Model agency IMG simultaneously fired Taylor Momsen and hired Dakota Fanning. Recall that Dakota also beat Taylor for the role of Cherie Currie in The Runaways, leaving a a shaggy-haired Momsen no choice but to start her own band.

In your explosive Wednesday media column: a new book will re-ignite the Danish Muhammad cartoon controversy, Tom Florio goes to IMG, the WSJ celebrates itself, Lucky is coming for your kids, and everyone hates the media, still.

• It looks like there's a new frontrunner to take over BusinessWeek. Mayor Bloomberg's media company, Bloomberg LP, has bypassed Bruce Wasserstein as the leading contender to take over the McGraw-Hill-owned mag. [NYP]
• After close to three decades at ABC News, John Stossel is leaving the network to join Fox News and Fox Business Channel. [FNC, TVN]
• Not all magazines are closing down or trimming operations. Cesar Millan and IMG have launched a title for dog owners called Cesar's Way. [WSJ]
• There's been an editorial shakeup at O, The Oprah Magazine. [NYP, WWD]
• Will this season be the last for Oprah Winfrey's daytime talk show? [NYDN]
• Graydon Carter appears to have been granted a pass. The Vanity Fair editor reports he hasn't been forced to sit down with the flock of cost-cutting McKinsey consultants now prowling the halls of Condé Nast. [NYO]
• A judge has tossed out a lawsuit by Missy Chase Lapine, the author who claims Jessica Seinfeld ripped off her cookbook last year. [AP]
• According to the Wall Street Journal, "Bonnet books," or Amish love stories, are "a booming new subcategory of the romance genre." Who knew? [WSJ]

• The September 2009 issue of Vogue looks nothing like the issue from 2007, the making of which is detailed in R.J. Cutler's new period picture, The September Issue. Take a sec to let the image of the 840-page behemoth from two years ago—the largest issue ever—burn itself into your memory. Given the way things are going, you may not see anything like it ever again. [NYT]

• Malia is totally into "pleats and pared-down things," but is not a "huge fan of sparkles." Sasha, on the other hand, totally adores "bright colors and sparkly things." Could America's first daughters be any cuter? [WSJ]
• IMG would really love it if Michelle Obama turned up for Fashion Week next month. [SF]
• The mood was not very cheery at Men's Fashion Week in Milan, reports Guy Trebay, who says designers appeared to be reacting to the downturn "by staging a mass memorial for themselves. [NYT]
• Rumor has it 60 Minutes is planning a story on Anna Wintour. [NYM]
• Is Barneys' parent company putting the retailer up for sale? [BN]
• A sneak peek at Scarlett Johansson's new ads for D&G makeup. [SW]
• Not surprisingly, Jason Wu's website has been flooded with traffic. [FWD]
• Christian Lacroix's fab Paris apartment is up for sale. [Fashionologie]
• Sad and very disturbing: Brazilian model Mariana Bridi had to have her hands and feet amputated due to a life-threatening blood infection. [NYDN]

• Vivienne Westwood may have designed Carrie's wedding dress for the first Sex and the City movie, but she'd like to write the script for the sequel, and she's even written to Sarah Jessica Parker to make her case. [Telegraph]
• Tracy Feith is the latest designer who has been tapped to do a line for Target. [WWD]
• Fern Mallis says IMG has confirmed 52 designers— including Calvin Klein, Donna Karan and Michael Kors—for Fashion Week in February. [WSJ]
• Marchesa will be showing, too. [Fashionista]
• Photos of Isaac Mizrahi's new collection for Liz Claiborne. [Pipeline]
• Go alert your mom: Carolina Herrera says long hair after 40 is "out" in her book. "Women need to learn how to age gracefully." [Times UK]

• CVS has agreed to buy Longs Drug Stores for about $2.7 billion. [Bloomberg]

Every print publisher, and especially the glossies, want in on the online-video game. Unlike the text-and-photos Web, where there are more pageviews than media buyers know what to do with, there's not enough slickly packaged content that big brands deem safe enough to advertise themselves on. Condé Nast's Vogue has a new reality show for the Web, Model.Live, which "tracks three models as they navigate casting calls, catwalks and airports for fashion weeks in New York, London, Milan and Paris." It debuts August 19. What you won't see? Drinking and smoking. What you will see? Eating disorders confronted "head-on." That's because this an attempt to reach out to a younger demographic on behalf of the sponsor, aspirational mall brand Express — which sells American women the sequined, screen-printed jeans they love. What's all this going to cost Express?

While DreamWorks, Lionsgate and even Cash-Machine Manoj all have Indian capital to thank for their varying degrees of independence, Terry Semel is apparently courting a few billion dollars from Dubai as he nears a deal to acquire the management giant (and burgeoning media player) IMG. The ex-Warner Bros./Yahoo! kingpin has had his eye on Teddy Forstmann's hobby since at least June, when it was rumored Semel was knocking on a few gilded doors around the Middle East, hat in hand.

With money from Warner Bros., private equity firms, and the United Arab Emirates, former Yahoo CEO Terry Semel wants to buy talent and marketing agency IMG. Semel's plan: Turn the agency, currently owned by buyout guy Ted Forstmann, into a media and content company with a focus on digital distribution — more or less the same thing Semel wanted to do with Yahoo. The difference this time? No one on Wall Street will ask why Semel and IMG aren't throwing money at catching up with those pipsqueaks Larry and Sergey in search.