Terry Richardson Makes Glee All Porny

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Terry Richardson, the cast of Glee, and an aggressively tasteless photo shoot concept walk into a studio.

I don’t really watch Glee — the show seems like a second-rate Popular to me, and the part of my heart that loves teenage melodrama on the teevee will always want to believe in the Novak, Harrison John’s recovery, and the fundamental justice of Lily Esposito’s campaign against frog dissection — so maybe I’m predisposed to find this GQ spread contrived and tacky. Except, wait — I really just think this GQ spread is contrived and tacky.

It’s almost hard to summon actual ire when Richardson, who has been accused of sexual harassment and exploitation by more than one of his models, puts together yet another shoot where the half-naked girls are just there for decoration.

Richardson’s shoots are so repetitive — and always overlaid, as if by way of excuse, with such a heavy helping of kitsch — that it’s difficult to even muster shock.

But the difference between how he portrays the actresses Lea Michele and Dianna Agron in this shoot, and how he photographs Cory Monteith, are pretty inescapable. Agron and Michele get to 1. Romp around in their underwear 2. Assume a variety of non-threatening poses and 3. Make sexyface.

Cory Monteith gets to 1. Wear clothes 2. Do stuff and 3. Receive praise and female attention for these feats.

The real question is, given the incredible, mind-numbing predictability of his results, why do magazines keep hiring Terry Richardson?