Who’s Wooing Whom in Details?

Sex may be giving Details magazine editor in chief James Truman a headache.

At least, Truman is downplaying the significance of a photo showing a man getting ready to go out on a date--with another man--that will appear in the March issue.

Actually, Truman is a bit miffed that New York magazine recently jumped on the forthcoming photo as evidence that Details “appears to be wooing a gay readership.”

New York also concluded that the strategy was logical because GQ, publisher Conde Nast’s other men’s magazine, “has been more ardently heterosexual in the last few years.”

Not so, Truman says, noting that the photo is only one of about 50 in a spread--the rest are overtly heterosexual or orientation-free--appearing in the monthly’s 176-page spring fashion issue, on sale Feb. 10.

“We’re a heterosexual magazine that is not uptight about homosexual issues,” Truman says, adding that the photo was “a sort of one-off idea.”

The photo in question is part of a package using the getting-ready-for-a-date theme, he says. Other layouts include overtly heterosexual themes such as a man spiffing up for a voluptuous blonde shown lounging in the background in a bubble bath, Truman explains.

Details has a circulation of 200,000 and is targeted at men in the 18-to-34 age bracket, according to Truman.