Sofia Vergara covers the Spanish July issue of Vanity Fair, and she’s smoking a ciggie in grand fashion from the front of the magazine. Yes, I get this is an obvious “she’s smoking hot” message dreamt up by the photographer and approved by VF itself; but in this day and age, it’s a bit shocking to see what is essentially an advertisement for cigarettes on the cover of a (fairly) well-respected magazine. Maybe I’m making too big of a deal out of a silly metaphor though.
As for the other shot released by Vanity Fair, Sofia looks absolutely gorgeous in a tight black dress. I’m also envious of her highlights as I am obsessed with achieving the perfect set of subtle highlights. My current hairstylist does a pretty good job, but I’m thinking of taking this photo to her on my next visit.
Meanwhile, Sofia’s on-off boyfriend, politician Nick Loeb, is spitting mad at recent allegations in National Enquirer that he loves a good prostitute, Viagra, and Ecstasy cocktail on occasion. He’s not only publicly refuting these allegations but is also threatening to sue:
Prostitutes, parties in luxury hotel suites? Never!
Sofia Vergara’s boyfriend, Nick Loeb–who recently was accused of getting wild and crazy with a few call girls and living a Charlie-Sheen like adventure while dating the stunning Vergara–is adamantly denying the allegations made by the tabloid, The National Enquirer.
Loeb, who was mulling a U.S. Senate bid for almost a year, says the rumors are simply not true.
“My first priority is to protect the people I love, and I hope they are not impacted by these lies and irresponsible reports,” Loeb told the New York Post.
“I am mortified that false illicit behavior has been attributed to me,” he added. “It’s hurtful and unfair.”
The gossip comes just days after Vergara and Loeb reconciled–after a brief breakup due to repeated arguments.
The New York Post says Loeb, who is the grandson one of the Lehman Brothers, is mulling taking legal action against the tabloid for spreading false rumors.
[From Fox News]
Yes, that’s all well and good to say that the allegations are nonsense and potentially hurtful. But will he actually do something about it and sue the tabloid, or is he just throwing shade? That’s the ultimate question.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and Vanity Fair
It may be shocking in the US, but in Europe smoking is still not a big deal.
People smoke a lot and there is still some aura of coolness about it.
I’m not surprised that this is on a cover, I just think SV was probably paid a bit by the tobacco people to do it: it’s just not a concept that one would go for that easily, in this torrid, horribly humid summer (and still, not as bad a summer as last year’s…yet).
I’m tired of everything having to be sterile and whitewashed so that nothing offends and nothing gives anyone any ideas.
Listen, we all know smoking is bad. If you smoke, you smoke. I don’t smoke. Does this cover offend me? No. Does this cover make me want to try smoking? No.
maybe but smoking always looks “cool” (a real trouble with the young people)
carrie — I get what you are saying. (I am not typing this snarky, so I apologize if it reads that way — not my intent) However, I grew up in an age where we had Joe Camel and Marlboro reward points and on and on. Did smoking look cool? Yes. Did kids smoke? Yes. Did me and my friends smoke? No. We chose not to smoke because our parents kept us informed; we were told it was bad for us. Once I tried smoking, alone in the bathroom. I got caught. I got grounded. I’m just tired of the lack of creative freedom we have now because of how it might offend or encourage a person to act. How about people taking responsibility for themselves and their children? Again, sorry if my tone is unpleasant.
Yep, I agree. I don’t really get all the outrage in the US about smoking, either. It’s a choice, as is drinking: why should it be regarded as a disgusting public offence?
Note that every single person in my family and friend circle smokes or has smoked, and I never ever touched a ciggie. Choices.
I still maintain that this cover concept was somehow pushed by some tobacco lobby, though. It just does not naturally feel very summery.
Vergara is beautiful. Smoking is not.
Smoking is suicide, a slow painful death, one breath at a time.
Blame the photographer, he/she is the one who sets up the shots.
I really think the US media/web overreacts and overblames celebrities for every darned thing citing their need to be role models etc etc. Teenagers will smoke until it becomes cool not to. (Which is happening anyway.) I think middle class people in the USA need more important things to worry about. Try living in Africa. That said, smoking is a horrible habit and death from smoking-related disease is terrible. But, the issue is much more complex than freaking out over images of people smoking. Kids know its dangerous – they do dangerous things coz they are kids.
I think it’s like taking a beautiful photograph, pooping on it & saying, “oh yes! Much better!” the smoking doesn’t add anything but it does take something away.
I dont think you can compare smoking to drinking. If I sit next to you in a bar while you’re smoking, I go home coughing with a sore throat from inhaling your smoke & my hair & clothes reek.. If I sit next to you drinking, maybe I have to listen to some whining or bad jokes but I can walk away without taking the experience with me. You can’t smoke without inflicting it upon other people unless you do it outside huddled in a corner alone.
I have no ethical issues with smoking in pictures like this. It’s just not hot.
Rules and Regulations on Tobacco are quite different in South America, and other Latin European countries. Especially when it comes to permissive marketing.
A big sign though those repetitive “cigarettes will kill you” adds are working: I don’t find the cover sexy at all! Find it rather cheap and tacky.
And usually, The Vergara is always HOT!
Uhm… I think Spain is still a European country, not a South American one….
Thanks corrected it!!!
You could change it again babe… To just European countries 🙂
I believe VF Spain caters also to South American readers. Will have to confirm, but I am quite sure that they’re a big seller in South America.
Thus the leniency in cover shoot. If they were selling to North American, and certain European countries (France, Nothern and some Scandinavian countries), the cigarette would have been a big no-no.
Will check again and get back to you on that.
I’m Dutch, we have magazine covers with people smoking regularly… I’ve lived in Germany same thing. My point didn’t have anything to do with the distribution of this magazine but with the assumption you are making about a magazine from Spain or other European countries, they are the same. I guess it’s just a difference in culture between Europe and the US… We know smoking is bad for you, just like eating fast food for example. So, no need to get back to me, it’s all good!
I don’t like. but it would have been different if it was an American issue. I think it has a different view overseas.
The picture in the black dress looks more like Anne Hathaway than Sofia. As for the ciggie… Meh. They feel much differently about that in Spain than we do here.
No way! Anne has zero sex appeal!
Not really ok with the ciggie in the front cover, if it’s inside the magazine would be more appropriate for me, I guess. But then the “shocking” element would be zero, too. 😉 If I’m not mistaken, outside the US posing with a ciggie is not unusual though.
As a former cigarette smoker I don’t find smoking attractive.
Ok seriously. That photo in the black dress is so heavily photoshopped it looks like an entirely different person.
YES! Looks like Kate Beckinsale to me 😉
Agreed!
Speaking of photoshopping…is everyone okay with the weird thing her hands/arms are doing?? They look disjointed somehow..
Beginning with the the hip hands, hunched back, concaved boobs pose.
Yeah, it looks waaaay ‘shopped. Like the way Jessica Simpson’s cover with her baby, her shoulder and arm was shopped off with only a bit of flesh colored string to pass for her arm! Doesn’t anyone realize how bizarre this looks in print!? Have you ever seen a child’s limbs who has cerebal palsy? The skinniness of their limbs? I think that’s Vanity Fair’s ultimate goal.
Meh, but I don’t find the picture all that great.
Not a good look with her legs wide open like that paired with the ciggabutt and bad hair?
This cover is a fail, imo
Smoking = not hot but I don’t care. Looks like a prop.
Sofia = GD Hot!
LBD = Slytherin!
Who cares. Im certain fast food kills more people.
Agreed!
Same here
And alcohol
she looks gorgeous…i love it. not sure it’s tobacco though–unless it’s loose leaf–it’s definitely hand-rolled. otherwise, is it a joint…?!
Her hair looks pretty nice like that.
You are so right about the suble highlights! As a former hairdresser I can tell you that it is not the easiest thing to highlight hair that dark in such a perfectly subtle way.
I never thought smoking was cool, and this photo shoot is lame. I like the wallpaper, though.
Neither hot nor bad judgment, just an action. I don’t care for smoking, but it is not immoral, just unhealthy.
Some might see it differently, for example:
Having intentionally unprotected sex when you know you are HIV positive.
Unhealthy…Immoral…?
Both put others at risk. The question is, how long would it take for others to suffer from your unhealthy habits, and how badly their body will be abused before they finally succumb.
Do you find my comparison extreme… Or worthy of attention?
Maybe the message is meant as “she is smoking hot”…which of course she is!
*shrug* People know the dangers of smoking. If they choose to continue then they are choosing to accept whatever health consequences come with it. I don’t smoke. I am not the moral police of the world. I just don’t want to be on the hook for your insurance/hospital bills because you chose to indulge yourself in an unhealthy activity.
She’s lost a lot of weight in the last year or so. I think she looked better with more curve personally. And when are people going to stop looking at celebrities as role models? They aren’t role models. They are there to entertain you, nothing more. You will always be disappointed if these are your role models.
Does she smoke irl or did they just give her a cigarette because they thought it would look sexy ?? She looks unnatural with that thing in her hand tbh.
She’s hot and her body is amazing. I love the photo with the black dress.
Her hair looks gorgeous that length. I like it much more this way.
I don’t like seeing anyone smoke and seeing one used as a prop encourages the habit. My good friend just had two cancerous tumors removed from her bladder, likely cause – smoking. She was awake for the surgery as her lungs were too shot to put her under. The tumors will likely keep returning every few months. I can’t see her quitting smoking. This is where our tax dollars are going, to treat people who abuse themselves and expect us to pay.
I think those photos are shopped to hell and back neither look like her at all.. In the second pic since when does she have a long narrow horse face? I get her hair is covering some of her face but it is still distorted. The cover doesn’t look like her at all either.
She is just gorgeous, period. But the second photo looks nothing like her. Why photoshop her at all? She sure doesn’t need it.
she looks like Kathrine zeta Jones
I don’t understand the media’s obsession with this woman. She’s incredibly obnoxious and is just a walking stereotype that people like to laugh at.
@Emma-She is talented, funny and absolutely STUNNING. She is on the funniest show on TV and seems like a sweet, genuine person in real life. That is why people are so “obsessed” with her. You call her sterotypical why, because she has an accent and big boobs? (which I love btw lol) She is more than that though. She has great comedic timing and real talent. Maybe you can’t see that, but many others do. Need more proof?
On the Sofia pic, I do not find it to be an ad for cigarettes. I get the smoking hot thing but I also see a parlay to Sophia Loren.
On the Loeb thing, this is a bit long but worth thinking about. I worked for a High Yield Bond Company awhile back and one of our major positions was in American Media which owns the National Enquirer. They have been sued countless times and have lost once to Carol Burnett. The majority of the time the cases get thrown and very few times there are settlements. So I usually believe about 80% of what is printed in the Enquirer because they generally get their shit right given the statistics I know of their legal issues.
I was placed as the analyst for American Media. In 2008, I did a big research project on tabloids and what happens if anything when they get sued. Over 80% it gets thrown out, 10% gets dropped and the other 8% settlement and >2% loss. It’s some serious stats to consider. Just as a refresher, remember when Ashton Kutcher, Will Smith, and David Beckham, just to mention a few, threatened to sue? Nothing came of it. Just saying that it speaks volumes.
In this day and age, Sofia and Vogue should know better than to glamorize smoking.
She’s an attractive woman to look at, but seeing her with a cigarette is not sexy. I can’t stand the stench, and avoid smokers whenever possible.
As for Loeb, the National Enquirer is a actually a pretty credible source. After all, they were the ones to first break the John Edwards scandal.
The cig does not offend me. Someone driving a gas guzzling Hummer does (but I live in Europe 🙂
Sofia will still be hot when she’s 70. . .
Cigar smoker here, and I hate to see most other women do it because they’re just trying to look cute/sexy…
she kind of looks like Parker Posey in the black dress
Not as big of a deal in Europe. Not saying good or bad just saying not a big a deal so I don’t think they intended anything with it.
Smoking is a lot more commonplace in Europe, esp countries like Spain. There is not a stigma attached to it & people smoke anywhere & everywhere! Look at pictures of Javier Bardem he’s quite often smoking in magazine shoots.
$ell out. And her taste in men is in her ass because her boyfriend is an ugly looking lurch mofo.
That is either a hand- rolled cigarette or it’s a joint.
Oh look a cigarette, how edgy.
*Massive eye roll
im a non smoker but its funny that most comments are about her smoking and the effects. that her guy is facing some very heavy claims includig cheating, prostitutes and drugs is of no big concern 😉
i still think they wouldnt claim such things without having back up, they really might have the phone calls and messages. we will see.
Love her but poor judgement. She has a teenage son. Im sure she wouldnt want him to smoke. I dont understand why smoking is perceived as edgy and not just disgusting?
never smoked but everyone should do what they want..
in the med’ everybody still smokes…
try to get organic tobacco if ya’ll enjoy it..
that’s what i’d do ..
cover looks fab !!!!!!
It is just so very American to force their opinion down every persons throat. Some people smoke and some do not in most places that would be that but in America they must make a big thing about it and be so judgmental. It is to the point where it is so very American not to have any freedom at all but to have their government even controlling the fat they eat in their food because they think it is bad or the americans cannot control themselves. In other places we don’t go on and on about freedom we just allow people personal freedoms.