Description
Collector's Note – Why This Issue Matters
The March 1999 issue of George magazine featuring Matthew McConaughey and Elizabeth Hurley on the cover is a document of two of the late nineties' most discussed Hollywood personalities at a specific and culturally interesting moment — and the pairing itself is an editorial statement about what George's founder John F. Kennedy Jr. believed the magazine was for. By March 1999, McConaughey had established himself through A Time to Kill, Dazed and Confused, and the phenomenon of Contact and Amistad as one of the most commercially bankable and culturally discussed young actors in Hollywood, his physical presence and Southern charisma having made him a specific kind of celebrity that crossed entertainment, advertising, and popular culture simultaneously. Elizabeth Hurley was in 1999 still benefiting from the enormous profile she had maintained since the 1994 Hugh Grant arrest that had paradoxically made her one of the most recognizable faces in the world, and her Estée Lauder contract and developing acting career had sustained that visibility through the late nineties. Together on a George cover, they represented a specific editorial argument: that Hollywood celebrity and cultural influence were forms of political and social power worth examining through the magazine's lens. This was exactly the argument Kennedy had been making since George's launch in 1995, and March 1999 was one of the last opportunities to see that argument operating at full editorial confidence before his death in July would bring the magazine to its end. The full scope of George's editorial vision across its complete run is traceable through the George magazine collection.
March 1999 was also a historically specific moment that gives this issue additional resonance. The Clinton impeachment proceedings had concluded in February 1999 with the Senate's acquittal vote, ending one of the most consuming political stories of the decade — and George had been uniquely positioned to cover that story, given Kennedy's own family history with the presidency and his magazine's explicit argument that celebrity and politics inhabited the same cultural space. A March 1999 issue appearing in the immediate aftermath of impeachment's conclusion, with two Hollywood stars on its cover rather than political figures, reflects a specific editorial choice about what the magazine wanted to say as the political crisis resolved: that the broader cultural conversation it had always been interested in was more than just Washington drama. The broader late-nineties cultural and publishing context is documented across the 1999 magazine collection, which brings together titles from the final year of the decade and the last full publishing year of Kennedy's editorial vision.
The original address label on this issue — covered with a removable protective label — is a condition detail that collectors should evaluate through the provided photographs. As noted in other late-period George listings, the removable label covers rather than replaces the original subscriber label, meaning the underlying subscriber label remains present after the removable covering is peeled. The practical implication for display-focused collectors is that the McConaughey-Hurley cover image may be partially obscured by the original label once the removable covering is removed, and photographs of the underlying condition are the appropriate reference for evaluating how significantly this affects the cover's visual integrity.
About the Publication
George was founded by John F. Kennedy Jr. and co-founder Michael Berman and launched in September 1995 with the premise that American politics was popular culture and popular culture was American politics — a thesis that its celebrity-meets-policy editorial approach embodied in every issue. Published by Hachette Filipacchi Media, the magazine occupied a genuinely novel position in American publishing: simultaneously a mainstream fashion-format publication and a serious political magazine, combining the visual production values and celebrity access of major entertainment titles with substantive political reporting and the kind of access to major figures that Kennedy's name made uniquely possible. Its run ended in early 2001 following Kennedy's death in July 1999, making its complete publishing history a finite and now fully archivable body of work spanning less than five years.
Key Highlights Inside
- Matthew McConaughey and Elizabeth Hurley cover — a pairing of two of the late nineties' most culturally prominent Hollywood personalities, their appearance on a George cover reflecting the magazine's foundational argument that celebrity and cultural influence were forms of political power worthy of the same serious attention the publication brought to Washington figures.
- Editorial content consistent with George's March 1999 format — published in the immediate aftermath of the Clinton impeachment acquittal, this issue's content would have engaged with the political and cultural landscape of a late-nineties America that had just concluded one of its most consuming political crises, through the specific lens Kennedy had developed across the magazine's four-year run.
- Note: Specific article titles, bylines, and additional named interior features beyond those indicated in the listing have not been confirmed from available sources. The highlights above reflect what is documented in the listing and George's well-established editorial format for this period of its publishing history.
Condition & Rarity
Surviving copies of the March 1999 George in very good condition represent a clean and collectible example of one of the magazine's final year issues — published four months before Kennedy's death would bring the publication to its eventual close. Minor edge wear on a copy of this vintage is the expected and honest condition profile of an original periodical from a quarter-century ago. The original address label is present and has been covered with a removable protective label described as peelable without cover damage — as noted above, the underlying subscriber label will remain after any removable covering is peeled, and photographs of the cover beneath the protective layer are the essential reference for assessing how the McConaughey-Hurley cover image survives in its original state. Very good condition with intact page structure is the appropriate standard for George issues from this final publishing year. The protective covering is the correct conservation approach for a magazine of this age.
Looking for More Issues Like This?
A March 1999 George with McConaughey and Hurley on the cover is a late-period entry from a publication whose complete run ended just four months after this issue appeared — every 1999 George issue carries the specific weight of being among the last expressions of Kennedy's editorial vision. If this particular issue is no longer available, the full George magazine collection at OriginalMagazines.com is the most comprehensive source for exploring other issues across the publication's complete and now permanently closed run. For collectors building a broader archive of the late-nineties cultural moment, the 1999 magazine collection brings together titles from the final year of a decade that rewards sustained collector and research attention.