I first found out about it in Los Angeles Magazine, which doesn't have a
Web equivalent. Otherwise I'd post their one-page profile of a very,
very kooky guy in a hawaiin shirt. But he;s a geek at heart, and ya
gotta love him. And it's not a bad magazine, either...
Rohit
======
http://www.usnews.com/USNEWS/issue/971215/15out1.htm
All natural au naturel
A backlash is brewing against man-made women in the plastic-surgery
capital of the country. At least Norm Zadeh, a Beverly Hills soft-porn
publisher, is hoping to create one. Zadeh is behind Perfect 10, a glossy
new adult men's magazine that refuses to use models who have had breast
implants or other obvious plastic surgery. "The natural female body is
beautiful and women shouldn't feel like they have to go under the
knife," he says. All models must pass a scar check before they are
accepted.
Zadeh, who has sunk $2.8 million of his own money so far into Perfect
10, says he launched the magazine last fall after a friend was rejected
by Playboy because she was underrepresented above the waist. That, and
he thinks there's room in the Playboy/Penthouse market for a "classy"
men's magazine that doesn't rely on heavily augmented Jenny McCarthy
clones who spread their legs. Perfect 10, which features relatively
tasteful topless photographs and meaningful interviews on subjects like
the downfall of communism and the turn-off of dandruff, has yet to
attract a single advertiser. (Zadeh's high moral standards preclude him
from accepting liquor or tobacco ads. He's thinking more along the lines
of Mercedes-Benz.) National distributors refuse to carry the $6.95
magazine because "they think the average American male likes something a
bit more perverse," say Zadeh.
They may be onto something. Playboy, for instance, has 2.5 million
subscribers. Perfect 10 has 500. As for Zadeh's taking a stand for real
women, it's easy to figure out that shunning plastic surgery is hardly a
political decision for the 15 mostly European and American models
featured in each issue. They're already beautiful.--Betsy Streisand
[AP Wire story]
Naturally, he will try his breast
A nudie mag sans implants
by Dana Calvo
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES -- Perfect 10 hits newsstands next week featuring topless
women who have not had
breast implants.
``I've been to strip joints and fallen in love. And then you realize
they're not real, and it's heartbreaking,''
publisher Norm Zadeh said.
So he wants readers to know ``what real breasts look like, because
they've forgotten.''
``They think when a women lays down, her breasts are supposed to stand
straight up, like rockets ready
for launch,'' he said.
Publishing industry observers said Perfect 10, while the first magazine
of its kind, is entering a market
saturated with about 200 erotic female magazines.
What's more, they said, Zadeh is assuming that consumers base their
purchasing decision on whether the
models have had cosmetic breast surgery.
``If he's going for the Puritan at heart, he's wrong. The Puritans
aren't going to be looking at a naked
woman in the first place,'' said Samir Husni, a journalism professor at
the University of Mississippi in
Oxford and the author of guides on new magazines.
He added: ``If it's a fantasy magazine, why do I want to look at
something real?''
Martin Walke, of Walker Communications, a magazine publishing consulting
firm in New York, said Zadeh
is a first-time publisher with very little idea of the financial
challenges in the publishing industry.
A man who estimates his personal wealth at the ``double-digit
millions,'' the 47-year-old Zadeh will not
accept advertising money for the first two issues.
The magazine, to be published internationally six times a year, will
sell for $6.95 per issue.
``Look, if I lose $500,000 a year on Perfect 10, I'll be happy. . . .
It's not about that,'' he said. ``I'd like to put
out something that raises the standards.''
A former visiting professor of business and math at Stanford University,
Columbia University and UCLA,
Zadeh said Perfect 10 recaptures the ``classy days'' of Playboy magazine
that has become ``implanted and
raunchy.''
Playboy founder, Hugh Hefner, responded with a prepared statement faxed
to the Associated Press.
``We would certainly never disqualify a beautiful model because she had
made the decision to enhance
her figure,'' part of the statement read.
Zadeh predicts a backlash against surgically enhanced bodies.