Since I semi-regularly blog about tennis, this one was just too good to pass up. First, thanks to Kenneth for being my source on the latest "news" as well as being the first place that I ever saw this now in question magazine cover below... also, this breaks one of personal blogging cardinal rules... if it's been on Towleroad, everyone has seen and/or read about it already... so that usually means you don't have to blog about it (and the guy certainly doesn't need more traffic via you measly link).
But anyhow... here is tennis player Andy Roddick on the cover of this month's issue of Men's Fitness. As mentioned, I first caught a look at it over on Kenneth's blog...
I did just a quick glance... despite being the apple of many a gay man's eye... Roddick just isn't my favorite tennis player or person in the world...
(probably undeserved... but I find him to be annoyingly cocky and a whiner... which, for me, cancels out any cuteness factor.. and then there was the whole Mandy Moore break-up...)
.... but something just didn't seem right. While he is a professional athlete and the body to go with it... something still seemed out of whack. Since tennis players need to be fast, they tend not to be really built... sure Rafael Nadal has the biceps, but his chest is not as proportionally huge... but Andy seemed strangely bulky on the cover.
Sure enough... even the cover boy agrees... he released this honest and good-humored statement on his website:
"I spent the last few weeks in Austin really focused on my training and getting back into shape, but pretty sure I'm not as fit as the Men's Fitness cover suggests... little did I know I have 22 inch guns and a disappearing birth mark on my right arm. I saw the cover for the first time when I landed after Rome, it was pretty funny. I walked by the newsstand in the airport and did a total double take. I can barely figure out how to work the red-eye tool on my digital camera... whoever did this has mad skills... maybe Rafael Nadal wants his arms back? If you can manage to stop laughing at the cover long enough, check out the article inside, the photo shoot on the boat was pretty cool and I recognize the person in those photos."
I'm not sure what magazines think they are accomplishing by such obvious (i.e. bad) photoshopping ... and it is even more egregious since it is a "fitness" magazine.
I guess "5 Easy Moves" to "How To Build Big Arms" just involves a fews clicks of a mouse?!
Thank you for being the only person to recognize my post being the first about this. TMZ is getting all the glory -- including in The New York Times(!) -- and won't acknowledge where they saw the story first. I know this has happened to all regular bloggers at one time or another, but JustJared told me TMZ has done to this to him before, too. I spoke to the Times reporter and he's wondering if there is a story "there" ... :-)
Posted by: kenneth | Thursday, May 31, 2007 at 03:45 PM