Naked Ambition: From Adam Levine to Miley Cyrus, Hollywood's Most Daring Magazine Nudity

Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine bared nearly all for Cosmo UK in 2011, in a photo aimed at raising awareness for prostate and testicular cancer. Those strategically placed hands belong to his then-girlfriend Anne Vyalitsyna, a Russian model known for gracing the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. Levine told the magazine he was more than comfortable in the nude. "I spend most of my life naked. In fact, I often have to be told by the people around me that it's inappropriate to be as naked as I am. But I live in California, where it's always warm, so why not?"

Dixie Chicks


After catching career-threatening flack when bandmember Natalie Maines said she was "ashamed" then-President George W. Bush was from the band's home state of Texas, the Dixie Chicks stripped down as a counter-protest of sorts for Entertainment Weekly. "It's not about the nakedness," Dixie Chick Martie Maguire told theNew York Post in 2003, ahead of the issue's release. "It's about clothes getting in the way of labels." 

Hope Solo

Olympic soccer star Hope Solo posed for ESPN’s Body Issue in 2011. "Growing up, I felt insecure about my build," she told the magazine. “Guys would say, 'Look at those muscles! You can kick my ass!' I didn't feel feminine. But that's changed in the last four years."

Janet Jackson

A decade before her Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction, Jackson posed for a September 1993 cover of Rolling Stone topless, with her then-secret husband Rene Elizondo Jr. cupping her breasts. A portion of the photo -- shot by Patrick Demarchelier -- also was used as the cover of Jackson's fifth studio album, Janet, released that same year.

Jennifer Aniston

Aniston graced the cover of GQ in January 2009 while promoting her movie Marley & Me, which went on to become a box office hit. The issue, which featured a patriotic theme, featured Aniston wearing nothing but a red, which and blue striped necktie.

Jessica Biel

The actress, then 17, was best known for her role on the wholesome family drama 7th Heaven when she posed topless for Gear magazine's March 2000 cover. Stephen Collins, who played her father on the show, called the pictures "child pornography," and the actress' role on Heaven was subsequently reduced. Biel later said she regrets the pictures: "I was miserable. It was horrible. I was humiliated. I just wanted my family to forgive me," she toldEsquire magazine in 2005.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono

A nude John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono,posed for photographer Annie Leibovitz at their New York apartment, in the Dakota building, on Dec. 8, 1980. Lennon reportedly insisted that his wife also be in the photograph; she offered to take her top off, but Leibovitz told her to keep her clothes on. Several hours later, Lennon was shot and killed outside of the Dakota. Rolling Stone used the photo for its tribute issue to the former Beatle.

Kate Hudson

Hudson wore nothing but an ankle bracelet when she graced the cover of the September 2001 issue ofInStyle magazine. The actress has admitted she isn't self-conscious. "I’m pretty comfortable with my body," she told the U.K.'s Telegraph in 2010. "I’m imperfect. The imperfections are there. People are going to see them, but I take the view you only live once."

Keira Knightley and Scarlett Johansson

Knightley and Johansson dropped trou to pose with designer Tom Ford on the March 2006 cover ofVanity Fair magazine.

Kim Kardashian

After achieving infamy for her sex tape with R&B singer Ray J and later posing for Playboy, Kardashian was photographed by Mark Seliger for the November 2010 issue of W Magazine.

Miley Cyrus

Cyrus courted controversy in 2008 when she participated in a suggestive shoot for Vanity Fairwhere she was photographed by iconic shutterbugAnnie Leibovitz.

Nicole Kidman

Kidman appears on the cover of the Fall 2012 issue of V Magazine, shot by Mario Testino, in a barely-there miniskirt that just hides her lower lady parts.

Serena Williams

Tennis pro Serena Williams appeared on the 2009 cover of ESPN Magazine's "Body Issue" wearing nothing but a smile.

The Stars of 'True Blood'

Alexander Skarsgard, Anna Paquin andStephen Moyer appeared on the cover of the Sept. 2, 2010, issue of Rolling Stone, covered in nothing but (we assume fake) blood.

Demi Moore

Actress Demi Moore first went nude for the cover of Vanity Fair in 1991, showing off her very pregnant belly. The cover sparked intense controversy for its use of a pregnant sex symbol, which some saw as objectifying and others saw as empowering. The pose has been replicated by other celebrities, including Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson and Christina Aguilera. Moore went nude again in August 1992, appearing in just body paint for another Vanity Fair cover.