The JFK photo that could have changed history -- if it were really *him* with those naked ladies

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Sometimes it’s good not to be that guy.

And in this case, ‘that guy’ would be TMZ, the website that is very often right but occasionally quite wrong. This time? El wrongo -- about a supposedly scandalous, hidden-from-history picture of John F. Kennedy.

Around 2:30 a.m. EST today, TMZ published an article titled, ‘The JFK Photo That Could Have Changed History.’

OMG look! It’s JFK! On a boat! With naked ladies! And he’s not even paying attention to them!

How divinely ‘Mad Men,’ yes?

TMZ was pretty proud of the info and willing to share, albeit with a raft of restrictions and permissions, which is par for the course as such things go. There was a video too (it’s a bit of a snoozer) in which a forensic photography expert describes his analysis of the image. Dishiest of all? The alleged timing of the photograph was such that, if it were real, JFK would’ve been relaxing through all these high jinks while wife Jackie Kennedy was in the hospital suffering through an emergency C-section of a stillborn baby.

The cad!

And all this while he was gunning for the VP nomination!

So as the story went ...

... the photo, all crumpled and cracked from wear, reportedly had been kept in a drawer for years by a car dealership owner who had passed it down to a son. Dad had liked to brag about having a shot of JFK relaxing on a boat where, by the looks of it, it was raining naked ladies.

Not that there’s anything wrong with naked ladies.

Problem is, lots of people pay lots of attention to naked ladies, and lots of people pay lots of attention to JFK, and by 12:57 p.m. today TMZ had to revise its story -- after receiving word that the pic was actually from a color Playboy spread that ran in 1967.

Neither the picture, nor the Playboy, featured JFK at all.

Though both did feature plenty of naked ladies.

Oops.

Oh, well, it’s a nice story, we suppose. And after hitting the Smoking Gun for the real dish (including the original color pictures), we are all still clicking over to TMZ anyway to read the nonstory and see the nonpicture and watch the nonvideo and reminisce about the good days of yore, when naked ladies fell from the sky and everyone was tan and healthy.

So thanks, TMZ. A good time has been had by all.

-- Christie D’Zurilla

P.S. Why aren’t we linking to the TMZ posts? Because, duh, they’re full of pictures of naked ladies! Pretty tame stuff, so hide the children and just Google the title of the TMZ article. You’ll get there right quick.

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