DIFFERENT STROKES 4 DIFFERENT FOLKS

When Kris Weston first gave me a peek at Chris Wide’s photos from Muscle Up, I knew he had to go on the cover of MEN magazine. We’d spent months re-working every page of the magazine (hey, after 20 years, it needed it), and Chris was everything we’d been after in a cover-man: a big, sexy man, who hadn’t plucked, tweezed or shaved every inch of his body. But (as always), there were a few complications:

First off, Chris lives in Germany, and doesn’t speak much English. I lucked out, in that Chris was in San Francisco around the time we went into production on the issue, and Manfred Speer (a former COLT Man himself) offered to translate. I wrote a first draft of the interview, and my managing editor, L.A. Wexton, and I spent several hours trying to present the text in a manner that would make for easy translating (i.e. getting rid of colloquialisms, checking sentence structure and whatnot).

The other problem was that the editor of Unzipped Magazine had already ‘claimed’ him as a cover-model. I’d clashed with this guy—over cover models, content and just about everything else—in the past, and had managed to hold my ground a number of times. My boss told me he’d handle it, and to his credit, he did. (I think we ran the cover a month too soon—a sentiment the publisher agreed with—but I was happy to have my cover guy without any of the drama, so I kept my trap shut.)

Now, the Unzipped dude was pissed, and I mean PISSED. (Not that this was anything new.) The office was often a buzz over his daily, high-decibel, expletive-filled tantrum, so I guess I didn’t catch the fit he had over this change in covers. Allegedly, or from what I can gather, he, “went outside, swung a dead cat,” and found a last-minute replacement that was, “even hotter.” Both covers hit around the same time, and (this I got from the horse’s mouth) his, “hot guy standing by the pool in a Speedo,” was hotter than mine. Even his own art director agreed (well out of earshot), that there was no comparison: Chris was, and still is the hotter of the two.

To my surprise and satisfaction, Chris turned out to be a GREAT interview—smart, sexy and funny: When asked if he was approached by other porn companies, in his native Germany, he said yes. When asked why he picked COLT, he said it was because of the prestige and history surrounding COLT. In his own words: “Why settle for a Volkswagen when you could have a Mercedes?”

The issue was rounded out with an incredible layout/interview with Falcon exclusive Dean Monroe, new models from Body Image and Satori Studios, as well as a hot, semi-nude shot of ‘Amazing Race” winner, Reichen (I’ll post THAT story some other time) and closed with an amazing personal essay by Falcon exclusive Josh Weston. Looking back, I’d have to say that was the hottest issue of MEN I put together during my time as editor. I’m very proud of it.

COLT Man Exclusive Chris Wide’s new movie, Wide Strokes is available from the COLT web site.

For a couple of bonus pictures of Chris (semi-safe for work), click here.