John F. Kennedy Jr tried and often failed to get A-listers to work with his magazine "George".
Executive assistant Rosemarie Terenzio said that John F. Kennedy Jr, who founded "George" with Michael J. Berman in 1995, was turned down for an interview by Princess Diana after they met for tea.
“We wanted to put Princess Diana on the cover. There were all these calls back and forth; she was in town and staying at the Carlyle.
“I can't remember who hatched this scheme that he should go in disguise. We were laughing and carrying on: ‘Oh, go in as this’ or ‘Go in as that.’ And finally, he was like, ‘I’m not going anywhere in disguise, that's the stupidest thing ever.’ It just wasn't him.
“He had tea with her. When he came out, I said, ‘Well, how was she?’ And he's like, ‘She's tall, taller than I thought. She's very nice, shy, a little coy. But she's not going to do it.’ At the end of the day, all he cared about was getting a yes to the cover of George. Everything else was kind of, whatever.”
Princess Diana. (Getty Images)
John Jr. once tried to get pose Madonna to pose as his mother Jackie Kennedy for a cover, but the pop star turned him down, joking that her “eyebrows weren’t thick enough," the Daily Mail reports.
"George" co-founder Berman recalled: ”He wanted to do a cover about his mother. Something about telling the truth, it was his idea. He wanted somebody dressed like his mother sitting on a pile of every book that's ever been written about her.
“And I was like, ‘It sounds great, but we don't need the books.’ He called Madonna and asked her to do it. We were like, 'Holy s**t, you're going to see Jackie Kennedy on the cover with the sunglasses and the hair and then you're going to look again and it's Madonna.’”
Madonna. (Getty Images)
But Madonna, who is alleged to have had an affair with John Jr in 1988, refused.
Terenzio said: "He faxed Madonna a note. And she called, I remember she left a voicemail. ‘Hi, it's Madonna calling for John. I don't know if this is the right number, but this is the number that he gave me’ — clearly annoyed that she was in voicemail.
“So he told her the idea, and she faxed a note back. It said, ‘Dear Johnny Boy’ — because she loved to fuck with him — ‘Thanks for asking me to be your mother, but I'm afraid I could never do her justice. My eyebrows aren't thick enough, for one. When you want me to portray Eva Braun, I might say yes.’”
"George" closed in 2001, two years after the death of John F Kennedy Jr on July 16, 1999.
* Originally published in 2019, updated in 2023.
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