Cover Up... Hitchens Drinks Atheistically... Pretty Up...

COVER UP: New York magazine and The New Yorker yet again lead in nominations for awards from the American Society of Magazine Editors, this time for its third annual Best Cover Contest. New York landed six nominations, including one of Eliot Spitzer with an arrow pointing to his groin, labeled “brain” after his prostitution scandal this spring, and one for its summer issue with a photo image of presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama fist-bumping on the beach. The New Yorker earned four nods, one for the March 17 cover with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both reaching for the “3 a.m. phone call.” Surprisingly — or not — the controversial July 21 cover depicting Barack and Michelle Obama dressed as gun-toting Muslims didn’t get a mention.

Other magazines honored include Wired with three nominations and The New York Times Magazine, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, Texas Monthly, Time, and Vanity Fair, all of which gathered two nods. Eligible covers were published between Aug. 1, 2007 and July 31, 2008. The winners will be revealed on Oct. 6 at the American Magazine Conference in San Francisco. — Stephanie D. Smith