(Photo: Courtesy of Helavanna Productions)

Hipster mag Vice has long flirted with political incorrectness, misogyny, and violence—all in the most unimpeachably ironic way, of course. The current cover features West Village–bred actress Lily Wheelwright, who died March 22 at age 24, reportedly of a drug overdose. Last year she appeared on another Vice cover sporting a black eye acquired in a self-punching contest. Were they exploitative? Vice flack Kathryn Frazier defended the pictures, taken by Wheelwright’s friend, Ryan McGinley. “Apparently, Lily loved [the black eye cover],” she said, adding that McGinley “just spent two weeks making 500 handmade 84-page books for her memorial.”

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• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Articles by Tim Murphy
• Table of Contents: April 30, 2007 issue of New York | Subscribe!