Martha Stewart, Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly Celebrate the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue
It was all about Martha Stewart on Thursday night, as Sports Illustrated took over the Hard Rock Hotel in Times Square in Manhattan to celebrate its latest annual swimsuit issue.
The 81-year-old had become the oldest cover model to be featured in the annual issue earlier in the week when the covers were released, and she was in high demand at the celebration party. Fellow cover face Megan Fox was there, appearing to be on again with fiancé Machine Gun Kelly despite recent confusion about their relationship status. The couple posed for photos with Stewart, before Machine Gun Kelly turned to Fox and asked if she would take a photo of him with Stewart.
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Stewart seemed unfazed by all the attention.
“I thought it was very nice,” she said of seeing the issue in print for the first time.
“I mean, I’ve posed in bathing suits before,” Stewart said. “But these are special. The response has been phenomenal. Today we had 8 billion hits on the internet. Did you know that? Eight billion. And it’s very fabulous.”
The other cover faces Kim Petras and Brooks Nader were also in attendance, as was Lauren Chan, one of this year’s rookies who came out as gay in an essay for SI.
“The Sports illustrated team reached out asking for a casting tape, and I was going to do my usual spiel of ‘Hi I’m Lauren, I’m a former fashion editor, plus-size fashion brand over, blah blah blah,’ but I decided to share a personal story,” Chan said, dressed in head-to-toe custom Willy Norris. “I think SI tends to feature and celebrate talent for who they are holistically. And the year leading up to that I had gone through a divorce and I had come out privately, and so I shared that in the casting tape.” Soon after, she received a call that she was in.
Coming out so publicly has been a wave of emotions, Chan said.
“Nerve-wracking, exciting. It’s really been a relief, I think, to feel free and myself,” she said. “Like I’ve gotten through a lot of the hard work and now I’m in the celebration phase.”
Launch Gallery: Inside the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue Launch Party
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