In the first four minutes alone, Fashion Star, which premiered last night on NBC, proved to be an overproduced mess, with cheering, dancing, strobe lights, quick cuts, weird camera angles, throbbing music, pyrotechnics and forced applause. Not to mention shilling Elle McPherson's lingerie, like an infomercial. There …

This weekend celebrities and their families stepped out to attend the John Varvatos 9th Annual Stuart House Benefit to raise money for the child-aiding center. It was mostly a casual event, but there's always one person who tends to overdress.

• Nicki Minaj is on the cover of V, looking like a sort of Keith Haring painting come to life. She's so wild, that Nicki Minaj! And lest you think there's some crafty behind-the-scenes Svengali calling the stylistic shots, Minaj says:

• A dejected, underwear-clad Lady Liberty-Gaga and a tuxedoed Marc Jacobs, shot by Mario Testino, cover V's newest issue. [NYDN]
• Lanvin for H&M is happening! The men's and women's collections will hit over 200 stores worldwide on November 23. [WWD]

• American Apparel has received yet another delisting warning from the New York Stock Exchange. The troubled company has been late filing its first two quarterly reports, and recently had its auditors quit. Its stock is currently trading at 0.71 [WWD]

• Halle is the first black woman to make the cover of Vogue's September issue since 1989. "What that means for a woman of color and what that means in the fashion world, what that means to pop culture," she says:

• Essence editor Angela Burt Murray says the uproar about the hiring of Elianna Placas, a white woman, as fashion director is baseless. Placas, a frequent freelancer, was chosen for "her creativity, vision, [and] the positive reader response to her work."

• Penelope Cruz is replacing Kate Winslet as the face of Lancôme's fragrance Trésor. [People]
• And Diane Kruger will be the face of a new Calvin Klein scent, Beauty. Kruger is accompanying Francisco Costa to the Met Ball, too. [WWD]

• Drew Barrymore would like to apologize to Gucci for wearing that dress to the 2006 Golden Globes. "I felt so bad. I was like, 'I'm so sorry, Gucci. I have tarnished your name.'" [ContactMusic]

• Kate Moss was shot by Mario Testino for the September cover of British Vogue. That trench coat looks very Gisele photoshop-gate/neighborhood flasher, no? [Design Scene]