Vanity Fair May 2012 : Claire, Julianna, Michelle & Sofia by Norman Jean Roy

[Flashbang]

As our culture critic James Wolcott will tell you, it is now television shows rather than films that dominate the cultural conversation and “enrich the iconography and collective lore of pop culture.” Four examples of television’s lure? We can think of none so enticing as the lead actresses of Modern Family, Homeland, The Good Wife, and Downton Abbey, shown in a photograph by Norman Jean Roy on the cover of our TV issue—the inside pages of which also feature cast members from The Big Bang Theory, Revenge, Curb Your Enthusiasm, How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Shameless, and more. (Plus: an oral history of Friends!)

Check back to VF.com next week for TV Week, in which we feature inside scoops on our featured shows, video interviews with TV-issue stars, best-of-all-time television slide shows, and a classic-TV quiz. Meanwhile, watch video of the photo shoot with Danes, Dockery, Margulies, and Vergara here:

vanityfair.com

 

[blueorchid]

Actually, this is kind of nice. Although it's kind of weird how Michelle Dockery is shoved at the bottom down there. It would have been better if they just stuck with Claire, Sofia and Julianna on the cover.

 

[Srdjan]

DEJA VU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sofia V. looks nice. Others are disaster

 

[honeycombchild]

Michelle does look like a random addition, she could have been placed better for sure. Either way, I'm glad to see Clare and Michelle on a cover for sure.

 

[visualoptimism]

i really like it actually! great choice of actresses and love to see claire danes!

 

[tigerrouge]

That cover shot just looks like three glamorous women in bed together, and a girl below who's really not part of the gang, who's doing her best to be part of the picture.

 

[liberty33r1b]

good to see Claire, she really deserves to be on that cover!

 

[Les_Sucettes]

There is nothing worse in fashion than american styling.

Love Claire Daines, she should have had the cover all for herself.

 

[jmrmartinho]

I like it! Claire looks the best to me. Sofia looks kind of lost, Julianne looks over photoshoped and Michelle looks totally random in the picture (even throught she looks good)

 

[Miss Dalloway]

I like them all, but so happy Michelle was included.

Its not the best cover, Claire looks really bad, that is an unfortunate angle for her face. And that second shot of the other actresses makes me sick! Just ridiculous!

 

[YoninahAliza]

It's not a bad cover but it's way too text heavy! And it's funny as soon as I read the thread tagline, before clicking on it, I was like, "maybe it's Michelle Dockery?!" Can't believe I was right! It's fantastic to see her score the cover of an American magazine so I'm happy with the cover in that respect.

 

[Marc10]

I love it, all the ladies are looking stunning and super sexy, especially Claire and Sofia.

 

[LUXXX]

So happy for Michelle!!

 

[ALAUU]

Nice, I like it.

 

[kokobombon]

I like that they picked excellent actresses but not the usual suspects. I´m very happy for all them, I enjoy all their shows

 

[Luxx]

Great cover image, but so much text, I feel like I'm reading a book report.

 

[SugarMe]

A story about television actresses... so let's dress them up in lingerie and put them in bed? I imagine turning the page to see their male colleagues sitting in a boardroom dressed in suits while drinking scotch and smoking cigars.

Pass.

 

[nightclubbing]

Grace, Archie, and Emily D look amazing in that shot, and I agree about the cover the woman at the bottom is very much so out of place.

 

[lavieenrose]

Whose leg is that to the left? Physically, I don't think it's Julianna. Unless her hips are up near her boobs. It just looks like an extra leg laying on the bed.

 

[Jacque Marcel]

Keep Michelle, remove the others and add Dan Stevens