K-FED SELLS OUT The December issue of Details, featuring Kevin Federline on the cover as one of "America's new parental role models" is on track to sell 75,000, almost 15,000 more copies than when Federline appeared on the cover in March of 2005. Looks like everyone is on team Federline these days. [WWD]

What's so very, very upsetting about this?

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What do you get when you sit down for a chat with Details editor-in-chief Dan Peres? A man who defends his honor against Jack Bauer. And a man who isn't a fan of Graydon Carter's dining establishment, and isn't afraid to go public about it.

Ben Campbell from Merchantville, New Jersey, wrote into Details this month.

"Gay Or Details?"
With its fashion, pop culture, sophisication and pretty-boy models, Details has always been friendly to gay men, but every issue lately seems to get even gayer, what with all the articles on gay culture and the recurring "Gay Or" feature. Hey, I have no problem with gay people. I just want to know – as a straight man – is Details still for me too?

We'll forget, for a moment, that Ben thinks it's possible to be too straight for Details. (Technically, it is, but only if you read Field & Stream.) Or that, despite his assurances, in all likelihood he's a raging homophobe.

But let's rewind one hot second: Last month's issue, we pointed out, was perhaps the first issue under Dan Peres that didn't carry a single gay cover line and only hinted at the possibility there might be some homo hula between covers.

And then, remarkably, there was the May issue.

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Just another cover of Details, right? Not exactly.

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When our doorman threw this month's Vanity Fair against our door, it made a loud thud — and quite an impression. The fold-out flap for the cover story on The Sopranos was, how shall we say, eerily familiar. While we can appreciate seeing Tony and the gang sprawled out on the cover and two flaps – Drea de Matteo back from the dead being our fav part – as much as the next made guy, we couldn't help but think: Graydon Carter totally ripped this off.

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• Finally, an exposé on David Blum's ouster at the Voice. Why we had to wait full days for this, we'll never know.

• Meanwhile, Blum gives his side of the story.

• Louise MacBain's LTB Media loses another EIC. Peter Terzian walks out after a month on the job. Typical.

• Just like our exclusive report late last night, the LAT (a Tribune paper) says Sam Zell is closer to buying Tribune Co. You don't say?

• David Beckham wears the same shirt twice on Details.

• Us Weekly, cheating the numbers to meet its rate base?

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David Beckham on the cover of Details? Hardly surprising, given that a man like David Beckham gives a magazine like Details a reason to breathe, month after month. And, well, vice versa. But while the gays skipped over Brad Pitt in Interview to take a gander at Beckham's Details spread (not very much in the way of his summer in Speedos, sadly), we actually read the article.

Why waste precious minutes on copy that carries 1:1 odds of being the same recycled drivel we continually wade through about Beckham? Because its author is Michael Hirschorn, otherwise known as VH1's executive VP for programming. More noteworthy: He wasn't fired last week. Super noteworthy: In his cover story, Hirschorn takes a shot at his network's only reason for airing.

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After a three month search, Wallpaper is still looking for a new editor-in-chief. One with chutzpah. One with spunk. One who knows how to get the gays in a tizzy. Naturally, that led them to Details EIC Dan Peres — but after a round of courting, it looks like the offer may have fizzled out.

Peres was unavailable for comment at press time, but sources close to him said he has no intention of fleeing Details. Peres has spent all of his professional career at Fairchild and its parent, Condé Nast, having worked eight years at DNR, WWD and W before taking the helm at Details in 2000.

Also, Wallpaper refused to let Dan compare the gayness of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on its back page.

• God help us if it's Details that's chronicling the new class war.

• Celebrities who blog finally receive well-deserved attention.

• Cute! The WSJ gets to the bottom of those annoying underlined text link ads you've seen (and read about) everywhere.

• Lindsay Lohan throws some kerosene on her Paris Hilton feud, claiming the heiress threw a drink at her.

• Sixth grade math puts the cost of canceling the O.J. Simpson book-interview extravaganza at $10 million.

• NBC and MSNBC begin calling Iraq a "civil war." Tony Snow certain to get angry.

• We love a hefty Ken Auletta media piece in The New Yorker (this week: Lou Dobbs!). We don't love having to choose just one punchline from thousands and thousands of words of copy.

• Publicists: Leave David Carr alone for a while, and he just might talk to you.

• Tom Mazzarelli begins staffing up Fox's morning show, with nary a Today show staffer in sight.

• Simon Dumenco read skimmed Reader's Digest, and lived to tell about it.

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Oh look, it's Jane magazine's cute new feature on "O Faces," where they disingeiously advise you to make a decision on which rocker's groupie you should be based on what their mouth looks like while eating an invisible orange whole. It's such a clever idea: Photoshop together a couple of WireImage shots and, bam!, an instant one-pager.

Except, uh, haven't we seen this before?

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• Larry King has never used the Internet, bothered to wipe off toilet seat.

• Hudson News covers up the prude Ashley Judd.

• Wallpaper editor Jeremy Langmead departs after four years to become editor of British Esquire.

• Miami luxe rag publisher Jerry Powers, who runs Ocean Drive, isn't too pleased that former protege Jason Binn (publisher of Niche Media's Gotham) now owns him.

• TV Guide lays off 40 staffers, blames industry.

• Details' Dan Peres finds his new bitch.

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Always one to blur the lines between "gay men's magazine" and "really gay men's magazine," Details submits its monthly offering for the New York Times Style section to rip off in six weeks time. The feature – appearing in the December issue, which hit New York newsstands yesteday – rounded up what appears to be Andy Samberg, Fonzworth Bentley, and Reichen Lehmkuhl all decked out in swag picked up at a gifting suite and disguised as three variations on yuppie. Silly Details: As any Bridgehampton Polo match attendee knows, there are only two authentic type of yuppie: the gay, and the gay's "roommate."

While next month's Vanity Fair pays homage to the well heeled members of the media, including Richard Johnson, Anderson Cooper, Fran Lebowitz, and Anna Piaggi, it is not the only magazine covering the stylings of media folks.

If you've been feeling somewhat terrible in light of VF's assertion that media people can in fact be fashionable, keep in mind that most of the people mentioned work in fashion or television, and likely have a personal stylist. It may do you some good to look at Details magazine's much more realistic coverage of "media fashion."

See? You're just fine in your Jesse Oxfeld meets Gabe Sherman jacket/sneakers/messenger bag get-up … which you probably can't afford. Unless, of course, you're interning at CNN, in which case you best invest in a solid supply of blue collared button-ups and shiny black loafers.

Heaven forbid you pick up an expired piece of laddie lit for your Sagaponack beach read. Thankfully, Conde Nast is doing its part to make sure your squarecut trunks aren't the only thing keeping your sexuality ambiguous in the sand this summer. For what we're sure is a "limited time" offer, you can now get two years of Matthew McConaughey covers for the price of one.

What's better than spending the rising tide with Daniel Peres' glossy pages? Well, perhaps clam digging with Dave Zinczenko, but we've got July for that.

Details Subscription [Conde Nast]