You Won't Believe Who's On the Cover with Oprah This Month

The list of luminaries who have shared the cover of O with Oprah is pretty short: Michelle Obama. Ellen DeGeneres. Rosie O'Donnell. Dr. Oz. And now...Beast. The 10-year-old African lion stretched, yawned and roared for his most high-profile gig yet. (His past credits include a GEICO commercial.) So how did the two cover stars get along? They never met. For safety's sake, Beast was photographed the previous day; cuddlier stand-ins were used to get shots exactly right. "I can honestly say I've never done this before," Oprah said as she reclined next to George DeLacy, a member of the set-design team, who gamely posed in a full lion costume. In the end, the 500-pound cat wasn't the only thing the crew had to wrangle. "Make sure the left breast is out of sight," Oprah said after narrowly avoiding a wardrobe malfunction in her low-cut Marc Bouwer gown.

The stand-ins for the real lion? A plush version and George DeLacy doing his best King of the Jungle impersonation.

Photographer Ruven Afanador and his team shot from inside a protective cage.

Afanador giving Oprah and Gayle King the lowdown on Beast and DeLacy's digital switcheroo.