Platon Instagram – Friends, here is one of my favorite pictures. In the mid-late 90’s I was working almost exclusively for John Kennedy Jr.’s George Magazine. Pamela Anderson was to be our next cover story. The stylist had organized beautiful tight fitting couture dresses from Paris for Pammy to wear on the cover, but as I soon discovered, Pammy arrived on set with a secret. She was actually four months pregnant and the bump was beginning to show. Pammy seemed very distressed as she could not fit into any of the gowns that day and was fearful that her pregnancy would become public knowledge. At that point in her career, she wanted to keep her pregnancy private. Faced with an interesting challenge, Pammy asked me if I could solve a problem—how could we make a positive statement about her love affair with America and yet still hide her emerging bump? Instantly I had an idea. “Let’s just wrap you in a giant American flag!” “Brilliant,” she said, “I love it.” The shoot went on to become a classic for George Magazine and was even used as a USO poster to inspire American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan in the years to come. At the end of the shoot, Pammy gave me the flag as a gift. She said, “Keep this, it will bring you good luck. Take it in your suitcase to all your important photoshoots. I hope it brings you the same luck it brought me.” It’s the same flag I would later wrap around Muhammad Ali’s shoulders, and it’s the same flag Edward Snowden would cling to in a secret Moscow hotel room. Pammy, you were majestic that day and I salute you.