Kimye Vogue cover creates buzz
It is perhaps the most controversial cover in high-fashion magazine Vogue's history, generating spoofs, boycotts and backlash only days after being unveiled.
And US Vogue editor-in-chief *Anna Wintour *is already having to defend her decision to place celebrity couple *Kanye West *and *Kim Kardashian *on the front of the glossy's April edition.
Shot by celebrated photographer *Annie Leibovitz *, the image shows Kardashian, in a Lanvin wedding dress, being hugged by West from behind and is accompanied by the headline "Kim & Kanye: Their fashionable life and surreal times #WorldsMostTalkedAboutCouple".
On the inside pages, the couple appear walking down a desert highway and lounging in a private jet. Their nine-month-old daughter *North West *also makes a cameo appearance.
Though she initially claimed she would put the reality starlet on the cover of Vogue "over my dead body", Wintour, inset, reportedly changed her mind on the issue after being pressured by West to showcase his fiancee in the publication.
But the notorious editrix seems to have pre-empted the controversy that would come with the cover in her editor's letter for the issue, pointing out that it was her duty to feature those who defined pop culture at any given moment.
"I think we can all agree on the fact that that role is currently being played by Kim and Kanye to a T. (Or perhaps that should be to a K?)," Wintour wrote.
"As for the cover, my opinion is that it is both charming and touching, and it was, I should add, entirely our idea to do it; you may have read that Kanye begged me to put his fiancee on Vogue's cover. He did nothing of the sort."
She added Kardashian had "real guts" to cement herself in the glare of the world's spotlight and praised her strength of character.
Similar to the overwhelming response generated by West's recent Bound 2 video clip, which features the buxom brunette nude on a motorcycle, the cover has already been the subject of several spoofs by other famous faces.
James Franco *and *Seth Rogen *have poked fun at the celebrity duo by Photoshopping their heads on to the cover, while the Muppets also have joined in by recreating the snap with *Kermit the Frog * and *Miss Piggy *taking the places of West and Kardashian.
However, not everyone is taking such a lighthearted view of the situation, with former Buffy star *Sarah Michelle Gellar *urging her fans to boycott the magazine.
The actress announced she was cancelling her subscription, hinting she disapproved of the decision to feature the engaged pair, who are set to marry in Paris in May.
"Well . . . I guess I'm cancelling my Vogue subscription. Who is with me???," Gellar wrote on Twitter.
While many of the blonde actress' followers
agreed with her, Kardashian's best friend *Jonathan Cheban *was unimpressed by
Gellar's comment. He retweeted the
message, adding: "Do u matter? (sic)"
Other fashion enthusiasts flocked to Twitter as well to challenge the logic of Wintour making a sophisticated cover girl out of a Hollywood celebrity who more regularly appears in downmarket tabloids.
"Hell hath frozen over," tweeted Canadian fashion magazine Flare, while style bloggers *Tom Fitzgerald *and *Lorenzo Marquez *said: "This is NOTHING about fashion."
