Months Before Marrying Tom Brady, $400M Gisele Bündchen’s Controversial Photograph Featuring NBA Legend LeBron James for Prestigious Project Added Fuel to the Fire

In the spring of 2008, Vogue Magazine ignited a firestorm with its April cover featuring LeBron James and Gisele Bundchen. While the fashion choices of James and Bundchen were hardly the focal point of this controversy, it’s worth mentioning that Bundchen graced the cover in a striking blue-green strapless dress that accentuated her waist.

The real uproar centered on James’ pose and facial expression, which some critics argued perpetuated troubling racial stereotypes. Vogue proudly proclaimed the NBA star as the first black man to grace its cover, but it didn’t take long for a storm of controversy to brew. This occurred months before Tom Brady and Bundchen privately wed at St. Monica Catholic Church in Santa Monica in February 2009, following a brief engagement.

The Vogue Cover: LeBron James and Gisele Bündchen

Shedding light on the four-time NBA champion athlete’s posture, James bared his teeth while clutching a basketball in one hand, the other wrapped around Bundchen’s waist. Some believe the image eerily echoed the 1933 rendition of a movie with Canadian-American actress Fay Wray’s portrayal of Ann Darrow. According to an old report by ‘Today’ – Samir Husni, a renowned magazine analyst, went on record in 2008, branding the photo as deliberately provocative, evoking the spirit of “King Kong.”

On the flip side of the debate, some argued that Bundchen’s smiling and direct gaze at the camera suggested she was not at all intimidated or frightened by James’s pose, unlike the damsel-in-distress trope from the veteran “King Kong” movie poster.

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Despite the uproar, the NBA superstar stood firm in his support for the cover, stating in an interview with the Plain Dealer in Cleveland that he was simply “showing a little emotion.” James expressed his indifference to criticism, acknowledging that anything bearing his name would face scrutiny, be it positive or negative.

The Vogue’s argument about the matter

Vogue, not one to shy away from controversy, responded to the outrage with a statement, deeming the pair as “looking beautiful together,” according to ‘The Star.’ Patrick O’Connell, a spokesperson for Vogue, defended the magazine’s intent, saying it “sought to celebrate two superstars at the top of their game,” in a press release reported by the ‘Howard University News Service website.’

As for Gisele Bundchen, it is believed that there was no direct statement from her regarding the controversy in 2008. Some argue that the image merely captured LeBron James’ game face and nothing more. Nonetheless, it was the acclaimed photographer Annie Leibovitz who captured the 6-foot-9 NBA star and the 5-foot-11 Brazilian model for both the iconic cover and an accompanying inside spread.

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