Will Megyn Kelly GQ photos cause as much fuss as Diane Sawyer's Vanity Fair cover?

By The Reliable Source

Megyn Kelly in the December 2010 issue of GQ (Alexei Hays/GQ); the infamous Diane Sawyer cover of Vanity Fair, September 1987

The newswoman posed in a fetching black dress, shoulders bared, glancing flirtatiously from behind a tousle of blonde hair. And everyone went berserk.

"Pure cheesecake," said the New York Daily News. "Steamy," declared the Oregonian. And from many quarters, concern she was undercutting her credibility.

"However pleasing she may be to the eye," declared a Washington Post colleague, "why does a respected professional surrender to the urging that she pose for come-hither photographs?"

Megyn Kelly in the new GQ? Heck, no. Who knows what they'll be saying in coming days about the Fox News anchor's astonishing photo shoot? The uproar described above was set off in September 1987, when Diane Sawyer posed for a Vanity Fair cover that now seems demure, even dignified, with the hindsight of 23 years. History will reflect that she went on to become anchor of ABC World News.

Back to Kelly. GQ informs us that's not actually a dress but "Slip by Dolce & Gabbana. Bra by Agent Provocateur." In her Q&A in the December issue, she says yeah, the glass table on Fox's set shows off her legs: "It's a visual business. People want to see the anchor." She doesn't like the word "feminist" because "there is a message that if you are sexy and you acknowledge that. . . then it's somehow an affront to women."