NSA leaker Edward Snowden appears on the cover of Wired magazine’s September issue holding an American flag to his face.
Photo by Platon/WIRED
According to Wired, It’s the same exact flag Pamela Anderson draped across her apparently naked backside for another magazine cover in 1998.
Snowden was offered a selection of props by photographer Platon Antoniou, including an American flag. “Actually,” Wired noted, “the same flag brandished by Pamela Anderson in Platon’s iconic 1998 George magazine cover.”
That ’98 George cover features the former Playboy Playmate holding the flag open as if she’s flashing her naked body with it.
Pamela Anderson on the cover of George magazine, 1998
“1997 IN A FLASH,” the cover headline cheekily declares.
It’s not clear if Snowden was informed of the flag’s former brush with bare skin, but Wired reports he was a bit conflicted about posing with the Stars and Stripes.
“He said he was nervous that posing with the flag might anger people but that it meant a lot to him,” Wired wrote. “He said that he loved his country. He cradled the flag and held it close to his heart.”