CELEBRITY SERVICE

Talking covers: Choose your favorite from these names: Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Yoko Ono, George McGovern, Ralph Nader, John Fogerty, Jackson Browne, Brian Wilson, Lou Reed, Daniel Ellsberg, Hunter S. Thompson, George Lucas, Don Henley, Bruce Springsteen, Smokey Robinson, Keith Richards, Walter Cronkite, Teddy Kennedy, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Tom Hayden, Jane Fonda, Stevie Wonder, Joan Baez, Pete Townsend, Tom Wolfe, Tim Leary, Jack Nicholson, Michael Douglas, Sting and Bob Dylan.

Those were the choices facing Rolling Stone editors as they planned next month’s 20th anniversary issue, which hits the stands Oct. 20. The result: They talked to all of ‘em. And left the cover faceless.

“We decided not to go with a single person,” said PR director Stu Zakim. “How do you pick one without really starting trouble? All have been vital to the magazine over the last 20 years. Each talks about what is appropriate to that person” (i.e., Cronkite on the media, McGovern on politics, Smokey about Motown, McCartney on the Beatles, etc.).

Noticeably absent from the list: Michael Jackson and Prince. “They (the editors) never went after them,” Zakim said of the editorial decision, although getting access to the two eccentric stars might have proved futile anyway.

The cover will feature either words of reflection from publisher Jann Wenner or two white Roman numeral “X’s” on a gold background (the 10th anniversary issue featured a single X). At press time, editors were favoring the latter.

The issue will run about 325 pages (twice normal) and cost $4.95 (normally $1.95).