Like millions of pop-culture-obsessed Americans, Howard Stern is bingeing FXโs โLove Storyโ and soaking up the nostalgia of โ90s-era New York, but unlike most of America, the radio host was buddies with the seriesโ real-life stars, and even graced the cover of JFK Jr.โs George magazine.
โI had done the cover for George magazine,โ Stern said on his eponymous SiriusXM radio show Monday. โSo I knew John Kennedy Jr., and he actually showed up to the shoot. Itโs one of the worst covers I ever did. And Iโve done a lot of bad ones.โ
John F. Kennedy Jr. launched George magazine alongside his partner, Michael J. Berman, in September 1995. With the tagline โNot Just Politics as Usual,โ the magazine married pop culture and politics in an unprecedented way and aimed to flip the script on mainstream political discourse. The covers were legendary in their own right and featured supermodels, rock stars, Oscar winners and action film stars dressed up as the nationโs first president.
And, of course, radio jokester and provocateur Stern.
โThey convinced me to be chopping down a cherry tree with a chainsaw, dressed up in colonial garb, dressed up, like, I guess I was supposed to be George Washington, but George Washington didnโt wear the sโ I was wearing,โ he continued.
โIt was 100 years ago, and I remember I wasnโt doing a lot of magazine covers by choice,โ Stern said.
When John Kennedy Jr., whom Stern described as โliterally American royalty and the nicest guy in the world,โ asked him to pose for the cover of the April/May 1996 issue, themed โThe Virtue Issue,โ Stern told his agent, โOf course Iโll do it.โ
โI went down there, and they were like, โItโs George magazine. We have a theme cover. You canโt be in your regular clothes. We want you to be, like, George Washington,โ he continued. โThey must have caught me on the right day, because I was incredibly amenable. Normally, I would have gone, โIโm not wearing this sโ.โโ
Stern said he got the full supermodel treatment. โYou know what John and the photographer did, that thing that they do to supermodels, โGorgeous! You look great! Oh, man, this is the greatest cover. This is our best cover!โ Theyโre yelling while the guyโs clicking away, and Iโm posing like Iโm Cindy Crawford, like Iโm one of the Hadid sisters,โ he continues. โIโm standing there thinking I look handsome with my chainsaw and Louis the 14th [outfit.]โ
After Stern went on dragging everything from the โpilgrim shoesโ to the โpoofy shirtโ he wore for the shoot, he revealed that he actually knew Carolyn Bessette Kennedy as well, although he was a bit cagey about how exactly he knew her.
โShe was very lovely,โ he said. โShe was a really nice woman. I donโt want to go into how I knew her, but I knew her.โ
When Sternโs co-host, Robin Quivers, pushed him on why he couldnโt divulge how he knew the former Calvin Klein publicist, he said, โI just know enough to keep my mouth shut about that. Some stuff you do have to keep private. But anyway, I knew her. โ
According to Disney, โLove Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessetteโ is FXโs most-watched limited series ever on Hulu and Disney+, with reports that the first five episodes have been streamed more than 25 million hours since the Ryan Murphy series premiered in February.
The show, starring newcomer Paul Anthony Kelly as Kennedy and Sarah Pidgeon as Bessette, will air its finale Thursday.