‘Queen Mother’ Edward Enninful is quietly gunning for Anna Wintour’s job??

Media people, fashion people and internet gossips are always talking about Anna Wintour and when she’ll finally be shoved out of Conde Nast. Nuclear Wintour has buried all of them, and every rumor of her demise ends up making her stronger. Wintour is not just the editor-in-chief of American Vogue, she’s the Artistic Director of all of Conde Nast’s American publications, plus she’s the Conde Nast Global Editorial Director. Which means she has a huge say over every single publication nationally and internationally under the Conde Nast banner. Wintour has been a major supporter of Edward Enninful at British Vogue, and Enninful’s stewardship of British Vogue has been a net positive. To the point where there are new rumors that Enninful wants to dethrone Wintour at American Vogue. From the Daily Beast:

The relationship between Anna Wintour and her protégé Edward Enninful, the editor of British Vogue, has turned frosty, Condé Nast insiders tell Confider, as Enninful is apparently gunning for the Iron Lady of Gloss’ plum job.

Enninful, who has spent the last several weeks on a nonstop book tour promoting his memoir, A Visible Man, believes he can do a better job than Wintour atop the Vogue brand, according to multiple people who’ve spoken with him. Condé sources are adamant, however, that Wintour will not be leaving her perch anytime soon, leading many to speculate that she may try to appease Enninful by finding him another top job within the media empire.

One possible scenario: Whenever David Remnick steps down as editor of The New Yorker, Wintour would replace him with current Vanity Fair editor Radhika Jones, opening a seat for Enninful to take over the prestigious outlet.

Enninful has much in common with Wintour: He’s earned the nickname “Queen Mother” among British Vogue staffers because of his alleged diva-like behavior that, per people familiar with the situation, includes having assistants lead him around through meetings and carry his glasses and his eye drops and help apply them. He is also known to tell colleagues to “call Darnell”—a reference to Darnell Strom, his powerful agent at UTA—when asked for simple requests, according to people who work closely with him.

Enninful’s absence earlier this month at Vogue World, a major NYC fashion event for both Condé and Wintour, raised eyebrows among staffers, considering he was in New York promoting his book at the same time—further fueling claims that fiery tensions exist between the pair.

“I’m happy working in Europe,” Enninful told The New York Times last month when asked if he has ambitions to run the Vogue mothership. “But you never know what the future holds.”

[From The Daily Beast]

I started laughing when I got to “call Darnell.” Where’s Erykah Badu? I think we’ve got a follow-up to “Tyrone.” I mean, this just sounds pretty bad in both directions. One of the best ways to see your advancement at Conde Nast die on the vine is to start believing you can dethrone Nuclear Wintour. That being said, whenever Wintour chooses to leave, Enniful probably would be the natural choice to take over American Vogue. I just don’t think Wintour is ready to leave. At all. She’s accrued too much power. Now, all that being said, a game of musical chairs is needed – I hate to say this, but Radhika Jones is doing an awful job with Vanity Fair, and there needs to be some new blood in VF. I could absolutely see “Queen Mother” Enninful doing very, very well at VF too. He’s got that starf–ker streak like Graydon Carter.

God, this song holds up so well. Perfect!!

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

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22 Responses to “‘Queen Mother’ Edward Enninful is quietly gunning for Anna Wintour’s job??”

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  1. Iris says:

    Queen mother?! Enninful has this huge fear of going blind because he’s had issues with eyesight for his whole life. He’s had four operations in recent years! He has a detached retina! Like, no wonder he wants his LITERAL assistant to carry his glasses and eye drops?!

    • Eurydice says:

      Huh, I’ve had eyesight issues my whole life, I’ve had 2 operations in recent years and am headed for a 3rd, I have retina problems – and I still carry my own glasses.

    • Sunday says:

      Thanks for pointing this out. It’s really gross for the Daily Beast to push this as diva behavior when it’s an actual disability. Can you imagine the racist, gaslight-y comments if he was fumbling and bumbling with his glasses and drops himself? Enninful is not above criticism but scoffing at his failing eyesight is disgusting, and when it’s been publicly documented and he’s on record discussing how fearful he is of going entirely blind (including in his own recent biography) it’s verging on journalistic malpractice.

      • Lilly (with the double-L) says:

        Yes, thanks to you both. Remember when he took over security tried to send him to the service entrance? Some media really stick with their dog whistles on what they deem is uncalled for behavior when they’re being racist.

    • equality says:

      I was wondering if it was an actual disability. I know some people who can’t put their own eyedrops in, so this isn’t really shocking as they might think.

  2. Kathryn says:

    The whole “when will she retire?” Conversation has been going on for years. The woman isn’t 95 years old and she’s running a magazine, not a country. She’s passionate about what she does and I think she should do it for as long as she wants!

  3. Concern Fae says:

    Yeah, I subscribed to Vanity Fair years ago. Stopped when I realized I did better with magazines when I bought them one at a time. Used to read Vanity Fair all the time. Now, even when I want something to read, there’s nothing there when I flip through an issue.

    Vanity Fair has the problem of needing to flatter the wealthy, but also skewer them enough for people like me to be interested. They’ve lost that. VF used to do absolutely the best true crime. For quite a while you bought Vanity Fair to keep up with drama you wanted to know about, but not enough to follow things day by day. The problem is things move on much too fast a timeline now. That was pre internet. Now, you would probably need a weekly magazine if you wanted the same function. But The New Yorker is already there.

    • Elizabeth says:

      Vanity Fair’s website seems to have better content than the actual magazine.

    • Mary says:

      I canceled my subscription to Vanity Fair way back in the day when it all of a sudden became very New York-centric and into people and gossip I had no clue, or cared, about. It had been a great fashion magazine but it seemed to turn into a raunchy gossip mag. Lo’ and behold, I find out years later that this is when Graydon Carter took over! Funny how people can have such differing ideas about magazine editors. In my opinion, Carter was crap but, hey, I’m from the West Coast and really could not have cared less about New York society.

  4. sunny says:

    Anna has been too good at the game- she will only leave when she decides.

    And yes, Tyrone definitely holds up. I do feel that Lizzo’s Jerome is the musical successor to Badu’s track though.

    • Isabella says:

      We have very few female powerhouses, anywhere in the world. Don’t see why Wintour needs replacing just because there’s a guy who’s doing well in the same company. I’ve seen how this plays out for women at work but he is taking on the wrong woman.

      • Coco says:

        Ann needs replacing because she has lost it and hasn’t it for yes . Ann can’t keep up with times and has dragged American Vogue down with her. As I said below all the other Vogue magazine are doing so much better.

  5. Truthiness says:

    Nuclear Wintour holds sway over the New Yorker job? Good Lord, tell me that’s not true. Was Roy Cohn her mentor too? Vogue is garbage under her, it’s not that she’s super competent. Oi.

  6. Snuffles says:

    This is exactly like the plot in The Devil Wears Prada.

  7. Lolalola says:

    Ugh. He is awful. And Anna is brilliant. Anyone who can stay on top that long will go out feet first. Get over it Eddie.

    • Coco says:

      No Ann really isn’t. American Vogue has gone down the drain for years and all the other Vogues have surpassed it ten times over.

      Let’s not talk about all the people that came forward to talk about the racism they faced at Vogue and how Ann knew about it and did nothing. Ann did nothing after it was exposed ether just gave a fake apology.

  8. Sue E Generis says:

    Maybe an unpopular comment, but I think Anna lost ‘it’ long ago and Enninful never had ‘it’. Not a fan of either, but in a fight, my money’s on Anna.

  9. teecee says:

    Could we have an American at the helm of American publications? No British paper or magazine would ever name an American EIC, yet we do the opposite all the time. It’s one of the reasons the titles headed by these Brits seem to get the nuances of our politics and culture wrong, particularly when viewed through the lens of race.

    • AnneL says:

      I agree. What is it with that? It’s the same with the acting world. They literally won’t allow our actors to work over there, to the point where Game Of Thrones, for example (American author, writers, network), had literally one American in the huge main cast, and that one (Peter Dinklage) only because he had done enough theater work in the UK to qualify for the special card you need.

      Print and TV media in the US are similar. Piers Morgan was allowed to cover the day-to-day news here for a while and he was CRAP at it. I thought that even before I knew what a douche he is. Like you said, they just don’t get the culture. He had no business being in that role.

      I say this as someone whose sister is a journalist married to a British-educated journalist (from a formerly colonized country). She knows a lot of Brits in print media. I have nothing against him or her friends personally, obviously. But it doesn’t make sense. And like you said, there is a total lack of reciprocity.

      My sister’s husband, who comments on American society and politics quite a lot in his work, doesn’t vote. He never became a citizen despite having a kid who was born, raised and educated here. And that’s fine, don’t become a citizen. But this throwing spitballs from the back of the room when very important issues are at stake kind of chaps me.

  10. Alexa says:

    I thought I was the only one who thought Radhika Jones needed to go. Vanity Fair is going down. Didn’t know they accused him of being a diva. I would prefer a diva to Alexandra Schulman any day. Anna Wintour could definitely be replaced and everything would be fine. Better than fine. I never got the genius thing.