The Pope Wears Marilyn’s Dress
At least he does on a rejected cover of The New Yorker. This and other naysayed images are part of “Blown Covers,” collected by the magazine’s art editor, Francoise Mouly. She tells the story behind the pope one: ‘When this image by Barry Blitt came in, David Remnick, the editor who makes all the final decisions was off on a trip, but he asked me to show it around. My colleagues all laughed yet they concluded it didn’t “work” because neither the pope nor the scandals plaguing the Catholic church had anything to do with Marilyn Monroe. “Oy Vey!” said the artist, Barry Blitt, and we moved on.’
