COVER / Naked Lennon tops magazine poll

An image of a naked John Lennon, taken on the last day of his life, has been named the top US magazine cover of the past 40 years.

The Rolling Stone front cover, taken by Annie Leibovitz and showing Lennon curled around Yoko Ono, was picked by editors, artists and designers.

The magazine was published a month after Lennon's murder in December 1980.

Vanity Fair's 1991 image of a pregnant Demi Moore was the American Society of Magazine Editors' second choice.

The society picked its favourite images at its conference in Puerto Rico to mark the 40th anniversary of its awards ceremony.

As well as entertainment personalities, images from sport and news also featured in a list of 41 covers chosen by the society.

An image of Muhammad Ali with arrows in his body, from the April 1968 issue of Esquire came third, while a Saul Steinberg drawing of New York's West Side dwarfing the rest of the US - published in The New Yorker in March 1976 - was fourth.

Andy Warhol drowning in a can of tomato soup - from May 1969's Esquire - was fifth.

Mia Farrow's appearance on the front of People magazine in March 1974 came 26th in the society's list, a place ahead of the Dixie Chicks appearing nude on the front of Entertainment Weekly in May 2003, after they had criticised the war in Iraq.

Also on the list was Nicole Kidman's 2004 Vogue cover, singer Cyndi Lauper's appearance on the front of Details in 1989, and a 1997 cover of Time featuring Ellen DeGeneres. [BBC]