Another unfortunate-looking July cover

It's those geniouses over at Elle Magazine who are responsible for this abomination. I suppose I should cut them a little slack, since the word on the street is that they're having trouble er, retaining staff these days or something like that. Go ask Jezebel.com. So, I don't know about you but I'm actually beginning to miss the faces of supermodels on the covers of magazines, because while it's nice to walk by say, Penelope Cruz's face in the grocery aisle, it's not so nice to walk by and have to see Avril Lavigne's irritating mug staring smugly back at you. It's like, maybe when you run out of real celebrities to put on the cover, try giving Doutzen Kroes or Gemma Ward a call...don't go fishing in the bottom of the barrell.
I fear l've ended up sounding rather mean-spirited, but that is not my intention. Nay, Kelly Clarkson is, by all means, the only worthwhile result of subjecting us to American Idol for all these years (has it been years? It seems like decades)...I think she's an amazing singer. I admit, even I became obsessed with "Since you've been gone" after hearing it--oh God--on an episode of Laguna Beach's second season called "Our Last Prom" where Kristin takes Talan to the prom and LC (that scheming wench) is simultaneously enjoying a heartfelt convo on the beach with none other than Kristin's ex-boyfriend, Steven (Stephen?). God, that was a quality show, although as much as I hate to admit it, it kind of went downhill when Kristin left for college. Oh well, they can't take my memories...
I digress. The whole point of this tirade is that they could hardly have made poor Kelly Clarkson look any worse if they'd tried. She looks like she just got off of a nonstop flight from Japan where she was forced to drink Vodka tonics and deprived of sleep and water. The nude lipstick doesn't help, but then again, neither do the bags under her eyes or the eye makeup that looks like it was applied last week. And the hair is blah. Like, beige wallpaper blah. C'mon guys, this is a pretty young girl who, by your own admission has a "cartoonishly sexy body" and this is the best you could do? How about adding some color to her face instead of washing her out by putting the concealer on her lips instead of under her eyes? I mean, really. Shame on you people!