Fug or Fab the Cover: Emma Watson

We have gotten many a concerned email about this cover from readers, and I must admit that I feel you. But not really because of Emma, so much — her face looks great, I think, and the rocker girl hair is a fun change from Hermione Granger (not that I don’t love you, Hermione). We don’t get to see her look hot very often and this is a nice youthful hot that doesn’t feel all awkward. It’s more that I am totally weirded out by the office stool they’re making her straddle. This photo feels like….well, picture it: you’re sitting at your desk at Elle, just minding your own business. You know your wacky officemate Emma Watson is off in the beauty closet, doing something. But she totally surprises you when she straddles her office chair and pushes herself across the room to your desk to pay you a visit and show off her hilarious/fierce Chanel get-up and massive eyeliner. You pick up the Polaroid on your desk and take a few jokey pictures of her. (If this were a movie, a montage would break out, obviously.) And this is like your jokey montage pictures somehow landed on the cover of Elle. Which would be fine if she wasn’t on an office chair. It’s just…weird to me. Also, that bodice looks like a chalice, but who am I to argue?