After editor-in-chief Valerie Latona of Shape realized LeAnn Rimes found out about the apology letter she sent to a few readers and that it might complicate the party they were throwing for LeAnn, she flailed her arms in the air and ran around in circles shrieking “OMG OMG OMG OMG!” Ten minutes later, she emailed USA Today too claim her words were taken out of context. Cue nervous laughter. Nothing to see here folks.
“My comments have been taken out of context. I used the words of the few unhappy readers who wrote in.
I stand by the fact that LeAnn’s story is compelling–and her courage and strength in the face of so much adversity is compelling. That is why I put her on the cover of Shape for what is now the third time.
The fact is a mere 40 readers out of almost 6 million readers wrote in to complain calling LeAnn a “husband stealer” and a “terrible mistake for Shape”. I wrote to those women apologizing that our cover choice did not make them happy—as I have done for other cover stars in the past.”
Valerie is saying she “used the words of a few unhappy readers” and came up with “Please know that our putting her on the cover was not meant to put a husband-stealer on a pedestal” and that this was taken out of context. I’d like to see how it reads in context. The only way this could sound good is if she put “hahaha, j/k” at the end of her letter.
While Rimes’ behavior is not necessarily savory, doesn’t the backlash over this article get at the question of why one even reads magazines? Is it not for, as Latona said, ‘compelling stories?’The question, it seems, is one of the medium; wouldn’t such behavior be celebrated if it had been put on television?