• Finally, an explanation as to why there was an empty front-row seat for Matt Damon at the L.A.M.B. show! It was all because of a crasher. Some dude talked his way into the show by pretending to be Damon's agent. The empty seat caused an all-runway media pile-up the likes of which we have not seen since the Spitzer hooker got seated at Yigal Azrouël. Throngs of photographers and reporters crowded the empty seat, rumors were started (for a time, it was believed that the seat was not for Matt Damon but for Matt Dillon) and then corrected (this was clearly disinformation intended only to weed out those who lacked the conviction necessary to pursue front-row reporting); things just got more mysterious when it was said that backstage, someone had asked Gwen Stefani about why Matt Damon should be at her fashion show, and Stefani had replied that she didn't even know Matt Damon. It turns out that a man who took the wrong moral lesson from Six Degrees of Separation was the cause of all this consternation. Peter Gianquinto goes to events and pretends to be the manager of someone famous, essentially. Dylan Bernstein, the son of the Beatles manager, has experience with the smooth-talker. "He befriended himself to our family as Peter Mellon of the Mellon banking family," says Bernstein. "It is ironic that Peter used Matt Damon's name when Peter himself reminds me of a harmless Talented Mr. Ripley." [P6]
• Sarah Jessica Parker skipped the Halston show at New York fashion week — but turned up at a trade show called Fashion Coterie to man the Halston booth, model samples, and talk to buyers. [P6]
• Artist Marc Quinn — best known for his sculptures Alison Lapper Pregnant, which was installed in Trafalgar Square, and Siren, a life-sized gold statue of Kate Moss with her legs behind her ears — says that Akris used some of his prints without his permission in its spring collection. "To take someone's copyright material and turn it into a commercial product without their permission is completely unacceptable," says Quinn. Akris admits its creative director, Albert Kreimler, was inspired by a trip to a gallery, but says "Within his design process Albert too [sic] this as inspiration — adding his own creativity and artwork." [Vogue UK]

• This new French L'Oréal ad is like celebrity spokesmodel whack-a-mole. We spy Beyoncé, Patrick Dempsey, Jessica Alba, Freida Pinto, Claudia Schiffer, Rachel Weisz, and Jane Fonda... It's funny to watch them all say, "Parce que vous le valez bien." [YouTube]

• Jean-Paul Gaultier, on Lady Gaga: "I think she's talented and very inpolitically incorrect, which I love. But I also think that she read up on Madonna's life and learnt it like the Bible." [Telegraph]

• After taking down Victoria's Secret, Abercrombie & Fitch, Hollister, and Elle magazine, the dreaded bedbugs are now ensconced at the Fifth Avenue Juicy Couture store. We're picturing bedbugs in tiny velour tracksuits, talking on tiny pink bedazzled cell phones. [Gothamist]

• Julia Roberts' original deal with Lancôme, signed last December, was rumored to be worth up to $20 million. Now that the actress is renewing for five more years, she's said to be earning a cool $50 million. [Daily Mail]

• Mariah Carey is launching an accessories line on HSN in November. Expect her to be hawking shoes, jewelry, and "a limited edition version of her Luscious Pink fragrance, with a butterfly-cap bottle and a personal note from the songstress." [WWD]

• Rocha: "It is unforgivable that an adult should demand that [a] girl unnaturally lose the weight vital to keep her body functioning properly. How can any person justify an aesthetic that reduces a woman or child to an emaciated skeleton?"

• Louis Vuitton proposed Annie Leibovitz do an ad as a solution to her financial problems. Leibovitz instead offered her fee to Mikhail Baryshnikov; Louis Vuitton wouldn't hear of it, and ended up paying them both. Rich people: so lucky. [WWD]

• Waiting, with Diane Von Furstenberg, for Mayor Bloomberg to arrive in Queens, Anna Wintour said, "If he doesn't show, Diane and I will run on a joint ticket and take over the city." Was that a...joke? Then Lindsay Lohan stole.

[New York, September 10. Image via Bauer-Griffin]

• Kylie Minogue was in Jean Paul Gaultier's front row yesterday because she's looking for outfits for her American tour, which kicks off in October. Might we suggest this? [Elle UK]