He has carved out a reputation as a sportsman, a flirt, a dilettante—a guy adored by the masses for no reason beyond his pecs and his pedigree. But 1995 was the year that John F. Kennedy Jr., now 35, tried to find himself. "It has been an important year," says Onassis biographer C. David Heymann. "Jackie's death liberated him."

So what to do with his freedom? Surprisingly, the long-guarded Kennedy chose a career that would require sacrificing some of his privacy. In September editor-in-chief Kennedy introduced George, his glossy new politics-and-pop-culture magazine. That same month he charmed TV viewers with a cameo appearance on Murphy Brown. He even showed up at a party in the Hamptons cuddling and kissing his favorite date—and rumored fiancée—Carolyn Bessette, a Calvin Klein publicist.

Was all this public display a precursor to a more precarious leap? Kennedy tantalized the curious in an April speech to Detroit executives, saying, "I hope eventually to end up as President...[long pause]...of a very successful publishing venture." Easier said than done. Though the first issue of George sold out its 500,000 copies, the Rolling Stone-New Republic hybrid met skepticism from some political professionals who found it lacking in substance. (One feature had Madonna explaining what she would do as President: "The entire armed forces would come out of the closet.") "We pretty quickly decided it wasn't an important player," says D.C. media critic Stephen Hess. "In serious Washington, it wasn't serious." Just how serious Kennedy himself is remains to be seen, "I have not offered folks a lot about myself, so people traffic in the stuff that they know about," he recently told Dan Rather. "And that's kind of fun."