Darren Rovell of CNBC follows up my report late last night that Danica Patrick will appear nude in an upcoming issue of ESPN THE MAGAZINE.

(If only Danica had denied this nude pose)

The issue, which breaks in October, is officially known as “The Body Issue” and will feature athletes in non-explicit nude poses. Rovell got this response from ESPN The Magazine’s editor-in-chief Gary Belsky when he asked if Patrick would be part of the issue:

“We are not announcing which athletes are participating in The Body Issue at this time,” Belsky, wrote in an e-mail. “When we do reveal the participant list, we will not reveal who disrobed and who did not. The photos will answer most such questions, of course; and we will otherwise let the individual athletes reveal, should they so choose, whether they removed all clothing for our shoots.”

Posing nude is a pretty touchy subject for someone as high profile as Danica Patrick, so if she unequivocally wasn’t going to be included in the issue, don’t you think Belsky would go out of his way to say that?
Rovell also contacted a public relations firm under Patrick’s employ:

Lewis Kay of BNC public relations, which helps represent Patrick, came back with this note. “Danica is NOT confirmed to appear in the issue, nor has she even been approached,” Kay wrote.

Again, posing nude is a pretty big deal if you’re a high-profile female athlete like Patrick. If you had absolutely no interest in doing so for ESPN The Magazine, wouldn’t you tell your p.r. people to let that clearly be known?

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Last February I wrote that I thought SPORTS ILLUSTRATED would eventually push its swimsuit models into posing nude in order to keep publishing’s largest selling annual mag copy, the vaunted SI Swimsuit Issue, on top of the circulation heap.

Perhaps someone at ESPN THE MAGAZINE was listening.

Yesterday I posted a graphic comparing ad revenue between SI and ESPN The Magazine. While SI more than doubled ESPN’s ad take, I wondered if the swimsuit issue was subtracted, would SI still be ahead of ESPN’s print offering?

(One of SbB’s suggestions for ESPN The Mag “Nude” Issue - Leryn Franco)

Apparently ESPN also took notice of that recently as I’ve since learned from two Bristol-based sources that in October ESPN The Magazine will roll out a “nude issue”, with the edition featuring SI Swimsuit Issue favorite Danica Patrick.

(Will Danica’s tramp stamp survive the ESPN shoot, unlike at SI?)

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