Cover Stories

My blog readers know that I'm fascinated by the view of the world as seen through the cover of People magazine each week. Now, as part of their 40th anniversary retrospective, people.com has a list of the 10 celebrities who've appeared on the cover more than any others. Can you guess? Here's a clue: royalty and Brangelina (extended triangle version) account for 6 of the top ten. Here's the list, along with the number of cover stories for each celeb:

55 Princess Diana
29 Brad Pitt
29 Prince William
26 Princess Kate
26 Angelina Jolie
25 Jennifer Aniston
25 Julia Roberts
22 Tom Cruise
17 Britney Spears
16 Michael Jackson

Seventeen years after Di's death some may have forgotten what an impact she had, starting when she first burst on the scene in 1981, but even after all these years she has almost twice as many covers as Brad Pitt and Prince William. Here's her first cover, dated June 22, 1981, just weeks before the wedding. It's hard to look at now, 33 years later, knowing what we know of the trauma, drama, divorce and early death to come.



By the way, back in 1994, when People was celebrating 20 years, they compiled a similar top five list. Diana was number one at that time too, followed by Elizabeth Taylor, Sarah Ferguson, Cher and Michael Jackson.
You can read the current story here.