• Karl Lagerfeld gave SpongeBob SquarePants a makeover for a charity auction, resulting in this little charmer, which sold for €1,000. [WWD]

• Zac Posen, who two weeks ago announced a lower-priced line, Z Spoke, will do a line for Target in the U.S. (He already designed a capsule collection for Target's Australian outpost in 2008.) Zac Posen for Target Go International will hit stores on April 25 of next year. Rodarte for Target goes on sale this December, at last. [WWD]
• Even though it's late November in sunny London, Kate Moss is allegedly planning an outdoor dinner party. Her nefarious plan? The supermodel, whose recent choice, in an interview, of a notorious eating disorder sufferers' slogan as her motto we highlighted, wants to be photographed eating food. [Mirror]
• The verdict on "Black Friday" post-Thanksgiving sales: an "unexceptional yet decent" $41.2 billion was spent. [WWD]
• Both potential buyers of the bankrupt house of Christian Lacroix failed to meet a new, extended deadline to provide the bankruptcy court with guarantees of their capital. If the company is not sold, the current owners, the Falic Group, will likely go forward with their preferred scenario, in which only 11 key staff are retained, and the brand is either auctioned off to cover debts, or turned into a licensing machine for scarves and perfumes. [AFP]
• Patrick Dempsey stars with his wife, Jillian, in his new Avon perfume ad. Because this scent is "about two people and the power of the relationship." [People]
• Sonia Rykiel's H&M lingerie line will be launched this December with a fashion show at the Grand Palais. The models will walk on moving floats that travel around a fantasy Parisian streetscape, dominated by a 30 meter Eiffel Tower made from 25 km of wire and fairy lights. Trees will have balloon canopies, and the Café de Flore will be mocked up as the Café Flirt. Also, imagine 6 meter poodles and 2.5 meter bunnies. Best part? It'll be streamed live on the mighty Internet. [SB]
• The pink-and-black '50s-themed collection goes on sale this Saturday in more than 1,500 H&M boutiques worldwide, as well as Rykiel's own stores. Prices range from €7.95 - €19.95 for underwear, and €79.95 for sleepwear. [WWD]
• Morrissey is collaborating with Stella McCartney on a line of vegan footwear. McCartney says the shoes could be in stores next year. [Daily Mail, 2nd item]
• Helena Christensen, on the term of art 'supermodel': it's "silly and cartoonish, but to be a part of that whole group of girls — at the end of the day, I was there. I did it. I am a million experiences richer." [Telegraph]
• It's a comeback for Aussie model Catherine McNeil. McNeil will be on the cover of next month's Australian Vogue, a casting move that her booker says gives any model "credibility" — oddly implying that McNeil needs some. The 20-year-old has been on an extended break from international modeling, but is expected to rejoin the moil next show season, in January. [News.com.au]
• Mulberry creative director Emma Hill, who previously designed accessories for Marc Jacobs and the Gap, on the heyday of 'it' bags: "I was partly responsible, at Marc Jacobs, for the It bag thing. I realized that we'd made it when I saw knock-offs on the street corner. But a trend like that squashes people's individuality. If you're all trying to get the same thing, it's not very special. There are possibly more things to worry about in life than waiting two years for a handbag. I think those years are over." [ToL]
• Jenny Sanford applied to trademark her own name in early July, shortly after the June revelation that her husband, South Carolina governor Mark Sanford, was hiking the Appalachian trail enjoying two magnificent parts of another woman. Jenny Sanford applied for the trademark intending to use it to market a line of clothing, mugs, and other household items, to be sold through her website. The trademark application has not yet been approved. [State]
• Christian Audigier is opening an Ed Hardy store in London this week, the U.K.'s first. [Guardian]
• Victoria's Secret is a popular target for professional shoplifters. Four women pepper-sprayed a sales associate in Tennessee this month in order to boost 30 pairs of underwear. [UPI]
• Due to Dubai's debt crisis, the American investors who recently and separately bought significant chunks of Barneys New York's debt, Ron Burkle and Richard Perry, might end up controlling the Dubai-owned company. If they do, they should probably convince someone there to hire a C.E.O. All the best companies have one. [Dealbook]
• Pierre Cardin, 87, was briefly hospitalized in Paris for exhibiting falling blood pressure and a slow pulse. Cardin was en route to Greece, where he was holding a fashion show. As if this were 1963, or something. [AFP]
• French eBay users are banned from selling or buying certain branded perfumes, like Christian Dior and Kenzo. A court in Paris has fined the auction site 1.7 million Euros for not enforcing the law effectively enough. [BBC]
• The market in exotic skins, like alligator, has been among the worst affected by the recession. (It's not hard to imagine why, given a pair of alligator Manolos can easily run $4,000.) The farmers who raise the gators in Louisiana, Florida, and Georgia are paid for their troubles by tanneries, who then sell the processed hides to fashion companies. But while farmers complain that prices offered by tanneries have fallen below the cost of even raising the animals, fashion companies say the reduction in the cost of finished skins has been minimal. Which major fashion brand significantly expanded into alligator tanneries during the boom years? Hermès. The other thing you should know about this article is that a man named Tommy Fletcher, whose work involves going into bayous to fight mother alligators with a pole and frequent bites when handling the live young, says that running an alligator farm is "like being married to Miss America. You get all the benefits of the hugs and kisses, but she's mighty high-maintenance." [NYTimes]

First things first: yes, K.Stew's posture betrays her habitual ambivalence, but she looks flat-out lovely.


...and a million teenage girls swoon. He's obviously learned he can show up hung over and it makes no difference, so he does.


Why, you ask, was Joan Jett here? We don't question it (but we're pretty sure it has to do with the Joan Jett biopic Kristen is starring in).


Even in cruel shoes and hinting at her gothic villain tendencies, Dakota Fanning looks sweet, poised, and perfect.


Disco-ready sequinage like Anna Kendrick's was, not shockingly, practically de rigeur.


Exhibit B: Actress Christian Serratos.


Lea Michele, meanwhile, sheds her nerd duds, impresses Joan Jett with her pipes, leathah. (Her shoes might be more comfy with an insole. Or five.)


One imagines that Mary Murphy's screams rivaled the tween twi-hards. Her dress is made for easy shrieking.


I think Madeline Carroll dresses for all teen Twi-hards in this Gothic situation.


The always-restrained Emma Roberts shows a quieter approach to vampire-appropriate sparkles.


Jennifer Love Hewitt is an old hand at teen fans, talking with the dead. No wonder she looks so relaxed.


Jailbait Taylor Lautner looks suave beyond his years.


On the one hand, I like the whole deco thing Stephanie Meyer's doing. On the other, this is odd and not terribly flattering. What say you?


Actress Noot Seear brings us an ugly, a palpable ugly.

[Images via Getty]

• Heidi Klum is not Superwoman, okay? She's not walking in the Victoria's Secret runway show a mere month after giving birth to her fourth child. She's just going to host it. Sheesh. Some people have such unrealistic expectations. [E!]

• Meanwhile, this year's angels have been named: Candice Swanepoel, Chanel Iman, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Emanuela de Paula, and Lindsay Ellingson have all been welcomed into the fold. [SB]
• In other important lingerie news, some people who sell bras in London say that 1950s-style pointy bras are gaining popularity. However, none of the equipment pictured looks that pointy. [Daily Mail]
• Tom Ford says he struggled with depression after leaving Gucci, in 2004. "I started to sink emotionally, spiritually. I became a little bit lost. Leaving Gucci, it intensified because I had been able to cling to my job and to my work and to my identity as a successful fashion designer, and all of a sudden that was gone. It forced me to really think, Well, what am I, who am I, what am I about? It took me a bit of time to figure that out. I think this happens to most people in their life if they're insightful enough to indulge it and to get through to the other side." [W]
• This week's episode of Project Runway was shot partly at the Getty Center, and the challenge for the contestants is to create outfits that somehow reflect the museum and its architecture. There's a free screening at 7 tonight at the museum. [LATimes]
• Lady Gaga is now backtracking from her earlier claims, to Flare magazine, in which she said she would do a clothing line "at some point." The singer told the Accessories Council awards gala that she and her styling team aren't into that: "We will never do a line; we are not an economy." Then Toms founder Blake Mycoskie reminded the audience, gathered to celebrate, in Diane Von Furstenberg's words "friends you can carry with you and they make you feel better," that "Shoes, for 40 percent of the world, are not an accessory. They're a necessity." [Style.com]
• 50 Cent's torso appears in all its smoothly airbrushed glory for his new fragrance campaign, which he revealed to People. [People]
• Stephanie Winston-Wolkoff, who, until this July, worked at Vogue and essentially ran the annual Met Costume Institute Gala, has just been confirmed as the new director of fashion week at Lincoln Center. [FWD]
• There's news about Isaac Mizrahi's QVC collection, which goes on sale December 4, but we know what we all really are curious about is the cheesecake that will be sold. It's made by Junior's, the top looks to be printed with tartan in edible inks, and the crust is chocolate-flavored cookies. It'll be $40. Also for sale will be an Isaac Mizrahi banana nut loaf and chocolate-chip cookies. Yum. [WWD]
• Sociology major and current Prada face Kendra Spears, on embarrassing moments: "Well, during a hurried interview backstage an investigatory journalist asked me what I liked to do when I was at home and I said, 'nothing too commotious.' Afterwards, I realized commotious isn't even a word." And on jobs she held, pre-modeling: "I worked part time as an assistant to the owner of a company called LiftPort which was (and may still be) in the forefront of technologies, mostly carbon nanotubes, to build an elevator into space." [W]
• Because of the weak economy, more parents are trying to get agency representation for modeling and talent work for their children. Also because of the weak economy, there are fewer jobs to go around, and those jobs are still offered are less well-paying. [WSJ]
• Rumor has it that John Galliano is designing and decorating this year's Christmas tree for London's Claridge's hotel. [Style.com]
• Joanna Lumley and Jennifer Saunders of Absolutely Fabulous are in the Marks & Spencer holiday ads. [Mirror]
• Designer Adam Lippes, who staffs his office with around 20 interns at any one time, says of them: "[I]t's rare to find an intern — especially one from a fashion school — that has good style. Because they try sooo hard, and it never works! You know?" Having been once dressed by an Adam Lippes intern who was wearing a kind of 1980s Medusa costume, with a corset, we are tempted to agree, but for chrissakes, Lippes, they work for you for free. (Also: look who's talking.) [The Cut]
• Photographer Jean-Baptiste Mondino is against France's proposed retouching laws, which would require digitally altered images to bear labels stating that they have been, well, digitally altered. He tells Libération Next, "The photos of old Hollywood? Retouched! The iconic image of Che Guevara? Retouched! All the photos taken by Richard Avedon of Marilyn Monroe? Retouched! And all of this before today's software existed, of course. Legs were lengthened using a wide angle; skins were smoothed through overexposure." Because using a wide-angle lens is exactly the same as scissoring one head onto another body and placing the Frankenstein creation into a separately shot background and then liquifying the nose a little and changing the light source and strength and whittling down the waist. [WWD]
• Christian Siriano's holiday collection for Payless has turned up online. Are these even supposed to bear any resemblance to what he shows with his runway collection anymore? [Payless]
• Jodi Arnold, starting with her resort collection, is changing the name of her line from MINT Jodi Arnold, to Jodi Arnold NYC. The designer, who has a new job working on a collaboration with The Limited, also just opened her first store, a pop-up in Greenwich village. [WWD]
• The son of the founder of Escada is one of the bidders — in a consortium with the former head of Gucci and the department store owners Borletti Group — for the bankrupt German house. They are offering $118.2 million. [Reuters]
• Steve Madden is not only not bankrupt, it's feeling pretty acquisitory. C.E.O. Edward Rosenfeld says the company is on the lookout for brands worth $30-$40 million, but could splurge on something worth up to $100 million. [TS]
• Valentino head Stefano Sassi, says everything at the house is just great!!! Nothing to see here!!! Doth the C.E.O. protest too much? [Reuters]
• Liz Claiborne's third quarter losses were even bigger than expected. This is the company's eighth consecutive quarter of losing money. [WSJ]

• The Olsen twins are launching a new juniors' collection for JC Penney, home of the brands Kimora Lee Simmons, Bisou Bisou, and Charlotte Ronson. It'll be called Olsenboye and is expected in stores this spring. [The Cut]

• The Olsens, plus Alexander Wang, Erin Fetherston, Jenna Lyons of J. Crew, Maria Pinto, and several others were officially inducted into the Council of Fashion Designers of America — "the Kiwanis Club of our business," as David Rees put it — on Wednesday night. After someone explained to Mary-Kate what the save the garment center campaign was about — the lax enforcement of existing zoning laws has allowed landlords in the area supposedly reserved for apparel companies to lease instead to higher-paying kinds of commercial tenants, driving up rents — she said she was totally for it. "We need it, as well. I hope we can save it," she said. [WWD]
• "As a child, I never saw a confident woman — I only saw women being abused," says Mary J. Blige. The singer has just opened the new Mary J. Blige Center for Women in the city of Yonkers, where she grew up. It's intended to educate, empower, and encourage women. "I want every girl and woman who walks through this door to know that she is loved — no matter who is telling her she isn't loved," says the singer. Gucci's Frida Giannini turned up to the opening, and an unspecified portion of the profit from sales of a Gucci women's watch costing $1,895 will be donated to Blige's charity. Giannini was also in town to open Gucci's pop-up shop in SoHo, which will showcase Mark Ronson's alleged "sneaker" for the brand. [WWD]
• First, there was the Sportiletto. And now, behold: The Lamborghini Heel. [FWD]
• From former New York Times food critic and memoirist Frank Bruni's Twitter: "Anna Wintour comes to Marea, orders chicken, with avocado salad, neither on menu. What's the point?" [Twitter]
• Tom Ford says the process of directing A Single Man, his adaptation of the Isherwood novel, has been about "coming to terms with the fact that I do spend so much of my life working in the material world. But as long as you keep it in perspective and don't take it too seriously, I think fashion is a great thing that adds quality to our lives. It doesn't mean that a beautiful pair of shoes isn't still beautiful. But if you lose them, big deal, because they don't really mean anything other than to be able to say, 'Wow, look at my feet. Aren't they pretty?'" [Out]
• Christian Louboutin has created a special carrier bag that includes a bottle of champers and a crystal champagne flute shaped like a stiletto. The package, known as Le Rituel, costs $500, and you can watch a 3-minute film about it here. [WWD]
• He made this bubbly slipper-sipper instead of doing a diffusion line for H&M. That sound just then was our hearts breaking. [The Cut]
• Burberry is getting into the cosmetics business. It won't happen till next summer, but expect a full line — about 100 products for face, lips, and eyes — when it does. [WWD]
• Manolo Blahnik does not want to talk about platforms, which he is relieved to note are finally falling from prominence. "Don't talk to me about platforms. I've done it all before. It bores me now. I want shoes to be beautiful, so women walk beautifully. Shoes should be beautiful — Oh, and of course, a little fun also." [Telegraph]
• Project Runway's Kit Scarbo, who does not skate, is doing a women's line with the skateboard brand Etnies. [The Cut]
• According to one student who took notes on Amy Astley's recent talk at FIDM, Teen Vogue is working on a new TV show. The mag's last dalliance with the medium resulted in The Hills. [Jazzi McG]
• Someone who is a really big fan of Hedi Slimane made this claymation video of an imaginary rock band, clad entirely in Slimane's Dior collections. [YoungestIndie]
• A kind of full-length women's chenille robe marketed by Pennsylvania company Blair is being recalled. The highly flammable robes have been linked to nine deaths so far. [NBC]

• Conan O'Brien landed in the hospital yesterday due to an injury sustained during a Tonight Show stunt. A source says O'Brien was "running down a flight of stairs when he slipped and banged his head, possibly sustaining a concussion." [E!]

• Though the network has not yet released any details about Conan's condition or if he's been released from the hospital, they did release a statement allegedly made by O'Brien himself: ""Last thing I remember I was enjoying the play with Mrs. Lincoln and the next thing I knew I was in bed being served cookies and juice." [NYTimes]
• Conan was also cracking jokes during his ambulance ride to the hospital. Is it wrong that I hope he made a Nomi Malone/Showgirls reference regarding Jay Leno and the flight of stairs? [TMZ]
• The rumors about Lindsay Lohan trashing a hotel room during a fight with Samantha Ronson are apparently untrue, as Lohan was in Texas, not New York, when the fight supposedly broke out. [PageSix]
• Meanwhile, producers of Celebrity Big Brother UK are trying to line up Lohan for the last season of the show. [TheSun]
• Seth Rogen's dream came true when he was asked to co-write and lend his voice to the first episode of the upcoming season of The Simpsons, where he'll spoof his own Green Hornet experience by playing a trainer assigned to whip Homer into shape for a big budget action film. "As a writer, it always just seemed like the Holy Grail," Rogen says, "I can die a happy man now." [AP]
• Randy Quaid and his wife allegedly have their hotel bill-hopping scheme "down to a science," according to a Santa Barbara County Sheriff, who notes that the couple have pulled similar stunts before. [TMZ]
• Miley Cyrus will reportedly be movin her hips like yeah in the Sex and the City sequel: "Miley sees this as a transition from teen stardom to more adult roles," says a source, "We're all wondering how long it will take Kim to have Miley knocking back Cosmos and ogling all the men. Seriously though, all the girls are excited to have Miley on board." I think it will take 5 years, source! Because she's only 16 years old like yeah, so it's a straight edge party on the set in the USA while the cameras are rolling, know what I'm sayin? [ShowbizSpy]
• Afeni Shakur has donated over 150 pieces of her son, Tupac's work to the Robert W. Woodruff Library at the Atlanta University Center. The collection includes handwritten notes, lyrics, and poetry. [AP]
• Mary-Louise Parker is dating musician Charlie Mars. He's 10 years younger than she is, so get ready for 6-8 months of stupid cougar references. [People]
• Ashton Kutcher's The Beautiful Life, starring Mischa Barton, has been canceled by the CW after only 2 episodes. Sadly, no one has canceled the similarly-titled Ace of Base song from my brain since I read this item earlier this morning. [THR]
• Catherine Zeta-Jones and husband Michael Douglas shared a birthday yesterday; she turned 40 and he turned 65. "'When you live in Los Angeles you can't go anywhere without being critiqued - on the fact that you have gained weight or that you have got spots on your face. That's not the life I want," Jones says, "Deciding to live in beautiful Bermuda was the healthiest thing Michael and I ever did. Now that I have kids, that's what my life is about." [DailyMail]
• "I've been afraid of the dark my whole life. If I go into my house at night and the lights have been turned off... I have to run from the door to the light switch to turn it on... I'm just afraid of what I can't see. I watch a lot of paranormal shows, like Ghost Hunters... and they freak me out." -Megan Fox [DailyExpress]
• Brett Ratner had to convince producers to allow an autobiographical sex scene in his short for New York, I Love You, wherein a character loses his virginity to "a paraplegic dangling from a tree." Ratner, who apparently lost his own virginity this way, says "When I sent the original script, which is autobiographical, the producers would not let me film it because, in the original ending, she (the girl) is a cripple, and they have sex as she's hanging from a tree in Central Park. Everyone was freaking out over my short, so I changed it to where she wasn't a cripple, but an actress pretending to be a cripple." [DailyExpress]
• Jay-Z says that he's thankful his mother, Gloria, set up a meeting between him and his estranged father, whose absence caused a great deal of "resentment and anger" in his life, as it allowed him to better understand his father's choices. [ShowbizSpy]
• Michael Jackson admitted in an interview to Rabbi Shmuley Boteach that he was terrified of growing old and that he felt Madonna was jealous of him: "'I think she was in love with me and I was not in love with her." [DailyMail]
• Boteach also says that Jackson had "lost the will to live" and was embarrassed about his appearance, noting that he felt he looked like a "lizard." [Reuters]
• "I just hit 40, so what more can I say? I mean, the fact that I'm 40 is a miracle. I'm on the other side now."- Christian Slater [ShowbizSpy]
• J.K. Rowling has opened a Twitter account. Rita Skeeter has already sent her 82930283 direct messages, asking for scoops. [EW]
• And now for my favorite news ever: Snoop Dogg is a big fan of the 90s British sitcom Keeping Up Appearances: ""They still run the show on BBC America so I think Mrs Bucket must have some sort of cult following in the US. I still watch the show to this day and it makes me laugh so hard. She has to be one of the funniest people on TV." [TheSun]

• Lindsay Lohan has supposedly been spending time with "a different man every night" since breaking up with Sam Ronson:

According to this report, she's been in "constant contact" with 90210 star Kellan Lutz and also been hanging out with a British paparazzo named Chris Jepson. A source says she and Jepson were "inseparable" at a Hollywood house party and spent some time in the bathroom together, blah blah blah. [Page Six]

• Heidi Montag and Miley Cyrus have come out in support of gay marriage (and Perez Hilton) via Twitter. Heidi's says: "God says in the bible that we should love our neighbor and he created us all as equals. I know in my heart that gays and lesbians should have the same government rights that Spencer and I will when we get married. So, yes, this blonde Christian believes in gay marriage." As for Miley, she wrote: "Jesus loves you AND your partner and wants you to know how much he cares! thats like a daddy not loving his lil boy cuz hes gay and that is WRONG and very sad! like i said everyone deserves to be happy." [Perez]
• Jesus may love the gheyz but Catholics hate Ron Howard's Angels & Demons. The Catholic Bishops Conference of India want it banned. [E!, Page Six]
• Lauren Conrad says Spencer Pratt has admitted that he started the sex tape rumor about her. "We actually have it on tape. He takes responsibility and apologizes for it." Oh, and also, the peeps from The Hills may not be as vapid as you think: MTV exec Liz Gateley sez: "These folks do talk about a lot of intelligent things — like global warming — we just don't show that on the show." Yes, shield your audience from the big words! [LA Times]
• Stephanie Pratt on being a Speidi bridesmaid: "I've never been to a wedding before. I know that Holly is in it. I'm hoping that she is Maid of Honor because I will screw everything up. I don't know if you watched any of the Kelly Cutrone scenes, but I'm really not good at following direction." [E!]
• LC says of the wedding: "I think that it was very nice of [Heidi] to invite me but I think that she didn't really expect me to come." [Mirror]
• Audrina is in a PETA ad, dressed as an angel wearing some kind of stripper bikini. She copy reads: "Be an Angel for Animals. ALWAYS ADOPT. NEVER BUY." [Just Jared]
• Was Madonna's fall from a horse as bad as it sounded? She is already back to working out with trainer Tracy Anderson. [The Sun]
• Angelina Jolie might star as Dr. Kay Scarpetta in a film based on the best-selling books by Patricia Cornwell. There are 16 Scarpetta books, so the film could potentially turn into a Bourne-type franchise. And! She's neither a hooker, a victim nor a doormat; she's a medical examiner. [Variety]
• Rihanna may go on tour with Ciara and Keyshia Cole, a source says. "Rihanna wants strong women to join her," the insider spills. "This is a 'women empowerment' type of tour." [E!]
• Will Rihanna and Chris Brown have to confront each other at an ASCAP Awards after-party tonight? [Daily Express]
• Hey, remember Britney's restraining order case? It's still going on: Closing arguments were heard yesterday but no ruling was made on whether to extend the length of time Sam Lutfi needs to stay away from the pop star. [People]
• Leonardo DiCaprio and Oprah Winfrey are the greenest celebrities in the world…according to a poll. Hmm. [Daily Express]
• Hugh Jackman put his hand and foot prints in the cement outside of Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood yesterday. [Reuters]
• Rachel Bilson will be a "fashion editor" at In Style; she'll write a monthly Q&A answering readers' style questions and talking about her favorite trends. [WWD]
• Congrats to Jill Scott and her fiancé; she delivered a boy named Jett Hamilton Roberts on April 20. Scott, who stars in HBO's The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, found out she was pregnant the day she was supposed to leave for Africa. [People]
• When Steve-O was in the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College, he was a "cocaine-addicted clown" who "two shows on Friday, three shows on Saturday and three shows on Sunday, and typically I would do cocaine through all of it without sleeping." Jackass. [People]
• Lo Bosworth is guest blogging about The Hills over on E! Here's a sample: " Last night's episode was kind of sad, but there were parts that were really funny, too." Scintillating! [E!]
• Jamie Foxx is being sued by a guy who was severely injured by a vodka display and now can't be a brain surgeon. It's wasn't Foxx's display, but he was the host of the party at a Hollywood club. [TMZ]
• Can you picture Jamie Foxx playing Mike Tyson? [Gatecrasher]
• Movie studios are custom-tailoring scripts for Tom Cruise… Will he have a hit? [Variety]
• Check out what Michael Jackson wore on a 95° day in Beverly Hills. [Concrete Loop]
• In a "legal victory" for Sacha Baron Cohen, a judge ruled that a woman was not subject of libel because "it is obvious that the Ali G character is absurd, and all his statements are gibberish and intended as comedy." [NY Times]
• Here is a detailed run-down of the Mel Gibson family: Mel and his wife have an eldest daughter and "six able-bodied boys," the youngest of whom is 10. How will the divorce affect them? [People]
• Blind item! "What music executive ditched his longtime girlfriend by calling the cops and having her physically removed from their apartment?" [Gatecrasher]
• "For me to go, in the dead of winter, and leave the family, when the kids are in school and they can't come with me - it has got to be pretty damn good." — Michelle Pfeiffer on the script for her new flick, Cheri. [Guardian]
• "My manager keeps it in his house. I got too many people coming to my house. I don't want it to walk off. People stealing it and leaving me with an Oscar Mayer (meat product) instead. Like, what's this doing here?" — Jamie Foxx on his Oscar. [Daily Express]
• "We're like the Green Eggs and Ham of breakers-up: in a box. With a fox. On a train. In the rain. Down at Mel's. On our cells. Over a martini. In a Lamborghini… I will always love him. He's a very special person." — Kristin Chenoweth, on her on-again/off-again relationship with Aaron Sorkin, creator of Studio 60 and The West Wing. Full interview with Chenoweth, who has a new book, here. [The Daily Beast]
• "On April 27 I will begin a fast of water only in solidarity with the people of Darfur and as a personal expression of outrage at a world that is somehow able to stand by and watch innocent men, women and children needlessly die of starvation, thirst and disease." — Mia Farrow, announcing her hunger strike. [Yahoo News via Reuters]

Perienne Christian is, herself, an artist; an art school tutor suggested to her that she might be a good fit for Freud, who was in the market for a model. Sure enough, she began modeling for the legendary artist three times a week, each session lasting about five sessions. Theirs, she's at pains to say, is a purely professional relationship - she has a boyfriend - and their kinship bears more resemblance to that of Matisse and Dina Vierny than, say, Picasso and anyone. But it still fits the traditional "muse" mold: older artist/teacher and much younger woman.

In her book Lives of the Muses, Francine Prose defines the term rather loosely, (Yoko Ono, for instance, keeps company with the shop girls whom the pre-Raphaelites picked up, immortalized, and discarded) but many of the pairings - Lewis Carroll and Alice Liddell, Suzanne Farrell and George Balanchine, Charis and Edward Weston - hew to this dynamic. Where the original Grecian nine might have had powers to bestow, in modern history it's been more about enabling others.' "Inspiration," historically, often seems to have been conflated with "reflection." When you think "muse" it's not an intellectual challenge that comes to mind so much as a passive enigma, someone on whom to reflect one's own conceptions of beauty.

That's a generalization of course, but too often the term evokes a dominant (male) personality and a dependent woman who lives the art. In our modern times, the muse is usually personified as an anemic "Magic Pixie Dream Girl," whose sole raison d'etre is to inspire the mediocre reveries of Zach Braff and a generation of Mumblecore auteurs - or sugar-coat groupie-ism, a la Penny Lane. The muse, after all, exists to inspire and enable. This is supposed to be enough. Says Christian, herself a painter,"It is very inspiring to be around somebody who is such a brilliant painter and is so dedicated to his craft."

Lucian Freud paints new muse - artist one third of his age [Telegraph]
Related: Manic Pixie Dream Girls Are The Scourge Of Modern Cinema

• First peek at Madonna's much-hyped, possibly exorbitant Louis Vuitton ad: the Steven Meisel shot features Madge in a Parisianish bistro, striking some unladylike poses. [Just Jared]
• Carine Roitfeld denies that she's replacing the nuclear Wintour: “I’m very happy at Vogue France.” [WWD]
• Naomi Campbell: "“I’m getting to like Miami again...It was very hard to come back here after they killed my friend.” We assume she means Gianni Versace. [WWD]
• Kanye West: “I want to and will be the real thing...I will not just be a ‘celebrity designer.’” He wants an internship with LV or Raf Simons. [NY Times]

• Phew. At least online sales are good: Monday's were the second-highest ever, boosting retail shares. [WWD]
• Christian Siriano continues his career of being totally ubiquitous by designing a line for Payless! Quoth the phrase-making wunderkind, "IIve already been working with the Payless Design Team in New York, and I can't wait to see how they will take the high-end shoes and bags I'm designing for the runway and turn them into pieces that everyone can buy. I'm all about the runway and the sidewalks!" [Daily News]
• Speaking of TV designers (sorry, Christian), Lauren Conrad has named her next line...after her MySpace fans. [Oh No They Didn't]
• New York Times discovers lace tights; fails to discover they make one's legs look diseased. [NY Times]
• Some glaucoma drug seems to make eyelashes longer and fuller. Not liking where this is going. [MSNBC]
• What to get the snob who has everything? Why, an Armani pen! “To attain such exceptional smoothness, diamond paste is used initially before the final polish is imparted by hand.” [Fashion Week Daily]
• Aeropostale slips in the fourth quarter. [Crains]
• Victoria's Secret is gonna pull out all the stops to beat the recession. They weren't already doing that? [WSJ]
• At least someone's thriving: the Rachel Zoe Project has been renewed! [LA Times]
• DVF's pre-fall: geometric and jungly. [WWD]
• Apparently "green" dry cleaners could be a lot greener. Moot: no one can afford dry-cleaning! [WSJ]
• Tina Knowles is designing a line inspired by daughter Beyonce's film Cadillac Records. [WWD]
• Vena Cava designers have way cooler Christmas decorations than the rest of us: "Ms. Buhai says that Christmas-tree lots often have leftover branch trimmings free for the taking. She'll pick up a large branch and paint it black. 'It looks much cooler than a Christmas tree. And it's a little darker...I usually add plain silver bulbs. It's a minimalist Christmas tree.' She prefers to simply lean her twig tree against the wall, but smaller cuttings could be put in vases." [WSJ]
• London's Royal Ballet tams up with the Italian dance clothier Freddy. They'll be doing one line for the RB and one for general sale. [Reuters]
• Designer Lela Rose: "When the Bush family entered the White House, Jenna and Barbara were older and already had their styles pretty well established. But with the Obama girls, we will see their styles develop right before our eyes...I do think that we shouldn't expect too much, since they are so young, but I would love to see them become not so matchy and really come into their own," [VogueUK]

• Only one more day of having to listen to designers opine about politics! Marc Jacobs' L.A. windows are "set up with the Republicans menacingly on one side (with a particularly freaky-looking W) and brightly dressed Obama voters/supporters on the other. There's also a gun-toting Palin with a letter posted next to her image, which reads as follows: Dearest Citizens, I believe in, 1) No choice for you gals. 2) Creationism for you kids. 3) No rights for you gays and lesbians. 4) Everyone should own a gun! You gotta believe in something, baby!" [Racked]
• Stella McCartney throws an Obama-themed tea. I guess eating his face is an endorsement. [WWD]
• Meanwhile, Henri Bendel stays neutral: "Today, the store will unveil its bipartisan windows featuring a group of five mannequins dressed in the latest cocktail dresses from Chloé & Reese and Greta Constantine. The girls are flanked by red and blue polling booths, each one representing a political party. Today, each mannequin can be seen with a large question mark above its head, but Wednesday morning, the question marks will be removed and the group will be placed in front of the winning voting booth. Several pounds of confetti will be thrown over the group in celebration of that party’s win." [WWD]

• Rihanna's the face of Gucci's new "Tattoo Heart" campaign, which features, um, tattoo hearts on clothes. Some of the proceeds benefit Unicef. [Perez Hilton]
• The secret of Yves Saint Laurent's success? "He liked women to be beautiful." [Reuters]
• Wanna see a young female moddle in Lagerfeld drag? No? Don't click on this link. [FashionWeekDaily]
• Mod pioneer Mary Quant gets her own stamp! It features a mod bird in a mini and zip-top. [ElleUK]
• Did you know Zac Posen was a classically trained singer? Apparently it's why he's so into opera — hence his Lincoln Center arts leadership award for his commitment to supporting arts education. [WWD]
• Consignment stores continue to clean up. [WSJ]
• Apparently the new Kate Moss tell-all is a great read, even if it boils down to the moddle demanding, "Why the f**k can't I have fun all the time?" [Daily Mail]
• Speaking of models with drug scandals in their (recent) pasts: Rosie Huntington-Whiteley has a new gig as the face of dothegreenthing.com. [Fashionista]
• A moddle we can actually get behind? Alek Wek. "I'm working with my uncle in the Sudan embassy in London to open a secondary school on the Nile in Susan. It would be made up of 50 per cent boys and 50 per cent girls...My father always stressed education. I didn't understand it when I was young but I understand now." [VogueUK]
• Christian Siriano, modest as always: "Also, designing Heidi’s gown for the Emmys was amazing, especially when I went to the afterparty and met Debra Messing. Debra told me, “Oh my God, I love your clothes, you’re a genius!” You never know who’s going to be a fan of your work." [Cosmopolitan]
• The city grounds to a halt as we all get our vote on; the Nylon girls are "Gone Voting!" [Nylon]
• Retail extravaganza Lucky Shops looks undimmed by the economy! Encouraging, or depressing? [FashionWeekDaily]

• The creator of 'For Better or Worse,' the long-running comic strip, has announced that the comic strip will travel back 30 years in the past to the time when the strip first began. • Cambridge University is soliciting the producers of popular British soap operas, asking that the school be included in story-lines to help shed the University's snobby image. • Female police officers in the English county of Cumbria now have the option of wearing specially-designed maternity uniforms if they become pregnant. • Last Thursday, the British Columbia Court of Appeal ruled against the assertion that "bubble zones" around abortion clinics — where anti-choice activists harass women entering the clinics — are an infringement on free speech. • Australia has just sworn in its first female governor general (the Queen's representative to Australia), Quentin Bryce. • More firsts for women in Europe: Two women have become the first women to pass Vienna's Spanish Riding School's entrance exam to ride the famous Vienna dancing horses. • The LPGA Tour decided today to banish rules that suspend players who cannot speak English well enough to be understood at pro-ams, in interviews or in making acceptance speeches. • Male Maasai warriors in Kenya who travel to the tourist town of Mombasa to marry white women or find jobs to provide for their community sometimes work as hairdressers, a large cultural taboo. • Disgraced Olympic track star Marion Jones was released from prison today after serving a six-month sentence for lying to federal prosecutors about performance-enhancement drug use. • A new book titled Why Men Die First says that men die earlier than women because they are "more fragile and inherently vulnerable than females" which means they have to visit the doctor often if they want to live long lives. •