Controversial musician and actor Vincent Gallo has a rule that he will only grant interviews with a publication if it agrees to put him on the cover. Will Harper of the SF Weekly says his publication turned down Gallo — “we don’t let celebrities tell us what to put on our cover.”

But Harper says he was a little perplexed when Gallo appeared on the cover of the competing Bay Guardian, a weekly known for preaching journalism ethics to others. “Now, we didn’t become reporters because we got A’s in math, but we can still add two and two together,” Harper writes.

Harper says he got an e-mail from Guardian editor Tim Redmond, who says that his paper was planning to put Gallo on the cover before contacting him.

There is a lot of bad blood between these two weeklies. The Guardian is suing the SF Weekly’s owner, alleging that the chain sold ads at below the cost of production in an attempt to run the Guardian out of business. A trial is set for Oct. 15.