Two weeks ago much-maligned Vogue editor Anna Wintour, the alleged subject of the movie The Devil Wears Prada, had an interview with Mike Wallace that aired on “60 Minutes.” Wintour seemed haughty and made some obnoxious statements. The most offensive thing Wintour said was cut from her “60 Minutes” segment, but details leaked online. Wintour admitted that she asked Oprah to lose weight ahead of her Vogue cover in 1998, and she also claimed “most” residents of the state of Minnesota are fat, saying “on a trip to Minnesota…I can only kindly describe most of the people I saw as little houses.” If the nasty harpy thinks it’s “kind” to call people “little houses” you have to wonder the lengths she’ll stoop to when she’s actually trying to be mean.

This week’s Star Magazine has a story that Wintour was considering putting singer Rihanna on the cover of Vogue, which would be significant because she hardly ever chooses African American celebrities and models to grace the sainted cover. Rihanna got the cold shoulder from Wintour, though, after her nude photos were leaked online:

It could have been Rihanna’s shining moment: the cover of Vogue! But when the nude pictures hit cyberspace, her once-in-a-lifetime chance was gone in a flash. Rihanna and Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour had been talking for weeks about doing the cover and an inside spread, says a close friend of the singer, who adds that the two even chatted about it at the Met Costume Institute Gala on May 4. “Anna told her Vogue absolutely loves her and really wanted to work with her. Rihanna was ecstatic!” But since the photos came out, says the friend, “Anna hasn’t returned any of her calls. Rihanna’s so upset!”

[From Star Magazine, print edition, June 8, 2009]

The rest of the Star article is all about how Rihanna supposedly wants revenge on Chris Brown for leaking those nude photos of her, and we mentioned this briefly in an earlier story about Rihanna’s upcoming appearance in court. If the photos cost Rihanna the coveted cover of Vogue she’s got even more reason to want to get back at Brown. Let’s hope that translates to Rihanna giving compelling, damning testimony in the felony assault case against Brown.

Vogue editor Anna Wintour was a guest on “60 Minutes” on Sunday. In a clip posted to the web, Wintor describes how she got talkshow queen Oprah to lose weight ahead of her appearance on the October, 1998 cover. Vogue has been under fire for failing to represent women of color, particularly during Wintour’s reign, and Oprah’s appearance on the cover was noteworthy.

Wintour told Mike Wallace that she merely suggested to Oprah that she lose some pounds in order to feel more “comfortable” for the photoshoot, and that Oprah readily got on board. From the way she words this it sounds like Oprah probably went on another one of those unhealthy liquid diets to lose weight fast. Wintour also said she encountered very overweight people during a rare trip to Minnesota, and described “most of the people” as “little houses.” That’s harsh:

Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour had quite the request for Oprah Winfrey.

Wintour had told the talk show host to drop 20 pounds to be on the cover of the fashion magazine back in 1998, the editor revealed during an unaired segment from her 60 Minutes interview on Sunday.

“It was a very gentle suggestion,” she said, laughing. “I went to Chicago to visit Oprah, and I suggested that it might be an idea that she lose a little bit of weight.”

She added: “I said simply that you might feel more comfortable. She was a trooper!”

Winfrey, 55, must have listened to the fashion legend. She was featured on the cover from more than 10 years ago with the tagline: “Oprah! A Major Movie, An Amazing Makeover.”

“She totally welcomed the idea, and she went on a very stringent diet,” Wintour said. “And it was one of our most successful covers ever.”

In the 60 Minutes interview, Wintour, 59, also defended the use of Photoshop to make people “look their best.”

“That’s one of the things that makes me rather angry, that I don’t understand,” she said. “That if you look wonderful, does that make you less important? Less powerful? Less serious?”

Although Vogue typically only covers stick-thin models within its pages, she said her magazine maintains an awareness of obesity.

“I’d just been on a trip to Minnesota, where I can only kindly describe most of the people I saw as little houses,” Wintour said. “There’s such an epidemic of obesity in the United States, and for some reason, everybody focuses on anorexia.”

Wintour, who commissioned a feature on the topic complete with illustrations, said that it was an important issue.

“We need to spend money time and education on teaching people to eat, exercise and take care of themselves in a healthier way,” she said. “It [has gotten people] provoked, which is really the point.”

[From US Weekly]

The media focuses on obesity too, it’s not fair to say that it only focuses on anorexia. The issue is that fashion magazines like Vogue portray very thin adolescent-looking models, and Wintour is more exposed to criticism of that in her line of work. There’s no simple answer to either issue, but calling people demeaning names like “little houses” isn’t going to help us work toward promoting a healthier body idea. It’s outrageous that she claims “most people” in Minnesota are obese. I guess we can’t expect much more from her. Do you think she told Jennifer Hudson to lose weight before her 2007 cover too?

You can watch Wintour’s entire “60 Minutes” interview on YouTube. The quotes in which she admitted she asked Oprah to lose weight and calls Minnesotans fat come from a section that was deleted from the segment. The part where she says she told Oprah to lose weight can be viewed on Video.AOL.com

Photo credit: WENN.com

Fashionistas and fashionista-wannabes will finally have their prayers answered. A documentary about American Vogue’s editor-in-chief Anna Wintour has finally been made. The documentary is called The September Issue, and was filmed over the course of the 2007 preparations for the September issue (obviously), the biggest issue of the year for Vogue.

For those of us used to seeing Anna Wintour’s slight, impeccably-dressed figure and over-sized Jackie-O sunglasses featured courtside at every important runway show, it’s a dream come true. Wintour is known as the one woman who can make or break a designer. Her memory is encylopedic, her fashion sense… well, I wouldn’t say it’s flawless, but she certainly has a strong vision of what’s good and what’s not. Meryl Streep’s character in the film and book versions of The Devil Wears Prada were loosely based on Wintour, but I don’t consider her a “devil”. There’s actually a line in the movie that I think is very appropriate, and I’m paraphrasing – “If she were a man in this job, people would only talk about how well he does his job.” Reuters has more details on The September Issue, which premiered at Sundance.

Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour throws opens the doors to the magazine widely viewed as the American fashion bible in a new documentary that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

“The September Issue” centers on Wintour, whose stern rule over the fashion industry while running the Conde Nast magazine has earned her an icy reputation that is said to have inspired Meryl Streep’s role in 2006 film “The Devil Wears Prada.”

Structured around Vogue’s eight-month preparation for its biggest issue of the year, director R.J. Cutler was given rare access to the Vogue offices on New York’s Times Square, tailing Wintour and the magazine’s creative director Grace Coddington.

“I was certainly surprised by Anna’s prominence in this industry,” Cutler, who produced the Oscar-nominated documentary “War Room, told Reuters. “It’s true that she is really this singular figure in this enormous global industry.”

“You can make a movie without (director) Stephen Spielberg’s blessing and you can publish software without (Microsoft founder) Bill Gates’ blessing, but you can’t get a dress you designed on a rack without Anna Wintour’s blessing,” he said. “You kind of have to see it to believe it.”

Recent speculation has grown that she could be thinking about retirement or is being considered by President Barack Obama as a possible ambassador to France.

“I think when I find myself getting really, really angry it might be time to stop,” said Wintour, 59, without signaling whether that time might be near.

Her colleagues at Vogue describe her as “the pope” of fashion and say she is “not warm and friendly,” while Wintour says she believes her siblings are amused by her job and that people who mock fashion do so because they are scared of it.

“For whatever reason she wanted her story to be told,” he said of Wintour, who is credited in the film by colleagues for bringing back fur, an issue that has seen her become a target of animal rights activists.

The film is due to be screened this year in the United States on the A&E network, while the international rights have been sold to the Wild Bunch production company.

“Anna would have loved to have seen a more Vogue-like version of it where as my interest is in raw reality,” said Cutler, who wanted to film Wintour after reading an article about her. “I am interested in what life is like for real.”

From Reuters/The Hollywood Reorter

It’s become commonplace to disrespect Anna Wintour and Vogue magazine for all of the impossible standards they perpetuate, but I think if you go into a Vogue subscription with only a love of fashion, good photography, excellent writing and a knowledge that nearly all of it is inaccessible, you’re fine. I can’t wait to see this documentary, and I’m really surprised that Wintour would let her veil of privacy and secrecy drop for this kind of intensive documentary. Perhaps she really is worried that she’s perceived as some kind of devil. Or perhaps she really doesn’t care, and was only interested in making something for her fans.

Anna Wintour is shown at various events in the fall and winter of last year. Credit: WENN

Glamour is defined as being “fascination, charisma, beauty, or sexual attraction”. All of which sound like a pretty good way to be described, particularly in relation to your physical appearance.

So getting named one of Vogue’s most glamorous women has got to be a feather in your cap (feather’s in caps? This is going to be a great look for fall!). Vogue UK’s December issue has picked fifty stylish women for the Definitive List of Today’s Glamorous Women.

Included is the Queen of England, who I have to admit is definitely always looking fabulous, and it isn’t part of her job description. All she had to do was be born into the appropriate family, no style required. Not bad for someone no less than 81 years of age! Helen Mirren, also included on the list, said of her costumes for her role in The Queen: “Here were tweed skirts and sensible brown shoes, Hermès and Barbour,” she wrote of the creations of designer, Consolata Boyle. “I thought I’d never be able to understand this woman.”. Of course, since the death of Diana (the time period portrayed in the film) Her Majesty has had something of a style makeover.

Looking good is part of the job for another lady on the list, Kate Moss, and I wonder if she deserves to be on the list? Kate’s had a bad style year, mostly because of her favourite accessory Pete Doherty. Still, not many people could look cute covered in glastonbury mud, but Kate did pull that look off.

Here’s the full list of Today’s Glam Women:

Dame Helen Mirren; Claudia Schiffer; Jemima Khan; Sophie Dahl; Natalie Massenet; Isabella Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe; Sadie Coles; Vanessa Redgrave; Rosamund Pike; Poppy and Chloe Delevingne; Zadie Smith; Zaha Hadid; Lady Isabella Cawdor; Daisy Lowe; Susanna Chancellor; Coco Rocha; Rebekah Wade; Tamara Mellon; Stella Tennant; the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire; Daphne Guinness; Natalia Vodianova; Sam Taylor-Wood; Mary Charteris; Luella Bartley; Charlotte Rampling; Plum Sykes; Lady Antonia Fraser; Naomi Campbell; Stella McCartney; Polly Samson; Ruth Rogers; Princess Rosario Saxe-Coburg; Dame Vivien Duffield; Gael Boglione; Phoebe Philo; Olivia Wilde; Lily Donaldson; Susanne Kapoor; Charlotte Stockdale; Sabrina Guinness; Lady Helen Taylor; Jasmine Guinness; Sheherazade Goldsmith; Honor Fraser; Charlotte Casiraghi; Andrea and Alice Dellal; Marina Palma; Kate Moss; Sally Albemarle; Lady Amanda Harlech; the Queen; Alice Temperley; Caroline Michel; Sophia Hesketh

Times Online

Some of these people I’ve never heard of, but I’m kind of glad. Anyone can shove a picture of Charlize Theron at the Oscars, impeccably groomed for many hours beforehand, and tell us she looks fabulous. It takes a real style queen to recognize that the Queen is not only well presented, but also fascinating and charismatic. Maybe that’s why Anna Wintour, Queen of the dull haircut and sour expression, is allowed to decide what’s stylish.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Helen Mirren is shown at the National Movie Awards on 9/28/07. Claudia Schiffer is shown at the Stardust London premiere on 10/3/07. Vanessa Redgrave is shown at a photocall for White Countess on 2/8/06. Queen Elizabeth is shown at Epsom Downs Racetrack on 6/2/07. Sophie Dahl is shown at the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix premiere on 7/3/07 and at The Golden Age Of Couture VIP Gala on 9/18/07. Kate Moss is shown with James Brown (not that one) at the James Brown London Haircare Range launch at 10/10/07. She does look rather glamorous there, I love that pantsuit! Thanks to PRPhotos for these pictures.

Valentino celebrated his 45th anniversary as a top designer with a star-studded three day affair in Rome this weekend to the tune of over $10 million. Celebrities including Uma Thurman, Claire Danes, Sarah Jessica Parker, Anne Hathaway, Jennifer Hudson, Liz Hurley, Eva Mendes, Claudia Schiffer, Joan Collins, Rupert Everett, and Guan Yin attended a fashion show, exhibition, dinner, and gala ball in honor of the famed designer.

The bash kicked off on Friday with a gala dinner in the 2nd century Temple of Venus in the shadow of the Colosseum.

Valentino, 75, spent a reported £135,000 restoring the ancient monument built by the Emperor Hadrian and flew in royal florist Rob Van Helden from London to bedeck columns with garlands of flowers.

He also launched an exhibition of his creations in the city’s Ara Pacis museum with examples of his coveted designs showcased behind bulletproof glass.

Visitors were greeted by a giant red glass cube encasing one of his earlier dresses, then led along a walkway featuring 300 of his designs in red, black and white on mannequins.

The collection included sequined and ruffled gowns worn by the likes of Audrey Hepburn after Valentino opened his first boutique in Rome in the 1960s.

On Saturday a 1,000-strong audience watched him unveil his latest collection of 61 outfits in the medieval Santo Spirito in Sassia church near the Vatican.

The opulent bash continued with a lavish party in the grounds of historic Villa Borghese and the launch of his new perfume, Rock’n'Rose Couture.

[From The Daily Mail]

While the 74 year-old Valentino has not mentioned that he’s retiring, his fashion house was taken over by a private equity group in May, with the handover to be finished sometime this summer. His partner said that everything would continue as usual under the new owners, but the equity group that has acquired the firm is known for cost-cutting and are expected to reign in Valentino’s excessive spending. At least he’ll always have Rome.