Christian Siriano's new Moody Mamas maternity looks.Photo: Courtesy of Moody Mamas

It’s Getting Even Harder to Get a Job at Condé Nast

"If you have an open position on your team, they're going to make you stand on your head until you're blue in the face before you fill it." —A Condé Nast executive present at a meeting of publishers convened by CEO Chuck Townsend yesterday. [NYO]

J.Crew to Open a Second Men’s Store in Soho

We don't know what J.Crew thinks it's doing expanding in the midst of this hellish financial market, but the retailer is opening another men's store in Soho. They recently opened their first men's boutique in the old Liquor Store Bar space in Tribeca, upsetting foodies across the city. Their second man-tique will open on Broadway in the space where Universal News is now, right next door to the company's Madewell store. They'll probably upset magazine addicts along the way (we're already displeased). Do men really need two of these things so close together, especially when all the finance dudes who shop there are losing their jobs and won't be spending $120 on weekend khakis anymore? They may have to save up for those bottles at hot nightclubs now. [Racked]

‘The Reader’ Will Be Out in December, Even If It’s Not Done

The entertaining brouhaha over The Reader isn't over yet! Last week, when Scott Rudin pulled his name from the film, presumably because he was angry over Harvey Weinstein's release-date push-up, it looked like the ploy might've given Harvey pause when Reader was taken off the 2008 schedule on the Weinstein Company's Website. Turns not, not so much: The removal was a mistake, says a publicist, and the movie will most definitely come out December 10, just like Harvey wanted, in time for Oscar season. In retrospect, it seems silly for us to have thought Weinstein would hold the movie over a small thing like Rudin's departure — after all, the score isn't done and "editing is not even half-finished," and that doesn't seem to bother him too much!

'The Reader' is back up on the Weinstein Co. website and Kate Winslet is (tentatively) back in supporting [Gold Derby/LAT]

Mena Suvari's "Fairy-Tale" Wedding Wishes

No Eminem in 2008

Eminem's upcoming album is titled Relapse and should be out early next year, he announced on his Sirius radio show last night. Dr. Dre's Bacharach-enhanced Detox will supposedly be out shortly after that, meaning 50 Cent's Before I Self Destruct will be the only album from the once-dominant Interscope/Aftermath camp to see release before the end of 2008. Which is sort of like when someone goes through your trail mix and only leaves the gross rice crackers. [Rolling Stone]

Capsule reviews of `W.' and other films (AP)

Review: `Max Payne' — the name says it all (AP)

AP - Here's the one thing that makes "Max Payne" comparatively painless: Unlike most movies based on video games — the entire filmography of German director Uwe Boll, for example — it doesn't try to replicate the sensation of playing. It doesn't make you think you're controlling the characters, doesn't place you in the middle of their nausea-inducing world.

Tom Cruise Lives!

Brooklynite Hope Davis Is Already Feeling the Recession

Hope Davis loves her Brooklyn neighborhood, but she’s already seeing signs of the economic downturn on the Smith Street shopping strip. “Even the little spa on my corner is advertising 50 percent off facials. Everybody’s suffering; it’s going to affect everybody,” Davis told us at the Cinema Society screening of her film, Synecdoche, New York. She’s also certain that the economy will temper the area’s skyrocketing real-estate values. “It’ll have an effect on the real estate there. It has to! And there’s some correction needed,” she admits. And while the American Splendor star says she doesn’t spend extravagantly anyway, she and her husband and two young children are not buying clothes or going out to dinner as often, and she's already lost a job in the belt-tightening. “The movie that I was supposed to start making in three weeks collapsed,” she told us. “Half of the financing just pulled right out last week,” she said, adding that she expected the news as the markets tumbled. She says that indie films financed by people who make their money in the stock market will continue to feel the chill. And that’s already trickling down. “We’re hoping to do solar panels on our roof; now we have to wait,” Davis says. “We have to see what’s going to happen, and I have to wait until I get another job.” But she still has, well, hope: “Now I get to stay home, though.”

What Leanne, Korto, and Kenley Are Really Like

We feel like we know the Project Runway contestants personally by now. Korto's the girl who's nicer than her perpetually pouty face would suggest, Leanne's the girl who's more outgoing than she looks, and Kenley's the girl who's just as obnoxious/crazy as the green feathery head thingy she wore for last night's season finale (like, can't you all too easily imagine her losing her mind after the show and batting at the dangly stuff like a cat?). Granted these are judgments based solely on watching them on reality television, which we all know more often than not is far from real. But it sounds like Bravo accurately depicted the season-five finalists. Bluefly merchandiser Mindy Dorf was charged with accessorizing the final runway shows. She even had to contact the designers over phone and email in advance before they returned to New York. She judged them in the process, natch, and then ingeniously blogged about the experience.

I had to hunt Kenley down 'cause she never called — and then when I finally made contact, she let me know I woke her up. Nice start. Months later, the producers randomly put a mic on me and asked me to go down to the workroom to deliver Kenley her shoes. (I guess they knew there may be some drama afoot) As predicted, she totally lost it, was super sassy and dismissed me sight unseen saying she had everything she needed, thank you very much. Nice finish.

Korto wasn't so responsive either. When we finally made contact though, we managed to fill out her collection with some great shoes.

Leanne was the best of them — the easiest to work with. She ended up picking one style, a Nanette Lepore woven sandal, and using it across the board for all her models.

She may have played nice on Live With Regis and Kelly, but now we know Kenley's nasty deep down inside. Oxygen should really cash in on that and give her her own show while people still remember her. Or at least put her in the Bad Girls Club, if that's still around.

Bluefly's Double 0 Dorf Brings You the Project Runway Scoop! [Flypaper/Bluefly]

Photographer Jean-Luc Mylayne Finds World’s Dumbest Bird

This little bird, one of many not-exactly-exotic avian creatures captured by French photographer Jean-Luc Mylayne in New Mexico and Texas, may or may not be living dangerously. It all depends on who's wearing those red boots. Other less endangered feathered things are on view at Gladstone Gallery through Saturday.

Craig Unger and Jennifer Senior on the Debate, and How Little We Really Know About Barack Obama

Every day (or close to it) until November 4, a series of writers and thinkers will discuss the election over instant messenger for nymag.com. Today, Craig Unger, author, most recently, of The Fall of the House of Bush, and New York's Jennifer Senior discuss who won the debate (according to a novel measure), a potential missed opportunity for Obama on the economy, and what kind of president Obama might make — and whether anyone even knows him well enough to say.

C.U.: I assume you watched the debate last night. What was your take?

J.S.: Well, I have a weird rule about this: The candidate who sends out the most press releases in the aftermath is the one who lost. That would be McCain, BTW. I've gotten six so far. Obama's sent none.

C.U.: Gee, I must be on the wrong press list — or maybe the right one. McCain hasn't sent me anything yet. Frankly, I thought the debate was sort of boring and irrelevant. If there is anything striking to me, it is how economic trauma changes the political landscape so much. Issues that might have been important — red state/blue state issues such as abortion, national security, and Bill Ayers — are now completely irrelevant. When McCain tried to deal with stuff like Ayers, it had no impact. I can imagine if the economy had not disintegrated that the Republicans would be doing a lot more of that stuff. Remember in 2004, how the anti-gay-marriage amendment played a key role in winning the election for Bush, especially in states like Ohio.

J.S.: I think both candidates are confused about what to say to the electorate as the economy's in a free fall, but for McCain to talk about Ayers and abortion — as you say, it's irrelevant and seems so obviously a desperate measure. It's like he's going out of his way to prove what he said: He knows nothing about the economy.

C.U.: Frankly, I think he doesn't have a strategy right now. I also think that there really is not a clear-cut path for McCain so long as the economy is center stage — and it almost certainly will be through the election. In fact, it will probably be for several years to come. So Obama seems in a pretty strong position to me. Do you agree? And what kind of president do you think he'll be?

J.S.: I do agree. Before we get to the kind of president he'll be, though, I want to point out: Don't you think it's weird that neither candidate looked at the camera and said, "Don't worry. I have a plan. I'll do X, Y, and Z"? Even if one of them, Obama especially, had said he'd hold a Bill Clinton–style economic summit the second he were elected … I think it would have helped.

C.U.: Maybe. But when it comes to specifics, I think they both desperately want to avoid being pinned down. I think things are still way out of control. So far the crisis has pretty much been seen as somewhat confined to Wall Street, but I suspect we'll see massive layoffs and people defaulting on mortgages, sending property values down, down, down. And whoever wins will have to deal with that.

J.S.: Right, right. I was simply thinking that by declaring you'll hold an economic summit — a wonk's favorite — it looks like you're taking the situation seriously and you aren't afraid of the details.

By the way, I just got another press release from McCain, though this one is about logistics. The others crowed that he won last night's debate, basically. Hillary's campaign used to fill my in-box too, when she was losing.

C.U.: I'm resisting the temptation of looking at my in-box. But when it comes to Obama being president — well, do you want to go there?

J.S.: We can, but I can't possibly guess. Can you? I mean, we know his temperament, which is mild, and I imagine he'll work well with Congress, but we have very little to go on about his decision-making style…

C.U.: I think that — potentially — may be the problem. Once he becomes president, he owns this mess. And he has to get out ahead of it. I think he has be FDR-like, or something like that. If he makes progress and comes up with cohesive programs fast, then he has a decent chance. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think he sometimes has an unfortunate tendency to temporize, not to take strong stands, to wait and see how things play out, and I think events are moving so fast that the new president is going to have to get out in front of them. We've just watched Paulson make one mistake after another (is he the president now?). And even though the financial crisis is taking up the entire radar screen, there are other huge issues on the table: energy dependency, the Middle East, etc.

I would add, however, that I think the financial crisis does potentially make him stronger as a president — just as it has made him stronger as a candidate. Before I had thought he might be a creature of the Democratic Congress, but now I think they will have to work together.

J.S.: Yes, and he'll have a biggish majority to work with, I imagine. He'll also have lots of goodwill — an imprimatur to pass tough legislation. But I agree with you. While I don't think he'll be intellectually cowed by the challenge of turning the economy around, I think he's got a professor's tendency to deliberate and mull. His intellectual blankness was an asset before this, I think. He didn't come across as an ideologue. But now he needs some ideas very fast, and he needs to move swiftly, as you say.

C.U.: I've noticed how he can be all things to all people. At times, he would excite the left by being progressive and pro-Palestinian on the Middle East. And then he would talk before AIPAC and give a speech that was much, much further to the right. Most politicians do that to some extent, of course. But his track record is so short that I don't really know where he stands on a lot of key issues.

J.S.: That's the point. Or rather, that's what I meant about his political "blankness." It's an extension of his mild temperament. I don't think he's talking out of both sides of his mouth when he expresses sympathy for both the Palestinians and the Israelis. It's that he can fully grasp each side's position.

C.U.: Yes, but what is HIS position?

J.S.: On Israel?

C.U.: I didn't mean that specifically so much about Israel. What I find frustrating about him is that he seems to tailor his speeches to his audience in a way that allows him to play his cards so close to his vest that I'm not sure where he stands on crucial issues.

J.S.: I think his positions are traditionally liberal, in most instances. It's just that he's capable of understanding the other guy's point of view. What this means is that he'll probably embrace a fairly traditional Democratic agenda, if he's president, but perhaps be more open to compromises … or speak about his agenda in ways that aren't quite so ideological.

But you're right. Re: Israel, he did say in 1999, when he was trying to unseat Bobby Rush, that he gave the state his full-throated support. Not that this means much. Every American pol says it. It's this part of Obama that also makes him an easy target for guilt-by-association charges. You can't tell what he stands for, so maybe he DOES believe Jeremiah Wright, etc. etc. etc.

Related: Heilemann: Obama Nails the Debate Trifecta
Those Mysterious Undecided Voters, and Why Obama Should Be Worried About Them
Byron York and Craig Unger on McCain’s Quagmire

For a complete and regularly updated guide to presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain — from First Love to Most Embarrassing Gaffe — read the 2008 Electopedia.

Oy, Vey: Sarah Palin Wig Big in Brooklyn

Georgie Salon in Brooklyn is apparently seeing brisk sales of its "Sarah P" wigs, "largely to orthodox Jewish women who keep their hair covered," reports CBS. Weird. Aren't we a blue state? "Fashion trumps politics in this case, and people just want that classic look that she has," says owner Shlomo Klein. The wigs, which are made of "Human Hair with Skin Top" (!?), cost $695, including styling. Disturbed. [WCBS.tv]

Famed quiz show host dies at 85

Kanye Plagiarizes Our Website!

Look, we certainly know how much work goes into maintaining a blog that updates daily — and we're not even platinum-selling hip-hop superstars with demanding schedules that include recording albums, smashing cameras, and hiring naked ladies to stand around at our listening parties — but that's no excuse for trying to pass off someone else's words as your own. Which is precisely why we were so disappointed to learn that Kanye West, in a post on model Jourdan Dunn, has egregiously lifted an entire biographical timeline on Dunn from our Website without giving credit. Now, Kanye's is still indisputably the world's greatest blog — on the Internet or elsewhere — but this simply will not stand. We can only hope that this post was not also plagiarized from somewhere.

JOURDAN DUNN [Kanye's Blog]
Jourdan Dunn [NYM]

Botox for Men Is All the Rage; Angelina Jolie Has No Problem Being Hot

SKIN
• As middle-aged men reenter the workforce and try to appear younger, Botox has become the "new expensive haircut." We'll say it again: Men are the new women. [NYT]

MAKEUP
• Matt Lauer asked Angelina Jolie if it's hard being so beautiful. She was like, "Uh, no." [Jezebel]

FRAGRANCE
• Carolina Herrera won a lifetime achievement award from the Cosmetic Executive Women of the United Kingdom. Her debut scent, Carolina Herrera Classic, launched in 1981, and she's since followed with ten fragrances. How many fragrances have you done since 1981? [WWD]

NAILS
• Ji Baek of Rescue Beauty Lounge created a "luxe grunge" collection for nail colors this fall with earth-toned shades like No More War (a dark split-pea soup) or Teal (described as "a lake before a storm"). We hate when our nails look like lakes after a storm. [All Lacquered Up]

A Night at the Museum You Might Actually Enjoy

Did Ben Stiller put you off museum overnights forever? A look at the Times' "Homes & Garden" section today might just change your mind: "The Revolving Hotel Room, an installation by Carsten Höller, a Belgian artist, will be on view during the day as part of an exhibition called ‘theanyspacewhatever.’ After hours, though, it'll be available as a hotel room. Sponsored by the Waldorf-Astoria Collection, the ‘room,’ above, is mounted on glass discs: one holds a double bed with nightstands built into the headboard; another, a table and two chairs; and a third, a wardrobe with a mini-bar and coffee maker." And they all SPIN AROUND. A sleepover costs $550 to $800, which seems totally worth it to us. [NYT]

The Lost Years & Last Days of David Foster Wallace

He was the greatest writer of his generation - and also its most tormented. In the wake of his tragic suicide, his friends and family reveal the lifelong struggle of a beautiful mind [This excerpt picks up when David was 18 and went off to college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Read the full story in Issue 1064 — October 30, 2008. Click here for an interview with writer David Lipsky.] Wallace had lugged his bags into Amherst the fall of 1980 — Reagan coming in, the Seventies capsized, preppies everywhere. He brought a suit to campus. "It was kind of a Sears suit, with this Scotch-plaid tie," says his college roommate and close friend Mark Costello, who went on to...

Who Wants to Talk About Sex With Bonnie Fuller?

Yesterday we were forwarded a funny e-mail sent out by a friend of Bonnie Fuller, who "stepped down" from her American Media Star in the spring and is currently blogging for the New York Times … so respectable! But she still has those genius prurient nosy instincts:

[Bonnie] would like to know if people are having more sex or less sex due to the recession," goes the e-mail. "She has been hearing a lot of buzz on how people are having more sex because they [are] staying in more and cutting back on frivolous spending … True/Not True/Thoughts? Let me know if anyone is interested in commenting and I will cc you in an email with her and you can run with it … She's looking for single or married people to comment."

Bonnie, have we got the guy for you. Try Comfortably.smug@gmail.com. Run with it. You won't be disappointed.

Related: The Self-Obsessed, Emotionally Detached Hedge-Funder

F. Gary Gray takes over 'Citizen'

Britney Spears Lands January ‘Glamour’ Cover

Remember when word got out Patrick Demarchelier did a photo shoot with Britney Spears and everyone thought it was for Vogue? But then Anna Wintour was all, "I don't think so! That bitch ain't Vogue!"? Well, not in those words, but she made it clear she's not planning on womanizing Brit anytime soon. Anyway, it turns out the shoot was for Glamour, according to E! Online's exclusive sources. They say Britney will mug for the January cover of the magazine — perfect timing for the December 2 release of her new album, Circus. We know Marie Claire and Elle have reality shows, but landing a Britney cover is so much better. That said, the January Vogue had better pad its ass because it's going to take a beating on the newsstand.

Britney Spears' Return to the Glamourous Life [E!]

Related: No ‘Vogue’ for Britney Spears

Ukrainian Fashion Week Opens With Lilla Poustovit (Fashion Wire Daily)

Fashion Wire Daily - Turns out there is one perfectly good designer in the Ukraine, and she is Lilla Poustovit, a romantic figure whose collections already retail in some of Europe's best boutiques. Her dreamy, yet elegantly practical collection shown Wednesday night, opened Ukrainian fashion Week, a 41-show season staged in leafy and historic Kiev.

Tom Calderone lands top gig at VH1

First Look at New 'Star Trek'

Anna Wintour Went to the Debate!

For civilians, attending the presidential debates is damn near impossible. But big campaign fund-raisers like Anna Wintour don't have to hold out a flimsy shred of hope on some college-student ticket lottery. The campaigns get to dole out a significant number of the tickets, and Barack's camp evidently gave one to Anna. (Either that or some poor assistant probably had a really awful day procuring one.) We wonder if this is the campaign's way of making up for that time they misspelled her name on the invitation for the big Runway to Change fund-raiser. Interesting how Anna looks much happier to be here than she does on the front rows of Fashion Week. And she's not even close to sitting on the front row.

Sen. Barack Obama [Yahoo News]

Muriel cigar beauty dies at 81

Full Marc by Marc Jacobs Swimwear Line Launching for Spring

Marc by Marc Jacobs will launch a full line of swimwear and beachwear for spring 2009. The brand inked a licensing deal with Swimwear Anywhere Inc., which designs and markets brands like DKNY Swim, Michael Kors Swim, and Carmen Marc Valvo Swim. Not many details have emerged on what to expect from the line, except this picture of a single black bikini, which is torturing us. We want to be on a beach right now so freaking badly. Or at least throw some warm sand in our cubes to stick our toes in. [WWD]

Christian Audigier's Big Night at LA Fashion Week (Fashion Wire Daily)

Fashion Wire Daily - Britney didn't make it as promised, but Miley and Heidi did. You know you've made it as a fashion designer when stars so famous that last names are not needed grace your show's front row, and that's exactly what happened at the Christian Audigier "American Lord" Spring 2009 presentation at the Mercedes-Benz Los Angeles Fashion Week at Smashbox Studios in Culver City on Wednesday night.

Leona Lewis Booed at U.K. Awards Show

Feridun Zaimoglu (L) takes part in a discussion with Brigitte Zypries (R)

Booty Call for Project Runway's Korto Momolu (E! Online)

E! Online - Korto Momolu may have come in second place in the fifth season of Project Runway, but there's no doubt that the Liberia-born babe and mother of one is destined to become one of the fashion show's biggest standouts.

O'Neal, Son Charged With Meth Possession

Janet Jackson Resumes Tour in D.C.

Moscow fashion elite feel bite of financial turmoil (Reuters)

Reuters - The champagne-quaffing crowd of Moscow's fashion elite are beginning to feel the weight of the global financial crisis as it spreads from the bankers and investors through the strata of Russian society.

Actor finds latest character 'a shocking guy'

David Duchovny, Tea Leoni Separate Amid Infidelity Rumors

Want to get MAD? You're covered

DJ AM Back on Decks with Jay-Z

Both Sides Rest in Britney Spears' Misdemeanor Driving Trial

DJ AM Gives First Performance Since Deadly Plane Crash

'Back to the Future' meets 'NYPD Blue'

Pop Tarts: Keira Knightley Talks Boobs and Babies