"This is not in any way your fault as I’m sure you know or have a sense of, but mine. Could you allow this to just pass, and not do the piece? I would be so grateful."

That was part of an email Peggy Noonan, the Clinton-hating WSJ columnist and one-time Ronald Reagan speechwriter, sent to Women's Wear Daily reporter Jacob Bernstein, who was writing a profile about her — one in which she cooperated. That was until all the question asking was done, and she had a change of heart about the whole thing: "Please don’t be mad at me. I don’t mean to show disrespect for your time, or for you. You are a doll. I have to admit to second thoughts, none of which are connected to you."

Noonan's request that Bernstein kill the profile, sent four weeks after their meeting, of course, was not honored, made evident by the fact that not only did the article — which hinted at a possible job offer from the NYT's op-ed page – run, but it lead with, uh, Noonan's postmortem email plea.

CONTINUED »

Women's Wear Daily plans to relaunch itself as, um, one of those multi-platform, global, 24/7, bloggy, Web 2.0 things on August 4. That also means the editorial staff will be expected to perform double their workload. [Portfolio]

Christine Guilfoyle, the publisher of Every Day with Rachael Ray, is leaving to become publisher of Women’s Wear Daily. [Folio]

An otherwise flattering WWD piece from Jacob Bernstein about Nikki Finke had to go down the crapper simply because "a legal question about whether one blanket 'yes you can tape [the conversation]' covered all subsequent follow-up interviews." The since-removed column (reprinted elsewhere) credited Finke with breaking all sorts of industry news – garnering the sort of attention and influence most bylines crave – and painted her as a strong and principled lass who doesn't have time for corporate bullshit. (Should we all be so lucky!)

It was Bernstein's alluding to Universal Studios prez Ron Meyer and former HBO chief Michael Fuchs being two of her most worthwhile sources (she's friends with both) that got him in the most trouble … but, um, who doesn't rely on knowledgeable insiders time and again?

After the piece ran, a slew of Finke-fueled WWD corrections followed "WWD made several corrections" before the story was ultimately removed from WWD.com. Tomorrow, says Keith Kelly, the industry trade will announce it stands by its story, but will keep it offline because of the whole "off the record" issue. (An issue that has more to do with not wanting to deal with this debacle any longer than it does with certain conversations being labeled OTR.)

We love our girls at WWD's Memo Pad. We see them trawling the party circuit while we sit by the bar, sipping Moet, and expect stories to come to us. So it's heartbreaking to see what appears to be a pretty transparent plant in this morning's column: That Conde Nast's Flip.com is in good shape.

'Cause we all know it isn't.

Despite the rosy picture – Flip.com's March readership came in at 288k unique visitors, up from 183k at February's launch – it's no secret Conde brass isn't pleased with the site. Sure, the teen girl social networking-slash-scrapbooking site might beat CosmoGIRL and Teen Vogue's web properties, but if you ever thought execs at 4 Times Square will let CondeNet prez Sarah Chubb get away with measuring her success by whether she's able to squeak out a tiny lead, you're mistaken.

Taking off early for Christmas just wouldn't be right without leaving you with another edition of Scoop Wars, which asks: Is Women's Wear Daily picking up where Radar's Jeff Bercovici left off? The former Memo Pad scribe and current Radar gossip has run into a score of trouble for repurposing the exclusives of the competition and other misdeeds at his new gig, and now more one media watcher pointed out to us that an item by Irin Carmon in today's WWD column is remarkably similar to Jim Shi's Fashion Week Daily report. That ran on, ahem, Monday.

So what's the news all about? Joe Zee, the editor of Vitals before the floor fell out from under him, is landing at Elle as creative director. Jim Shi had nearly all the details about the new post – plus bonus anecdotes and insider staffer gossiping! – except confirmation. Which was a bit hard to come by when Zee denied the move because he was still under contract with Conde Nast. Fast forward to today's Carmon item, where news comes that Zee has "fulfilled contractual obligations to Condé Nast" and is summarily taking the Elle gig.

We tried touching base with the girls at Memo Pad to see how these paths got crossed and one item became two, but have yet to hear back.

So who gets the win this Scoop War?

CONTINUED »

Sure, they may not get delivered in time, but what better way to say "Merry Christmas" to someone than with a stocking stuffed with … really expensive shit. Women's Wear Daily has teamed with a series of designers it's supposed to be uninfluenced by to create a series of top notch stockings for that special someone under the mistletoe, now available for purchase on eBay. (Proceeds go to charity, yey!)

And no, the Heatherette stocking does not include Amanda Lepore.

At today's morning meeting, Women's Wear Daily named a new publisher president to replace the recently departed Edward Menicheschi. Daniel Lagani, former Vice President and Publisher of Condé Nast Bridal Group, will take over the role of publisher prez at the daily fashion news pub.

Menicheschi left WWD last month to join Vanity Fair as the replacement for former publisher Alan Katz, who was notorious for butting heads with the mag's EIC Graydon Carter.

A seasoned media member, Lagani has overseen an enormous magazine group as well as a handful of online sites. He's even made a name for himself among advertising groups (a major qualification when it comes to publishers and/or presidents).

Mr. Lagani is also respected and recognized by the industry, earning a nomination for the American Advertising Federation's "Under 40 Hall of Fame" in both 2002 and 2003; and named runner-up 2003 "Publisher of the Year" by The Delaney Report.

Lagani greatest challenge may be filling Menicheschi's much-loved shoes —staffers were rumored to have shed plenty of tears upon his departure. But as long as he doesn't fire people by locking them out of the building and then laughing at them, he should be able to make a few friends over there. Update: Full press release after the jump.

*We apologize for our earlier report, which stated Lagani was coming on as WWD's publisher. He is actually joining the daily as president — this was made complicated by Menicheschi leaving his former president position for a publisher spot at VF. And 'biz side stuff always gets us all mixed up.

CONTINUED »

While Jossip's informal poll to choose the next media reporter for Women's Wear's Memo Paid media column selected Eat The Presser Rachel Sklar, Media Mob reports the Fairchild trade has gone with Irin Carmon. She's a freelancer with a Harvard past with bylines in all the papers that matter (including, of course, the Crimson). And since we can't find a reputable photo of Carmon, we're not quite sure whether she's got the chest to fill the empty bra soon to be left behind by Sara James. Whether she's got Jeff Bercovici's ability to make Atoosa Rubenstein fall in love with her, meanwhile, is also under review.

WWD Finds Media Reporter [Media Mob]
Irin Carmon [Official Site]
Related: In WWD's Shoes Poll Results: Sklar and Sherman Rock the Vote

Now that the departures of beloved Memo Pad staffers Jeff Bercovici and Sara James are all official, it's time to move on to the next topic. Who could possibly fill those dapper shoes? We had a pretty tough time pulling these names out of our rears, but we've come up with a few guesses.

However, we need your input. (Ok, we don't need it, but we really, really want it.) Any of these qualified applicants would leave a gaping whole in their current spots should they depart, which would only mean more meta media door revolving, and in turn, sheer delight on our part. (If your currently vying for Sherman or Sklar's job, we suggest nominating them!) We'll announce the official results tomorrow morning.

After last week's not-so-fervent denials about leaving Women's Wear Daily for the greener (but only for a couple issues at a time) pastures of Radar, Jeff Bercovici is indeed making the jump, we hear from very well placed sources this morning. What's also news? Jeff's cohort Sara James is also ditching Fairchild's trade for Maer's third spin on the magazine merry-go-round. But let's not let Radar's staffing up distract us from our newfound interest: Who's gonna fill in at WWD? Some Mediabistro intern?

Update: Sara informs us that she is "NOT under any circumstances" leaving to fluff Maer's balls. Which is either code for "They haven't made me a formal offer yet" or "I'm the queen of WWD now, bitch, and I will cut you!"

Earlier: Radar Rumor Patrol: New Staffers Sworn to Secrecy?
Related: Jossiping with Jeff Bercovici

Ok, so even though the last day of Olympus Fashion Week is technically tomorrow, we just couldn’t wait on the all the scoop streaming in.

Official sponser Fashion Week Daily is your best source for your basic coverage — it's how we discovered that today is by far the best show day of the entire week (Zac Posen, Vera Wang, and Calvin Klein?) But, everyone from the New York Observer to Overheard in New York is on this crazy scene (even the freakin' Washington Post sent their blogger), and we’re stuck, living vicariously through their glam.

But because we sit at home talking to our plants, and you actually have to try to pass for "with it" out in the real world, we’ll give you a little glimpse at what all the fashionistas, glitterati, and socialites are talking about.

We’re sure you can sneak out to lunch and crash some party of some kind in the Bryant Park area. And by sneak out, we mean read this in a corner with a mini bottle of champagne and go back to work drunk, talking about how great the foie gras at the Four Seasons is.

• For those who actually care more about the clothes than the gossip, Women’s Wear Daily is a bible of daily updates, which they prove by giving as much play to the chattered over Marc Jacobs show as they shed on Carolina Herrera’s demure glamour shots. [Fall 2006: The New York Reviews, WWD]

• Yet, this by no means implies that the gossips take a break in this most huffed about season in New York. Lunch at Michael’s reminds us that Fashionistas don’t eat, while Overheard in New York pulls out the priceless one-liners that would make even Anna Wintour chuckle.

• And those sneaky little Observers! Nobody even sees them coming (especially since the models don’t read). Choire Sicha’s version of hell is Lindsay Lohan in Marc, while ours is Laguna Beach’s L.C. in the front row of any fashion show. [Projectile Runway, NYO]

• The Washington Post screams “we were there, too!” by sending new fashion blogger, Robin Givhan to get smacked by fashion frenzy. She likely spent the entire week tossing her hands in exasperation, and thinking “D.C is so much more organized. What, are these people on drugs?” (Not drugs drugs … just lots of blow.) [Off the Runway, WaPo]

• Eric Wilson, Cathy Horyn, and Guy Trebay, interview Marc Jacobs and Ralph Lauren … plus all the slide shows you could ever want. Oh, and start paying to attention to spunked out Alice Roi, who will probably start get name dropped at the Nylon party tomorrow. [Fall Fashion 2006, NYT]

• Where’s the only place you’ll find The Fake Paris Hilton, Narciso Rodriguez, and the Olsen Twins on one page? Dahling, of course New York magazine pulls out all the stops with la creme: Aja Magnum, Amy Larocca, and Daniel Maurer. (Ok, we had to go back to being media nerds at some point.) [Runway Talk, NYM]

We're convinced that Marc Jacobs is the only designer who ever gets any attention because, well, he's the only one who talks to the press. But you gotta' dig deep to get the good stuff. So, check out the all the labels, and the looks … and then go try to score knock-off and vintage versions at Century 21, Screamin' Mimi's, and Daffy's. Before they all get swallowed whole by H&M.

Men's Health editor David Zinczenko isn't just about gal palling around the Hamptons with Dan Abrams. He also is quite concerned about his readers' health — or at least his editorial assistant Heather Kelly is.

Women's Wear Daliy used August as an excuse to read Heather David's editor's letter, where he expresses genuine concern for fat folks.

"I cannot go to a gym without cringing, watching the idiotic, ineffective and downright dangerous exercise routines personal trainers put their clients through," Men's Health editor in chief David Zinczenko writes in his September issue. Zinczenko goes on to describe a friend, "65 years old and about that many pounds overweight," who showed up to lunch complaining that a workout had left him with a sore neck, and left in an ambulance, "felled by a massive stroke. Did the workout kill him? It's possible."

It's also quite possible the recklessly hilarious Miss Education of Jenna Bush will do better things for Melissa Rauch's career than VH1 ever could, but we don't debate the philosophical on this website.