Rob Lowe, the cover boy of the final George magazine edited by JFK Jr. in September, gave an unexpected boost to pearls, if not politics. Lowe holds, prayer-like, a strand of freshwater pearls by Slane & Slane, as if atoning for his bad-boy image 10 years ago. The pearls look great and Rob isn't bad either. Perhaps the Cultured Pearl Information Center's "pearls for men" campaign is finally paying off.

The cover is part of a celebrity shoot of cast members from the new TV drama "The West Wing," in which Lowe plays the deputy communications director at the White House. All the jewelry – most of it pearls – worn by female cast members in the photo shoot also came from Slane & Slane.

- by Peggy Jo Donahue