It is not at all unusual to see Elizabeth Taylor’s face–bloated or beautiful–staring at us from the magazine racks.
And here she is again, on the cover of WE. It is a new magazine, 112 pages thick and attractively slick. Pick up the inaugural issue and casually flip through its pages and you might think it a cousin of such glossies as Vanity Fair or Travel & Leisure. But take a closer look. Notice all those ads for wheelchairs? Liz or no Liz on the cover, this is not your ordinary magazine.
It bills itself as a publication “For people with disabilities, their families and friends,” and it contains a story about Taylor, focusing on her fundraising efforts on behalf of those with AIDS; articles about interior design, fashion, dining and travel; book reviews; stories about “The Miracles of Pharmacology,” bioengineering and–casinos.
The last–subtitled “AT TODAY’S CASINO MEGA-RESORT, PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES ARE HITTING THE JACKPOT”–is written by the magazine’s editor, the impressively titled Charles A. Riley II, Ph.D.
In an introductory letter on page 2, president and co-publisher Cary Fields writes, “Our goal at WE is to create a first-class publication for a first-class group of Americans who deserve a magazine of their own, equal to and even better than the best magazines on our nation’s newstands.”
That’s an admirable aim for this New York-based magazine’s first ambitious effort. It’s good and polished and interesting. It’s consoling, too, to see that the typo gremlin visits publications other than this one. Fields meant to say “newsstands.”
