As demonstrated by the ass and pony show that was last night's Costume Institute celebration for its new Chanel exhibition, this season's hottest trends include sparkle-draped blondes carrying the must-have anorexic accessory.

Fox announced late yesterday afternoon that Meryl Streep has signed on to play the role of icy fashion mag editor Anna Wintour Miranda Priestly in their film adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada, Lauren Weisberger's bestselling novel about a fashion mag assistant who suffers at the hands of a sadistic editor-in-chief. In Real Life, Weisberger served as Anna Wintour's assistant, so unless you're missing a frontal lobe, you already know that the Priestly character is based loosely (or rather closely) on the Vogue editor.

So the city approved that controversial plan to redevelop the East River waterfront in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, and the Times reports thatwho knew?there are actually a few residents in favor of the project. We're sure they're thrilled to learn this around Bloomie HQ. Now if they could just get anyone to like the West Side stadium. Or the Olympics. Or the smoking law. JO

· "It appears that Ms. Hilton's blond ambition knows no bounds and she is clearly intent on capitalizing on her fame; she commands anywhere from $150,000 to $200,000 to appear at a party for 20 minutes, she said. 'If it's in Japan I get more,' she said." And you thought Paris was a whore because of her personal life? Shame on you. [NYT]
· Nikki Finke says Barry Diller is a jerk! Barry Diller says his dad could beat up Nikki's dad! [PR Week]
· Pat O'Brien flees rehab for the sober confines of Coachella. [Defamer]
· And for reasons probably concerning her desire to thwart her own sexuality and subvert the market Kate Moss will don a beard and drag for the cover of V magazine. At least that's how her agent justified it to her. [The Daily]
· Need another reason to hate that old lady living in a rent-controlled 3BR for $800/month? Here's one: This dude will pay her $300K just to move. [WaPo]

We asked and, like always, you responded en masse to this morning's Blind Item Infidelity Challenge. Apparently when everyone's behaving badly, everyone gets inspired (and creative). After the jump, your purely speculative guesses about naughty rock stars, cheating newlyweds, soulful dykes and skirt-chasing thespians.

Look what fun things miraculously show up in our inbox:

As if it's not already bad enough being a Time Warner employeestock closing price on Friday, January 7, 2000: 73.75; stock closing price today: 16.8; all those grants and options: worthlessnow it turns out the company has also left all its U.S. employees wide open to identity theft. Our pal John Cook has the memo from TW's "senior vice president and chief security officer" posted at Reference Tone:

Hey, aspiring actors, are you looking for a high-powered agent to help kick-start your career and get out from behind that bar at the Standard? The answer to your problem couldn't be simpler: Blow an agent's assistant!

· P.S. 122 celebrates its 25th year of live theater tonight with producer David Binder, Mike Albo, and Lisa Kron, among others. We can hardly contain our excitement, and neither should you. Go riot or something. [flavorpill]
· Like elevator muzak, but better: New York's own space cadets The Books come to the Knitting Factory tonight. [KF]
· Conterversial Abolitionist John Brown used terrorist tactics against slavery to single-handedly change the course of United States history. (Yes, we had look him up, because we're proud of our public education.) Go hear English prof David S. Reynolds read from his new book on Mr. Brown at Barnes and Noble on 82nd Street. [Upcoming]

We kid you not. As we speak, there's a munchkinnot just a random 'little person,' but a genuine, bona fide, friend-of-Dorothy (not in that way, silly) munchkinin the Billboard cafeteria. See for yourself:

Today's Page Six, having embraced basic literary tools, demonstrates the delicate intersection of ambiguity and theme:

"The Family Guy Live," which we saw Friday night, was, like, the funnest, most delightfully dorktastic thing we've ever done. (And we used to go Columbia Scholastic Press Association conventions, so we know from dorkfests.) But we're depressed this morning to learn this means we have the same sense of humor as rich Jewish middle-school kids on the Upper East Side.

We're Manhattanites, natch, but recently, and ashamedly, we've started thinking maybe it's time we joined all our friends on the other side of the East River. (We confess: Nice weather turns our thoughts to the Gowanus.) Thank God for Jonathan Van Meter, to slap us back to rationality in this week's New York mag.

Hi. I'm Jesse Oxfeld. You might remember me from such media websites as Editor & Publisher Online, mediabistro.com, and (long ago and barely) Inside.com. For some inexplicable reason, the folks here thought it'd be a good idea to make me co-captain of the Good Ship Gawker for a week. (Ha. The last ship I captaineda 60-foot racing yacht, while on assignment for Gear magazineI promptly sailed into a jibe. Then the mag folded like two weeks later, before I could submit my piece. Good stuff.) Anyway, while I've never actually blogged beforewell, not reallyI figure I should be fine at it. I mean, I'm glib, I like working in my pajamas, and, most important, I drink a lot (frequently at The Magician). So I'm good to go. Right? JO

You can all exhale (or begin your ritual cutting) now, as I'm back from my weeklong journey into sunlight — a journey so intense, in fact, that I just might be tan enough to assume multiple new ethnic identities. When I wasn't using my free time to sleep or pee in the pool, I worked on my new hobby: peeling the dead skin from my shoulders and saving it all in a pile, which I'm slowly molding into a life-size replica of myself. Watch out, Tussaud!

Well thanks for letting me interrupt your work day, all you gossip monkeys, mediacrities, and members of the great unwashed. I appreciate the hits and the links and tips, too, and once you get used to it, the hate mail is actually pretty funny. Thanks to all you odd folks who wrote in, too—even you, Spiegelman. I'm really sorry it was a slow news week, no popes died, no editors left the Daily News, no one plagiarized at the Times, radaronline didn't launch just like editor Maer Roshan promised it wouldn't, but at least there were no more sales at 740 Park, so you only had to put up with one, er, two, superfluous and gratuitous plugs for my next book. It's nice to spend a week without bathing...shaving...eating....human interaction... Let's do it again sometime. —MG

It's time to return to life as a freelancer, trying to get work from the very people I ve been insulting all week. Many thanks to Nick Denton, Lockhart Steele, the interns, Team Party Crash, my agent, manager, and lawyers. The lovely Jessica Coen will be back on Monday with a new and (undoubtedly) improved guest editor. So I'm out! As the token black guy said in Swingers: This place is dead, anyway. —Noelle

Brian Sack's Banterist just found $7,497.75 Woody Allen left lying around and there's more where that came from. P. Diddy Daddy Diva also forgot about a stash of cash. And Marlon Brando's illegitimate children are probably already fighting over his stray $47,007.94. —MG

·Medeski Martin and Wood, which Neel the Intern says is Brooklyn's favorite jazzy improv triumvirate (don t worry we had to look it up, too), performs at the New York Hilton Ballroom to benefit the Elf Foundation for ailing children. [MMW]

As part of our new all-Cruise format, we present this interview with Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise to promote War of the Worlds in German magazine Spiegel, which took a startling turn away from the typical canned, junket-flavored fare when the reporter started asking surprisingly pointed questions about Cruise's involvement in the Church of L.Ron: