Description
Collector's Note – Why This Issue Matters
The September 1996 issue of George Magazine featuring Drew Barrymore and Colin Powell is one of the most visually striking and culturally precise covers in the publication's brief but distinctive run. The pairing — a beloved Hollywood actress and a retired four-star general who had recently declined to enter the 1996 presidential race — captures something essential about George's editorial vision: the idea that politics and celebrity inhabited the same cultural space and that treating them as separate universes was a form of intellectual dishonesty. John F. Kennedy Jr.'s magazine had launched in September 1995, and by its first anniversary issue it had fully committed to the premise that the most interesting political stories were also human stories, and that the most compelling human stories had political dimensions.
Colin Powell in September 1996 was one of the most consequential figures in American political life who had chosen not to run for president. His November 1995 announcement that he would not seek the Republican nomination had been a genuinely significant political event — polls had consistently shown him competitive against both Bob Dole and Bill Clinton, and his candidacy would have been the first by an African American with a realistic path to the presidency. By September 1996, with the election just weeks away, Powell remained a figure of enormous public standing and unresolved political potential, his decision not to run still a subject of active speculation and analysis. His appearance in George in this context was not celebrity coverage — it was serious political portraiture. For collectors focused on Drew Barrymore's documented presence in American print media, this cover represents one of her most politically and culturally layered appearances in a magazine of this era.
Drew Barrymore in September 1996 was in the midst of one of the most remarkable career resurgences in Hollywood history. Having navigated a turbulent adolescence and early adulthood with extraordinary public visibility, she had re-established herself as a bankable and critically respected actress, and her cultural profile was at a high point. Her pairing with Powell on a George cover — styled, presumably, within the magazine's characteristic mode of treating political figures and celebrities as equally compelling subjects — reflects the particular quality of George's editorial vision at its most confident. Collectors building archives of George Magazine's complete cover run regard this issue as one of the most visually and editorially distinctive numbers from the magazine's first year, and the 1996 magazine archive at OriginalMagazines.com offers broader context for the political and cultural landscape of this election year.
About the Publication
George Magazine was founded by John F. Kennedy Jr. and Michael Berman in 1995 and published until 2001, occupying a genuinely original editorial position as a glossy monthly that treated politics through the visual and narrative language of celebrity media. Its September 1996 issue falls within the publication's first full year — a period when it was actively establishing its editorial identity and demonstrating the validity of its founding premise that serious political coverage and popular culture appeal were not mutually exclusive. Its covers from this period are among the most boldly conceived in the magazine's run, frequently pairing political figures with entertainers in ways that generated both conversation and controversy.
Key Highlights Inside
- Cover featuring Drew Barrymore and Colin Powell — one of the most striking pairings in the magazine's first year of publication, combining Hollywood celebrity and military-political gravitas in George's characteristic mode of treating both as equally compelling cultural subjects.
- Coverage of Colin Powell in the context of the 1996 election cycle — examining one of the most significant political figures who chose not to run, just weeks before the November election that would return Bill Clinton to the White House.
- Editorial content reflecting George's first-anniversary positioning — the magazine demonstrating the viability of its founding premise through a cover that embodied its pop-political editorial philosophy at its most confident.
- Broader political and cultural coverage typical of a September 1996 George issue, reflecting the American political landscape in the final weeks of the Clinton-Dole presidential campaign.
Note: Specific interior articles beyond the cover subjects are unconfirmed for this issue. The above reflects what is verifiable from the listing description, cover subjects, and the well-documented political and cultural context of September 1996.
Condition & Rarity
Graded Good with minor wear consistent with age — an honest condition profile for a glossy monthly magazine now thirty years old. The no-label designation identifies this as a newsstand copy rather than a subscriber edition, which is the preferred form for display-oriented collectors and preserves the Barrymore-Powell cover as originally presented without address label defacement. Minor wear does not affect the readability of the interior content. A protective plastic sleeve provides appropriate ongoing preservation. George Magazine issues from its first year of publication carry additional collector significance as early examples of the publication's editorial vision, and covers featuring both a major Hollywood figure and a significant political personality in the same image attract collectors across entertainment memorabilia, political history, and George Magazine archive communities simultaneously.
Looking for More Issues Like This?
First-year George Magazine covers with this level of cultural and political resonance are among the more sought-after items in vintage 1990s American magazine collecting, and the Drew Barrymore and Colin Powell September 1996 cover is one of the publication's most memorable from that founding period. The Drew Barrymore magazine collection at OriginalMagazines.com is a strong starting point for other significant Barrymore print appearances. The full George Magazine archive and the complete 1996 magazine collection are both worth exploring for collectors building a documentary record of American political and celebrity culture in this election year.