John F. Kennedy Jr. and George Magazine: A Story of Politics, Love and Loss, 20 Years Later
by Lisa DePaulo
I don't believe John ever fathomed that he would die at 38. He didn't buy into things like The Kennedy Curse. Stuff like that made him hurl. But 20 years later, I do think he would want to be memorialized by the cast of characters who knew the real John and helped him create the magazine he loved. Meet George.
ELINORE CARMODY, PUBLISHER John and Michael's early way of putting it was they wanted George to be to politics what Rolling Stone was to music and what Sports Illustrated was to sports.
MATT SAAL, SENIOR EDITOR The word he used a lot was "demystify." He would always push that in stories. The story ideas he got the most excited for were those that would raise the curtain a little on the process of politics. I had been out in New Mexico and I met this guy who was working in a coffee shop there and he loved George magazine; he was working part time and going to the university out there. When I told John he loved it, he just loved that someone who was really far from centers of power and influence and privilege and all that was learning about politics. And that, to him, was what the magazine was about.
MICHAEL OATES PALMER, INTERN My first week on the job, he had a party at his loft for the staff. He invited the interns! Suddenly I'm having dinner at John Kennedy's house. It was like a buffet, super casual. Some of the staff climbed up to the roof to play Frisbee.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/john-f-kennedy-jr-george-magazine-stars-share-stories-project-1200375