Perhaps the recent rumors about editor-from-hell Bonnie Fuller helming celebrity weekly OK! were a clever way of ensuring a warm staff welcome for the real editor-in-chief and publisher, both set for announcement tomorrow. They are former Quick & Simple EIC Susan Toepfer and Niche Media senior VP Lori Burgess, respectively, the Post's Keith Kelly is reporting. Recently-installed general manager Kent Brownridge insisted his choice for editor "had never been Bonnie," but his passing on the pricey and profligate former Us Weekly chief is as good a sign as any that the economic meltdown will slam celebrity entertainment media as it has banking and real estate.

Other signs: Brownridge is said to be slashing the budget for celebrity babies. The painful (if inevitable) result: "Very low" newstand sales. And the downward spiral begins.

Supposed grade-A celebrities just don't offer the return they once did. So it is that Wired, of all publications, looks like the smart innovator in celebrity media, moving copies with leggy-but-so-very-inexpensive Julia Allison on the cover.

Remember, celeb investors, subprime holdings can be very profitable when you buy them cheap. One assumes the new OK! guys (also including incoming executive creative director Trey Speegle) will be fast studies in this regard.