"te adoramos maría": mexico's 'playboy'...oh boy!!

as millions of guadalupanos, or devotees of the virgen de guadalupe, prepared to venerate her on her day, playboy magazine was also preparing its december issue that was 'graced' (pun well intended) with the model maría florencia onori on the cover. this maría posed as THAT maría and caused some...well, discomfort, much of what one of my forthcoming book's chapters deals with, representations that conflate sexuality and religion. in addition to the coincidence exploited by playboy executives and creative teams--december is a month for mexicans that is about december 12 (the day in which the virgen de guadalupe is honored) and december 24 (well, you know, the birth of baby jesus, that gave birth while still a virgin)--raul sayrols, publisher of playboy mexico, attempts to explain yet another one: "the image is not and never was intended to portray the virgin of guadalupe or any other religious figure. the intent was to reflect a renaissance-like mood on the cover." well, yes, i say...since then, playboy has apologized.