Jimmy Iovine, the Universal Music, Interscope Records mogul, has surfaced as the driving force (no pun intended, well maybe), behind a new book featuring some of the finest culo in music, fashion and film.
Culo? you say.
Well, it’s a slangy Italian term for the buttocks, and also the name of a collection of photos published in a large-format, coffee-table book.
Iovine, 58, has had his finger (oops, another pun) on the pulse of pop culture for more than two decades, popularizing such artists as Eminem, Lady Gaga and The Pussy Cat Dolls.
Who else would have the power to summon the likes of Gaga, Stacy “Fergie” Ferguson, Nicole Scherzinger, Sarah McLachlan, Stacy Keibler, Irina Shayk and Alessandra Ambrosio to bare all for famed photographer Raphael Mazzucco?
Lesser known, but equally shapely international models such as Leann Tweeden, Bianca Balti and Edyta Sliwinska, also grace its pages.
In all, more than 200 images are featured.
It calls the derriere the “new epicenter of female sexuality, desire and empowerment.”
Of course, famed psychiatrist Sigmund Freud had something to say about this.
In his work, he described something he called “the anal stage,” a period during human development that most people grow out of by the time they are two.
Hard economic times could also be heightening pop culture’s fascination with the derriere.
In the ancient world, when life was nasty, brutish and short, women with big butts were highly desired.
Not only did a big rump symbolize health and fertility, but during famines or long military sieges, the men would slice off a cheek to eat to stay strong.
The importance of something to society can also be measured by the number of words used to describe it. There are, well… too many to count.
The book went on sale Nov. 21, and would make the perfect stocking stuffer for someone like, say, your favorite rap mogul.
In fact, Diddy is s big fan.
“Raphael is a true artist. He relies on instinct, capturing a raw, natural sens of beauty through his lens,” he says in a plug for the book.
Think about it.