Remember how Vogue had everyone in a tizzy this spring over its covers? First there was the LeBron James/King Kong cover in April, then the horrific Photoshop job on Gwyneth Paltrow in May. For all the damage the disastrous fronts did to the fashion title and its editor Anna Wintour, one would have at least hoped for a slight circulation bump from all the publicity. Not so: Newsstand sales of the LeBron James issue were off 100,000 copies year-over-year to 350,000 while the Paltrow issue sold 45,000 fewer copies. Sad. [WWD]

The public face of PETA, Dan Mathews, has been flying around the world as usual, but instead of focusing solely on orchestrating wacky animal rights stunts, he's promoting his book, Committed: a Rabble-Rouser's Memoir, in which he describes PETA's public enemy no. 1, Anna Wintour, as looking "like she has constant, painful gas." Attacks on the Vogue editor have created some of the biggest headlines for PETA, but she remains intransigent in the face of gay ex-model Mathew's inventive campaigns:

Is there a behind-the-scenes magazine war going on between Vogue and Interview for the services of the best photographers in the business? Sources say there just might be! It's a rather important issue, considering the publications. The spat, we hear, goes to the heart of icy Vogue editor Anna Wintour's sense of entitlement in the fashion magazine world. Do not make her jealous:

Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos eating lunch outside at Pastis before riding off together on a white Vespa and later picking up the kids up from school ... Sarah Jessica Parker leaving her West Village townhouse in a Prius ... Vanessa Minnillo taking a walk around SoHo with her dog Wookie ... Agyness Deyn strolling through SoHo ... Guy Ritchie walking to the Mandarin Oriental ... Chloe Sevigny eating lunch at Le Pain Quotidien in West Hollywood ... Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts in Paris ... Anna Wintour checking out the Armani fashion show ... Naomi Campbell and Marcus Elias smooching on the back of a yacht in St. Tropez.

• What on earth is going on? Anna Wintour wore the same Carolina Herrera dress three times in two weeks: At Milan fashion week, at Wimbledon, and at the Karl Lagerfeld show in Paris. The floral shift had been altered to fit her famous stick insect figure. As if that's any excuse. [Telegraph]
  

["Vogue" editor Anna Wintour in Paris for a Chanel fashion show; image via Splash]

It's Anna Wintour's 20th anniversary as editor of Vogue, and the be-bobbed one has certainly earned her title as one of the most feared figures in fashion. But it's worth remembering that she hasn't had a smooth ride. In fact, Wintour was beset by a salacious—and probably false—sex scandal rumor as soon as she took her job. Here, from the pages of Jerry Oppenheimer's biography Front Row, is the story of the alleged Wintour love connection with her boss, Si Newhouse—and how Wintour's reaction became a rare and fleeting moment of feminist pride inside Conde Nast:

On the 20th anniversary of Anna Wintour's ascension to editor-in-chief of Vogue, the Washington Post's fashion editor Robin Givhan extravagantly eulogizes the "master of the universe who wears her power as comfortably and impeccably as Chanel couture" and reveals that, in case you were going to question her authority, she knows of what she speaks:

• Sad Anne Hathaway had been shopping for homes with her scummy Italian boyfriend Rafaello Follieri right before the movie starlet finally realized she had to dump the loser. She told InStyle, for next month's issue: "If we get a house as opposed to an apartment, the first two floors will be a bit more traditional for him to be able to receive people, and the top two floors will be whatever I want." [P6]

Last fall, before she realized she would soon need every last scrap of sympathetic coverage she could get, Hillary Clinton ditched a Vogue interview and photo shoot because it might maker her look too elitist or feminine or something. Anna Wintour in January penned a bitchy editor's note about the incident. And now the poor writer who had to go through the excruciating, months-long process of setting up the damned interview is letting off some steam. Julia Reed is now free to tell how she really feels about Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson, and that's what she does today in Women's Wear Daily:

1) At the Harold Pratt House, the New Yorkers For Children Fall Gala was previewed with a Tuesday night gathering of Campion Platt, Andre Leon Talley, Jeffrey Kalinsky, Beth Rudin DeWoody, Dayssi Olarte De Kanavos, Douglas Hannant, Kate Schelter, Katie Lee Joel, Derek Blasberg, Debbie Bancroft, Joy Bryant, Daniel Benedict and Andrew Saffir, Annelise Peterson, Jamee Gregory, Fern Mallis, Jennifer Creel, Fabiola Beracasa, Oscar De La Renta, Thakoon Panichgul, Tom Florio, Zac Posen, Zani Gugelmann, Lauren Santo Domingo, Phillip Lim, Heather Mnuchin, and Peter Som. [Guest of a Guest]

Vogue editor Anna Wintour should turn down the British medal she's being offered for several reasons. First of all because the title-Officer of the British Empire-is ridiculously outmoded. It marks the 58-year-old fashion veteran as a member of an earlier generation of Brits who still hanker pathetically for approval of the fusty home-country establishment decades after moving to the US. But most of all Wintour should be embarrassed to take an honor a rank below that of her long-time rival, editor Tina Brown. The one-time Vanity Fair editor is a Commander of the British Empire, which means she'll outrank Wintour in the ridiculous "order of preference" of English society.

Sorry, Glenda Bailey, you're no longer the only New York EIC with an OBE: Anna Wintour was similarly honored by the Queen, for "services to British journalism and British fashion in the US." Like Glenda, the Vogue editor can't assume the title "Dame," although really, how much more bowing and scraping does one person need? Meanwhile, her daughter Bee Shaffer, a Columbia student currently doing a semester at University College London, is reportedly dating Fred Sykes (third item), the younger brother of Anna's former protégée Plum Sykes. Social climbing is evidently in the Sykes' DNA: Plum and her twin sister Lucy both made sure to marry up.

1) The New York City Ballet's 24th annual "Dance With the Dancers" party was sponsored by Elle and Ferragamo. Fabiola Beracasa, Zani Gugelman, Allison Sarofim, Robbie Myers, Joe Zee, and Olivia Chantecaille wore Roman-inspired outfits, while Tatum O'Neal had everyone wondering what was in her glass. [Elle]

• Denis Leary's wife, Ann, has for years been secretly not cool with the comedian having dining, hanging out with and getting diet and exercise makeovers from his knockout friend Elizabeth Hurley, so she sadly channeled her frustrations into a thinly-veiled "novel." Something tells me Denis, in a similar situation, would have just cussed and yelled about it for an hour or so until the situation somehow resolved itself. Not that there's anything wrong with different "communication styles." [R&M]

Next Tuesday won't be the most lucrative fundraiser of the Obama campaign, but it might be the most glam. Calvin Klein, Anna Wintour, and Andre Leon Talley are chairing a fundraising event for the campaign, An Evening with Michelle Obama. Naturally, the aspiring first lady will be the main event, not her (occasionally sartorially-challenged) husband. But Michelle seems to have already made a deep impression on the fashion set: Talley and Hamish Bowles (who shares Miche's passion for purple) took time to lavishly praise her faux pearls, Jackie O. dresses, and Azzedine Alaïa belts in the Times last weekend. The $1,000-a-head fundraiser will take place at the Sikkema Jenkins gallery on West 22nd Street. Feeling especially generous or social climby? The standard $2,300 will score you a one-on-one photo with Mrs. O, and $10,000 will get you an invite to dinner at Calvin Klein's triplex on Perry Street.

A line of "Wintour" watches—named after Anna Wintour, natch—will be hitting the streets soon. The Vogue editrix didn't authorize it, had nothing to do with it, and, we're betting, has no plans to sport one her bony wrist any time soon. [WWD]

No question, the Sex And The City movie premiere at Radio City Music Hall is going swimmingly for some people. Fameball Julia Allison and her buddies Mary Rambin and Megan Asha, for example, got inside the hall and snapped photos like the one at left of cast member Sarah Jessica Parker (from Rambin) and now appear to be happily seated next to actress Ashley Olsen. Vogue editor Anna Wintour is present and accounted for. But a line of ticketholders stretching for an entire city block was turned away, according to a disgruntled email tipster, who wrote: "There was a near riot of Louboutin clicking girls to the security windows in the front... Some were in near tears waving their tickets and yelling into their cells." Hopefully the lady from Singapore who bought a fake ticket for $19,000, but then got a free authentic one, wasn't among the crowd, because this would push her over the edge. I told you this was going to get ugly. Full email report after the jump.

• Everyone was partying in the Hamptons this weekend. Molly Sims celebrated her birthday in Sag Harbor. Leo DiCaprio partied at Dune. Jeffrey Chodorow and Charlie Walk threw a dinner at the Kobe Beach Club. Even newly-convicted felon Wesley Snipes, who is free on bail, flew in to get wasted at a party in Water Mill. [Page Six]

• Oh, hey, Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg might stop snapping at people long enough to play a thinly-veiled, self-mocking George W. Bush in a Broadway play. [P6]