little impact despite playing 90 minutes."

Head to your local Borders and you might find a prominent display of Ronaldo and Drogba in their  "custom made" underwear.  We snapped an image AFTER THE JUMP ...

Cristiano Ronaldo and Didier Drogba's "Vanity Fair" Striptease

Ivory Coast footballer Didier Drogba and Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo strip down to their square cut short-shorts to cover the June 2010 Vanity Fair. Photographer Annie Leibowitz captured a number of leading international footballers in patriotic underwear for the World Cup-themed issue.

Another image plus watch the behind-the-scenes video where Ghana's Sulley Mantari gets a lil fresh with Cameroonian football hotness Samuel Eto'o AFTER THE JUMP ...

FIRST LOOK: Shirtless Tiger Woods Covers February 2010 "Vanity Fair"

A barechested, pre-scandal Tiger Woods—wearing a skully and lifting weights, no less—gets the Annie Leibovitz cover photo treatment in the February 2010 Vanity Fair. The article essays the sports superstar's fall from grace and offers a few choice tidbits about his now-legendary reckless and "raw" womanizing:

Tiger’s story has been driven by sex, tons of it, in allegedly all different varieties: threesomes in which he greatly enjoyed girl-on-girl, and mild S&M (featuring hair-pulling and spanking); $60,000 pay-for-sex escort dates; a quickie against the side of a car in a church parking lot; a preference for porn stars and nightclub waitresses, virtually all of them with lips almost as thick as their very full breasts; drug-bolstered encounters designed to make him even more of a conquistador (Ambien, of all things); immature sex-text messages (“Send me something naughty ... Go to the bathroom and take [a picture],” “I will wear you out ... When was the last time you got [laid]?”); soulful confessions that he got married only for image and was bored with his wife; regular payments of between $5,000 and $10,000 each month to keep his harem quiet. It’s all there and more in what is the greatest single fall in popularity of a nonpolitician in [history].

Oh and just in case you didn't hear: FOX News' anchor Brit Hume says for Woods to truly recover from his sex and drugs addictions, Woods must abandon Buddhism because it does not have "the kind of forgiveness and redemption offered by the Christian faith." Hume tells Woods: "Turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world."

Of course, Brit. Because conservative "Christians" never cheat on their wives, riiiight? Right. Watch Brit Hume's proselytizing on FOX "News" AFTER THE JUMP...

Michelle Obama Covers "Vogue"

Last night Rod 2.0 reported First Lady Michelle Obama would grace the March cover of Vogue, becoming only the second first lady in history to do so. The embargo has been lifted and here is your first look at the cover.

The cover was photographed in January by Annie Leibovitz at the Hay-Adams Hotel in Washington. The magenta silk dress is by inaugural gown designer Jason Wu. In the two interior portraits, the First Lady wears a curve-fitting Narciso Rodriguez dress and a J.Crew salmon wool cardigan and tweed skirt.

"I love clothes," Obama says in the profile, written by Vogue editor-at-large André Leon Talley and  chock-full of Talley's typical and insuffrerable name dropping and fabulousity. "I first met Mrs. Obama at an impromptu dinner at Oprah Winfrey's house in Santa Barbara, California, on the eve of the divine Ms. O's Legends Ball in 2005. I was seated between the then Senator Barack Obama's wife and Tina Turner. ..."  Skip past Talley's self-indulgence and the article is a fascinating read.

With the exception of Bess Truman, Vogue has photographed every first lady dating to Lou Hoover in 1929. This is only the second time in Vogue's 117-year history that a first lady has made the cover. (Hillary Clinton was first in December 1998.) Michelle Obama is also one of the very few black women to cover Vogue. Congratulations to First Lady Michelle Obama for becoming the new muse of American fashion.

Alex Rodriguez Covers "Men's Vogue", Refuses Some Questions

This is interesting. Just last week, socially unaware basketball gazilionaire LeBron James received jeers for his historic albeit ridiculous cover of Vogue. This week, the newish Men's Vogue debuts its newest issue, and, controversial baseball phenom Alex Rodriguez is (finally) getting some good press. Well, almost.

The $275 million dollar man is the face of the "Adrenaline Issue", devoted to men in sports, with the cover art also being lensed by celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz. The interview is a mixed bag. It seems that after the photo shoot in Miami, "Rodriguez decided he'd be more comfortable answering questions emailed to his new handler." Call it another example of his diva-like behavior, or, fear of being misquoted, but the Yankees third baseman reportedly "refused to respond to a handful of queries on subjects such as his reputation among his peers and well-documented insecurity."

Just as a point of reference, LeBron James was the first black man to cover Vogue in its 114-year history, but, at least 4 of the 12 covers of Men's Vogue—Denzel Washington, Barack Obama, Will Smith, Tiger Woods—have been black men.

Lightning Rod [Men's Vogue]

LeBron James Covers "Vogue" and Not Everyone is Pleased

Superstar basketball player LeBron James becomes the first black man to cover Vogue in its 115-year history. Photographer Annie Leibovitz captures the image of James and supermodel Gisele Bundchen and, "his mouth wide open and teeth exposed holding a trophy, so to speak," notes Jasmyne Cannick, who, like many critics have compared the cover to the iconic image of King Kong and actress Fay Wray.

ESPN columnist Jemelle Hill also notes the similarity:

"LeBron has Gisele in one hand and a basketball in the other. LeBron is dressed in basketball gear, with his muscles flexing, tattoos showing and bared teeth. Gisele, on the other hand, is wearing a gorgeous slim-fitting dress, and smiling.

"She looks like she's on her way to something fashionable and exciting. He looks like he's on his way to a pickup game for serial killers.

"Now, maybe the point was to show the contrast between brawn and beauty, masculinity versus femininity, strength versus grace. But Vogue's quest to highlight the differences between superstar athletes and supermodels only successfully reinforces the animalistic stereotypes frequently associated with black athletes."

LeBron James would have cut a dashing figure in a Lanvin or Armani suit, but, that was probably not "fashion forward" enough for Anna Wintour. Given his stardom, the baller could have insisted on a more flattering image. Then again, this is the same LeBron James that was the only member of the Cleveland Cavaliers to refuse to publicly condemn the Chinese government for its role in the ongoing genocide in Darfur. LeBron James has become the caricature of a ridiculously wealthy entertainer with no social conscience.

LeBron Should Be More Careful with His Image [ESPN]
Regarding Vogue’s April Cover Photo [JC]

Some Background ...
"We All Witness" Darfur Except LeBron James [R20]

Mikhail Gobachev for Louis Vuitton

Following in the footsteps of über-hip fashionistas such as Pharrell Williams and Jennifer Lopez, Mikhail S. Gorbachev becomes the latest high-profile model for Louis Vuitton. The half-page ad featuring the last president of the Soviet Union appears in the September Vogue and was lensed by Annie Leibovitz.

Eric Wilson, one of the top fashion writers at The New York Times, previews the new promotional campaign by the luxury goods brand which hopes "to emphasize the company’s heritage in luggage and travel accessories." Other celebrities include "Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf cuddling in a hotel room, their bags not yet unpacked; Catherine Deneuve resting on a trunk in front of a steaming locomotive; and Mr. Gorbachev in the back of a car with a duffel bag on the seat next to him. Of the group, Mr. Gorbachev appears the least comfortable. He is holding on to a door handle, as if the bag contained polonium 210."

Not that former Soviet apparatchiks would know anything about transporting lethal radioactive isotopes, but, if they did, hopefully their luggage would be more functional.

Gorbachev Made Me Buy It [NYT]

Some Background ...

Pharrell Williams for Louis Vuitton [R20]