Characters on covers?

I personally hate covers of fictional books that have a representational picture of the main character (or characters) - I like to make up my own mind about what they look like! I find alot of editions of the classics are guilty of this. I'm ok with more abstract images or 'cartoony' illustrations however. What is everyone else's opinion on this?

I'm generally able to "forget" the character on the cover - The truth is, I even change the appearance of the character in the book in my own head from the author's description sometimes... I'm just disrespectful that way. ;-)

But yeah, there have been a few that have really irritated me. Either a look I can't forget or some glaring error that eats away at my brain... I can't seem to pull up any examples right now.

I know what you mean gforce. Even the cover of The French Lieutenant's Woman bothers me, because of that photo. But there are some exceptions, like the cover of Sarah Canary (the user-provided one), which I love for some reason.

Ah, here's one I'm reading now in the "glaring error" category: The 1986 Hogart Press paperback of The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman by H.G. Wells - She is very clearly described as having a full mouth and blue-black hair (I envision Katherine Zeta Jones or something) - The cover is a painting of a Gibson-Girl style blondish brunette.

I can't stand editions with still from the movie on them. Grrrr. Especially when they don't look like the author's description. It's been a while since I read it, but didn't Byatt's Possession's heroine have full, curly red hair?

When the cover showcases the character in the story and looks nothing like author's description is where I really get mad!

Ella Enchanted for example! They have mentioned, plenty of times, that Ella has jet-black hair. So what's up with the sandy brown hair color they like to throw on her!?