• Beyoncé's first perfume, Heat, launches in February. She says, "Red is one of my favorite colors, as is gold." And the bottle is intended to look antique, because her mother had so many old perfumes when she was little. [WWD]

• Whitney Port, of The Hills/The City fame, says, of fellow fashion-designing show alums Lauren Conrad and Heidi Montag, "I put myself in a different sort of realm as them." Port's biggest fear with her label is "people not understanding your point of view, not being able to get it. But I think my biggest competition is myself." [WWD]
• About 200 Chanel employees picketed the company's headquarters just outside of Paris. Workers who make less than €3000 a month have been offered a 1% pay raise; instead, they would like a raise of 2.5%. [WWD]
• Charlize Theron embroidered a baobab tree on a pair of red Toms shoes for her limited-edition collaboration with the eco-friendly, ethically managed company. Ten thousand of the shoes will be distributed free to children in her native South Africa, and the profits from the $54 slip-ons will benefit Theron's charity. [People]
• According to Jimmy Choo, Madonna thinks his shoes are better than sex. "Madonna told me that buying a pair of my shoes is more satisfying than having sex with a man. At least you know they are going to last for ever!" [OK!]
• Tory Burch is growing overseas. The designer recently opened a flagship in Manila, and her first Tokyo store, which just fêted its launch, will be joined by 30 more outposts across the country over the next few years. [WWD]
• Check out the decade in Olsen style, from distressed denim and tube tops to Chloé wedges and studded Givenchy jackets, via the notorious NYU bag lady period. [Style.com]
• Ever since Barack Obama identified his wife's pin, on Oprah, as one he had purchased for her at Garavelli on their anniversary, people have been buying Garavelli jewelry like it's going out of style. [WWD]
• Lady Gaga curated a selection of goods for sale at the site Not Just A Label. You can snap up her fringed lace half hat from the video for "Bad Romance" for a surprisingly reasonable £92, should you feel the need to dress like a deranged Spanish widow from 2078. [NJAL]
• Malls in Dubai still seem busy, despite the debt crisis there. [WWD]
• Hilary Rhoda will be in next year's Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition. Friend-to-Jezebel Liz Glover recently interviewed the model and asked her about her shoot for last year's issue. "For a model, it is a major achievement and a business tactic to widen my fan base," said the Chevy Chase native, over e-mail. "I work out every day, and to have a strong body instead of something frail like in fashion magazines, that's something to look up to." Rhoda, of course, sometimes does appear in the pages of fashion magazines — she once made the cover of American Vogue. Could her athletic look gain high-fashion acceptance? We can dare to dream. [Washington Times]
• Model Jamie Bochert recently ran 12 blocks to get her purse back from a robber. Now that's an athlete. Also she is in the new Lanvin campaign. [WWD]
• Christian Siriano says his maternity line includes party dresses because, "When you're pregnant you still do the same things that you would normally do — go to events, baby showers and weddings. Not every brand does sweet, fun party dresses like this." [People]
• Says Carmen Dell'Orefice, whose name this time Page Six spells correctly: "Sympathy I don't need. Another ad campaign would be great." Dell'Orefice lost most of her fortune in Bernie Madoff's ponzi scheme. [P6]
• More details have emerged about the fashion business incubator program launching soon in New York. Twelve lucky designers will be given the opportunity to rent studio space in the heart of the garment district for under market rates — around $1500 a month. The program is underwritten by a $200,000 grant from the New York City Economic Development Corporation and operated by the Council of Fashion Designers of America. The tenant designers will be announced this month. [FWD]
• Because of dismal sales, Ben Sherman is shuttering its women's line. The company earlier this year stopped making children's wear. [WWD]
• Nike's quarterly results for the period ended November 30 were only slightly down on last year's. Profits and sales at the world's largest sporting goods company each fell by 4%. [WSJ]

Attila's non-singing supernumeraries — the opera's extras — had been cast months ago. But when Prada met the supernumeraries in person yesterday, the designer allegedly told the producers that there was no way she could outfit them with her costumes. As Paper's Peter Davis reports, a tipster says she "took one glance at the women and groaned: 'I cannot clothe them! I need models!' "

The Metropolitan Opera swiftly fired the non-model extras and threw together a casting for models who would take their roles. "Employing models is ridiculous," says Davis' source. "Being a supernumerary is about how you move, not how you look." The Met confirmed the abrupt about-face to Page Six, saying the re-casting was "due to a change in concept."

Prada has long been a sort of intellectual hero for a certain kind of woman: those who, and I class myself among them, respect the craft, beauty, and artistry of high fashion even while being put off by its materialism, its insistence on acknowledging only the merest sliver of the world's supply of female beauty, its pageantry of excess.

With her doctorate in international relations, her self-awareness, her covetable pretty/ugly aesthetic and obvious design chops, Prada always seemed like she got it. The existence of someone so level-headed, so reasonable, in an industry of puffery was living proof that it was possible to love fashion without forgetting or ignoring that there are very solid grounds on which it can be criticized. That she did not see a flat-out contradiction between being a smart woman and working in her industry was heartening. In 2004, she told the New Yorker "Today I am having a crisis. And why? Because I can't match a dress with a pair of shoes. I am embarrassed to say that. But in the end I cannot forget what I do. I make clothes. It's silly. But it's my job."

She's a serious art collector; she had a slide installed in her office; she used to be a mime. She always sounded pretty damn cool. So why the hell, of all people, is Miuccia Prada telling actresses to step off and let the skinny, pretty people have their jobs? Surely she ought to recognize that the most important part of a stage production isn't how it looks, but how all the elements come together to make the audience feel something — and while one might argue that these are "only" non-singing roles, it still seems fundamentally short-sighted and wrong-headed to institute a beauty standard for a production like Attila. Miuccia Prada is the last person I would expect to see a roomful of women with non-model bodies as problems to be solved, rather than as people to be dressed. And what must it say about her confidence in her own design skills that Prada balked at adjusting her designs to suit a different physical ideal? Consider my girlcrush canceled until further notice.

Miuccia To The Met — Models Only! [Paper]
Curves Banned From Attila [P6]

Wise probably deserves no moral consideration for hacking into other women's voicemails because some of them had the temerity to get themselves involved with men Wise herself had dated. (In one case, not until two years after Wise's relationship with the man in question had ended.) Even if it was not illegal — and Wise is defending the charges — it was wrong, and she must have known it at the time. An unlovable woman with a nasty habit of violating other women's privacy: this is textbook Internet-enabled girl-on-girl crime, with the salacious hell-hath-no-fury element thrown in as extra tabloid bait. No wonder "sources" are now calling her "radioactive in the industry."

A former Dolce & Gabbana publicist, Wise was arrested this summer for allegedly hacking into the voicemail of Munich-born Nina Freudenberger, an interior designer whose clientele includes many of Manhattan's elite. Freudenberger became involved with Josh Deutsch, the founder of Downtown Records, who had once been Wise's boyfriend. The criminal complaint details 337 individual calls Wise made, via an online number-masking service called SpoofCard, into Freudenberger's voicemail.

This was not isolated behavior. When the District Attorney added three new victims to the case yesterday, he alleged that Wise accessed a second victim's voicemail 137 times. And to have targeted a third victim 119 times. And a fourth one at least 102 times. Wise is said to have also harassed coworkers and friends; anonymous sources have whispered to Page Six about restraining orders Wise was subject to, about anonymous online comments and threatening e-mails. She targeted not just Deutsch's exes, but also women involved with Jason Pomeranc, a hotelier Wise had a long, on-again, off-again relationship with.

All told, Police say she used the SpoofCard service over 1,000 times to listen to the private communications of women who were, in some cases, complete strangers.

How many times have I looked at the Facebook pages of women a boyfriend has cheated on me with? One thousand times? Two thousand times? Five thousand times? Often enough to notice when one gets a new job, manages to use "it's" and "its" correctly, or deletes from her page the year of her birth. Often enough to know where they live. (At first, I only wanted to know if they were pretty. Perhaps Wise started because she just wanted to hear his voice.)

Wise certainly crossed a line in obtaining information under false pretenses — voicemail is private in a way that a profile on a social networking site is not. And it is not my intention to treat her behavior with any more generosity than it deserves — probably close to none. But what I can't get around, is an uncomfortable feeling of identification with her motivations, with her feelings. I can't help but think there's a certain basic understanding of the world and of relationships that she and I share. I suspect Ali Wise has found herself, as I have, unable to sleep at a quarter to four in the morning because a person she has never met has committed some minute act that has nonetheless created a digital trail, an act which, under the circumstances, knowing about is still somehow less painful than not knowing about. Some people have a native disinterest about these things — they hear about someone they loved very much seeing someone else and either don't feel the urge to know just a little more, or successfully repress it. Some people are seeing someone who's seeing someone else and don't even wonder about the nights he has "plans." Some people are probably smart enough not to torture themselves with Google. But I do. More often than I'm comfortable admitting.

What Wise did was wrong, but I understand it. I empathize. I've been there. And that frightens me.

Perhaps the strangest turn in this whole saga is this factoid, buried in today's Post story:

The blond society babe has at least one person still standing by her — Pomeranc, in whose SoHo apartment The Post found her yesterday.

"It's really rude for you to come up here," she said.

So, it's pretty rich for someone accused of serious, long-term stalking, hacking, and harassment to accuse a reporter of being "rude." But I was strangely touched to learn that Wise still has some kind of a relationship with Pomeranc, and I hope it's not wrong of me to wish that it gives her at least a little comfort right now. Because she's facing up to four years in prison for the kinds of acts that, while most of us would not have committed, might, if we're honest with ourselves, have at least considered. Some of us more than once.

Flack 'Hack Attack' On Love Rivals [New York Post]
P.R. Pals Hang Up On 'Spy' Ali Wise [New York Post]
Former Dolce & Gabbana Publicist To Face Charges From Four Women In Stalking Case [NYDN]

First, last Monday, The New York Post's Page Six gossip column reported that Marc Jacobs had written a letter to U.S. immigration authorities supporting Luz's application for a work visa that would allow him to remain in the country legally, and continue seeing Madonna. Alleged a tipster, Jacobs wrote that Luz was "highly talented" and "a necessity to the label." A client brand making such an overture to immigration on behalf of a foreign model isn't at all unusual, if in fact a business relationship exists between the model and the brand.

Nonetheless, at the time, Madonna's rep denied the singer had asked her designer friend to pull any strings. (But this is the same woman who said in 2006 that Madonna wasn't adopting a baby in Malawi, and in 2008 that Madonna and Guy Ritchie had no plans to divorce.) Marc Jacobs' own PR representative — likely Kate Waters, who has herself been less than forthcoming in the past — also rubbished the report that Jacobs had written any such letter.

But then on Wednesday, at a benefit for Parsons, Jacobs himself gave two wildly conflicting quotes on the subject to two different media outlets. When asked by the New York Daily News, he admitted that Madonna had, in fact, asked him to write a letter in support of Luz's visa application, framing it as a favor for a friend. "I'd do anything to help a friend," said the designer. "It's no big deal — I didn't know that anybody even knew about it. Jesus is the sweetest guy. I hope he and Madonna are happy." But that same night when New York magazine asked Jacobs to clarify his working relationship with the model, Jacobs replied that there was none. "Why is everyone asking me about him?" protested the designer. "He's not modeling for me. I don't do men's wear."

So which is it? Is the Brazilian male model's talent so crucial to Jacobs' label that the designer simply had to do his utmost to get his immigration situation regularized, or is Luz a "sweet guy" who is absolutely irrelevant to the Marc Jacobs business? Is Jesus Luz working for Jacobs, or not? And if indeed he is not, then did Jacobs do something far more serious than lying to Page Six — lie to the INS?

Luz Keeping Madonna Warm [P6]
Liz Rosenberg, Madonna's Lying Flack [Gawker]
Cleaning Up [P6]
Seen and Heard [NYDN]
Jesus Luz Won't Appear In The Louis Vuitton Campaign, Enjoys Dinner Dates With Marc Jacobs' Fiancé [The Cut]
Madonna And Marc Jacobs In Liars' Corner [P6]

• Noooooo! Grazia reports Olivier Theyskens is leaving Nina Ricci. [The Cut]
• Or not: the mag attributes the scoop to "buzz currently sweeping through the front rows of the Couture shows in Paris." [Fashionista]

• Los Angeles jeweler and creator of the worst ad ever Loree Rodkin is enjoying a bump in sales following Michelle Obama's decision to wear a number of Rodkin's pieces. Like Jason Wu, she won't recreate the exact jewelery, since it was all custom-designed, but she will make similar items available for public sale. For $20,000-$50,000. [WSJ]
• ONTD has what they claim are leaked David Alexander sketches of costumes for Britney Spears' upcoming tour; if these are legit, expect our girl to look a little like Barbarella when she takes the stage. [ONTD]
• One thing that hasn't changed in the recession: the purpose of the couture shows is still not to much to actually sell a large number of $80,000 hand-made dresses but to maintain a brand identity fantasmagorical enough to shift gallons of perfume, acres of accessories, and counters of cosmetics. Attendance at the Paris shows hasn't dropped, and Chanel and Dior's couture divisions are expecting modest growth. (Further proof those wealthy enough to buy couture are very far removed from current economic realities.) [Portfolio]
• That seems to be the customer Tom Ford is seeking as he releases a $990 jean. The button is gold-plated. [The Cut]
• There for us at the other end of the denim market is Stacey London, of What Not To Wear fame. She's going to shill for Lee, because Riders "fit great and make you look slimmer." We'll take 'em 'cause they cost less than $20. [Brandweek]
• Never to be outdone, Hermès is releasing a $24,000 folding chair. It's made of black crocodile and nickel. [Racked]
• Beth Ditto is going to design an 80s-inspired fashion line with the British plus sized brand Evans. They're only in Britain and Northern Ireland, and there's no word on potential US distribution. Maybe Barney's will pick it up, like Kate Moss for Topshop? [Blackbook]
• Amanda Seyfried has become a face of Movado. [WWD]
• Eddie Bauer is being sued by outdoor clothier Woolrich. They say Eddie Bauer's slogan "The Original Outdoor Outfitter," is too much like Woolrich's, "The Original Outdoor Clothing Company." No argument there, but hasn't that been Eddie Bauer's slogan for eons? Did Woolrich just notice? [AP]
• Multinational giant Unilever, owner of the brands Dove, Axe, as well as skin-bleaching cream Fair & Lovely, is buying the TIGI hair product line and its hair-care schools from Toni & Guy. I just learned Unilever also owns Ben & Jerry's, so next time before I get high and mighty about an Axe ad, I'll try and remember how much I love Cherry Garcia. The world being nuanced and all. (But, ugh, Fair & Lovely?!) [WSJ]
• Time "investigates" the Anna Wintour retirement/replacement story, talks down to Page Six and the online sources that initially broke the rumors, and then rehashes everything you read here and elsewhere six weeks ago. MSM FTW! [Time]
• Glenn Close must have read that article in February's Glamour about "shopping your closet": She went to the Armani couture show in the same outfit she wore to the 101 Dalmatians premiere. In 1996. [WWD]
• Freida Pinto, the female star of Slumdog Millionaire, has been criticized for the mustard-yellow strapless Christian Lacroix gown she wore to the Golden Globes. She says, "It seemed like the right choice at the time." So many things do. [Times of India]
• PETA defaced Aretha Franklin's star on the Hollywood walk of fame. They called her a "Fur hag." [Daily Express]
• At the other end of this link lies proof positive that anybody can be made to look like Marilyn Monroe for a fashion ad. You'd never know Daria Werbowy to be a brunette. [Sassybella]

• "Young women should be very, very careful about not letting nude photographs of themselves leave their hands - as Kristin Davis and Audrina Partridge both learned this week." — Page Six, also known as your dad. [Page Six]
  
• But OMG. Is there a Lindsay Lohan sex video???? From Calum Best's cell phone? In which she is giving a bee jay? [The Sun]
  
• Have you heard? Jennifer Lopez had twins. She, Max and Emme are on the new cover of People. Apparently Jen claims she wasn't on fertility treatments. (???) [People]
  
• Of course, to get the photos, People had to shell out the big bucks and jump through hoops. Plus, they could not call Jennifer "J. Lo." But you can! [MSNBC]
  
• Nicole Kidman was seen spending time with Connor and Isabella. Remember them? Her kids? [MSNBC]

• Since the end of Sex And The City, Sarah Jessica Parker has raked in megabucks via movies, ads for Gap, Garnier commercials and six Hollywood movies. [Mirror]
• Drew Lachey and Cheryl Burke of Dancing With The Stars deny the report in Star that they had an affair. Drew's rep says the rumor is "completely false and cannot be further from the truth," and Cheryl's rep adds: "The story...started two years ago when they were partners on Dancing with the Stars. It wasn't true then and it isn't true now." [People]
• Shia LaBeouf's warrant for unlawful smoking was recalled; he's in no danger of being arrested. Yawn. [People]
• Kate Hudson and Owen Wilson seen eating off of each other's plates at a restaurant in Miami. [Page Six]
• Amy Winehouse's neighbors are fed up with the constant parties and all-house visits and selling their home. Who wants to live next door to Amy? [Mirror]
• Oh dear, Amy's hubs, Blake Incarcerated, thinks she is messing around and wants a divorce. [The Sun]
• And um, Amy Winehouse is nekkid in a magazine called Easy Living. Click and see! [The.Life Files]
• Paris Hilton will be traveling 20,000 miles in 12 days. Try to act interested. [Mirror
• Jay-Z is trying to start his own label, but will anyone back him? [Page Six]
• A carpenter working on Mel Gibson's new home (still under construction) committed suicide by hanging himself from the rafters. [Page Six]
• A mom in Boston claims she gave Oprah the idea for her show Big Give. She sent a proposal to Oprah's company in 2005; the producers passed on the idea, then in 2006 Oprah announced she was launching the philanthropic show. [Rush & Molloy]
• Anderson Cooper had a "small spot of skin cancer" removed from under his left eye. Not to worry! His foxiness remains intact. [Rush & Molloy]
• Britney's father is selling off some of her cars; she has seven and getting rid of a few will "save substantial expense to the conservatorship estate." [People]
• Tori Spelling is pregnant and it's a girl. [People]
• TV tidbit: A Friday Night Lights castmember says (secretly) season three is a go. [E!]
• Buffy sister Michelle Trachtenberg is joining the cast of Gossip Girl. She'll play Georgina Sparks, a "mischievous minx" from Serena's past. Huh. Hey, those who read the books: Is that the skinny girl with yellow teeth that Dan hooks up with? [E!]
• Jake Gyllenhaal is on crutches?!?!? Wha' happa'??? [PageSix.com]

• We admitted to wasting our money on rampant Von Douchebaggery.
  
• Jennifer invested her booty in a pole dancing class.
  
• She should have taken lessons from nascent skank, 9-year-old Kylie Kardashian.
  
• We questioned Oprah's involvement with alleged puree plagiarist Jessica Seinfeld.
  
• We thought that Page Six should rescind its stock in Richard Johnson's salary after his unrepentant misogyny.
  
• Moe took one for the team by sacrificing her anus for Alli.
  
• Anna encouraged you to spend your cash on a dude ranch vacay to rope in a cowboy.
  
• And Jezebel made an investment in me.

Countdown's Worst Person In The World: Media Bullies Edition [Crooks And Liars]

Earlier: Gossips Attack Female Journalist With Schoolyard Taunt, Sexual Threat
Related: Revenge? Page Six Says it with Rape [Radar]
Page Six Target Once Its 'Most Eligible Bachelorette' [Radar]

As for us being "emasculated," Grigoriadis ignores that fact that half the Page Six staff is female. The male half might take her someplace private and disprove her theory, but we don't like a woman with a mustache.

Honestly? We don't know what possessed the paper to print something so ridiculously immature and sexist, but we're guessing the guys on the column saw the word "emasculated" and, egos bruised, lashed out the only way they knew how — by insulting Ms. Grigoriadis' looks. Wonder what the "female half" of the Page Six staff thinks of that? Also, are they really offering to "take her somewhere private" and show her their genitalia? Is that a sexual threat? Anyway, as for the writer herself, she's taking the high road. After we contacted her for comment, she responded simply: "It's funny when men point out what's wrong with your body and you realize you haven't worried about that since junior high school."

UPDATE: Radar reports that Richard Johnson himself is behind the retaliation. Radar which is run by Grigoriadis' former mentor at New York Magazine, Maer Roshan, is obviously pissed.
Emasculated? We'll See! [Page Six]
Related: Revenge? Page Six Says It With Rape [Radar]
Everybody Sucks: Gawker And The Rage Of The Creative Underclass
Noted In Page Six [Mediabistro]

There's also something to be said for the ingeniousness of its editorial-advertising department synergy: in one six-page (ooh, see what we did there?) feature, "Fall Fashion Picks from the Pros," the magazine actually enlists executives at five major department stores to assemble seasonal "looks" from clothes, accessories and cosmetics all entirely available at their respective employers. (Also intriguingly, the stylist on the feature appears to have been paid by the department stores themselves?) But where the magazine exercises editorial independence it falls flat: its warmed-over list of the 25 best-dressed ladies at New York Fashion Week included Teen Vogue editor Amy Astley, whom we've pictured here so you can ogle all that personal style she is exuding. Its columnists, too, are still clearly finding their voices: an item by "Socializer" columnist Kelly Killoren Bensimon contains the puzzling rumination: "You can't afford cigarettes or taxis anymore. Might as well walk outside. Might as well walk outside and inhale the toxic fumes. I look at it as the new nicotine." Huh. However, as with any middling celebrity tabloid, P6TM serves up a few little nuggets of gold blissfully un-couched by editorial commentary. Like for instance here's author Jonathan Safran Foer complaining about the movie Liev Schrieber made from his book:

"There's an old saying. Don't f—- a pig in the a— and then bitch and moan when your d—- smells like s—- the next day."

*And also, to be sure, if we hadn't been writing a miniscule item for the magazine earlier, because we have a lot of friends who work there, at least we did before we wrote this review.

• Beyonce and Solange look nothing alike.
  
• Beyonce and Solange are both black. So wait, actually, that means they do look the same!

$5 million a year, of course, is nothing to sneeze at, but in the Brazilian model's defense, we'd like to remind people that modeling is one of the only professions in which women make more money than men (pornography is another) so if Gisele wants to exploit that fact, more power to her. Plus, if we were a size 2 and had to model an ill-fitting bra that gave us the illusion of back-fat, we might be a little pissy too.

Victoria's Loss [Page Six]