When Harry met Emma, Rupert and Daniel… or Technology Gone Wild

For years it used to be the TV Guide turf: Collectible covers of television series (including 35 different covers on Star Trek’s 35th anniversary), movies, NASCAR, etc. This week, it is Entertainment Weekly turn with multiple covers. Throughout its history, the magazine has done few multiple covers before, but this week’s showcasing of three “very young stars” of the new Harry Potter movie is yet another sign of “technology gone wild.” The mere fact that we can have multiple covers at a very low cost is no reason to start creating collectibles from non-collectibles. Every time I look at my real valuable collectible magazines, I can never see the word collectible on the cover. It should be a good give-away sign to readers that any magazine that screams collectible on the cover is definitely NOT. But just in case you want to prove me wrong and want to collect all three covers of this week’s issue of EW you can either search the newsstands like I did, or just call EW at 1-800-828-6882. One, two or three covers, EW remains one of the best over-all entertainment guides out there. It is worth every penny of the $3.50 cover price. Multiply that by three, well…that is a different story.

Jackie, JFK and now George…

Finally the whole Kennedy clan is reunited again… albeit in The Netherlands. Not only Jackie and JFK are well and alive in magazine formats in Holland, George is also well and alive there too. The second issue of George was just released with Senator Barack Obama on the cover. The magazine was started late last winter with Prime Minister Tony Blair on the cover of the first issue and an introductory letter by Richard Bradley who worked as an editor at the original George magazine that was started by John F. Kennedy, Jr., the son of President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy (Jackie). The magazine published from 1995 until Jan. 2005. It lasted 18 months after the tragic death of JFK jr. The Dutch publisher hopes that the Dutch George will fill a void in political magazines that the original magazine filled when it was published in the USA. In the words of Bradley, “Often, people will tell me how much they miss George. I respond that I miss it too, and that I wish there was another one like it. Now, I hope, there is.” Of course, Bradley’s intro is the only English in the magazine, the rest, needless to say is Dutch.