The shock is not that Project Runway contestant Keith Michael cheated by submitting sketches stolen from prominent designers' runway collections. It's that Elle fashion director and Project Runway judge Nina Garcia appears to have been sitting in the front row at one of the shows from which Michael copied his designs, and yet she totally didn't notice. For shame, lady! Keep fucking up like that, and they'll take away your Vuitton.

Having a famous parent is the gift that keeps on giving; if you're not a heroin addict or a pseudo-struggling artiste, you're most likely using parental pull to score the best of the entry-level gigs (like Cate Edwards and one of the Katzenbergs, who shuffled the cushy papers at Vanity Fair). Because we all must stay abreast of which celebrity spawn are answering whose phones, do keep in mind that should you have the balls to call Elle fashion director and Project Runway judge Nina Garcia, you'll be greeted by her assistant, Jade Frampton, daughter of guitarist Peter Frampton. And good for Jade! She really must've scored the position all by her lonesome, 'cause Daddy's hair wasn't doing her any favors.

Hachette Filipacchi is unveiling the Middle Eastern edition of Elle this Friday, which, barring any last minute editorial fatwas, will appear on newsstands in Lebanon, Jordan, and Morocco. A second, more conservative version of the Lebanese publication will hit Saudi Arabia in October (though the Saudi government will likely black out most of the images anyhow — how Gilles Bensimon shall cry!). None of these editions will feature Hilary Duff on their covers, making them far superior to our own glossy version.

• "His ability to remain totally upright when sprinting, as if carrying an invisible egg and spoon—what are these, if not the techniques of an alien life force who has just graduated summa cum laude in advanced human behavior?" Tom Cruise, watch out — the New Yorker is onto you, and Sy Hersh might be looking for a new beat. [NYer]
• Apple v. Apple, resolved: the Beatles' record label loses to Apple computers, meaning that we can all download the boys on iTunes with reckless, 99-cent abandon. [Variety]
• Glamour EIC Cindi Leive has been named the new prez of the American Society of Magazine Editors. Just another damn responsibility for her assistant. [FishbowlNY]
• 60 Minutes may get Anderson Cooper, but they only get him 5 times per year. He'll be filling Christine Amanpour's part-time position — what we lose in classy accents, we make up for in piercing pools of blue. [AP]
• Kaavya Viswanathan may have fucked up, but she's no James Frey. Give the girl a crackpipe, though, and anything's possible. [USA Today]
• New Jersey's new tourism slogan, "Come See For Yourself," is wisely abandoned. As it turns out, West Virginia is already using the catchphrase, along with the Dakotas and any other states no one would willingly see for themselves. [Adfreak]
• Behold the unimpressive aesthetics of the Art Rock show at Rockefeller Center. Glance now and save yourself the effort of going to the real thing. [Animal]
• Elle creative director Gilles Bensimon loses a 14-year-old beauty to a 17-year-old amateur. So, who's the young waif in question? And why is Gilles such a dirty old man? [Breakfast]

Sometimes Correspondent: 'Elle' Magazine [FBNY]
Earlier:
Laurel's World: On TV With Dave Zinczenko
Laurel's World: On TV With Janice Min

A question that actually, really, truthfully appears on page 90 of the current Elle, the "Elle Fashion Insider: Know-It-All" advice page:

• People magazine scores the first baby pics of Barron Trump, to be revealed in next week's issue. Barron, however, is no baby Brangelina — he only fetched mid-six figures. Not even a month old and already a failure. [Page Six]
• Elle's international creative director Gilles Bensimon may be slowly pushed out the door, leaving EIC Roberta Myers in charge of delegating fabulousness. [Lowdown (3rd item)]
• 23-year-old Denise Vasi's family thinks her boyfriend Russell Simmons, at 50 years of age, is too old for her. It's always nice to see basic math skills in action. [R&M]
• After a mere five days, fairy-throated boxed Mike Tyson leaves a Phoenix rehab clinic where he was being treated for cocaine addiction — and the entire staff exhales. [Page Six]
• Tom Cruise says he has a "spectacular" sex life with Katie Holmes. We can't imagine. Seriously, not even capable of conjuring the visuals on this one. [IMDb]

This month's Elle (shut up, we like the horoscopes) contains a profile of Atlantic and New Yorker Authority on Women's Issues Caitlin Flanagan (known in some quarters as "Caitlin 'Marital Rape? What's That?' Flanagan") that needs to be read in its entirety to be believed. Flanagan, who got her job at The Atlantic the old-fashioned way (she was seated next to an editor of the magazine at a dinner party) has some, shall we say, retrograde notions about a woman's place (it's in the home, damn it!). Laurie Abraham, the piece's author, should really be credited: She does her best to make sure that Flanagan doesn't come off as the most repellent person in the world, but, gosh darn it, Caitlin keeps charging in to prove that she is. As we've said, you should read it all, but our favorite part comes about halfway through, where Flanagan expounds on the importance of having a hot cooked meal ready and waiting for your man when he returns home from work, and why it's critical to stay home with your children (and nannies, natch):

From yesterday's WWD, a snippet of Vogue editor Anna Wintour's speech at the MPA retailer's conference in Orlando this Monday:

• We're shocked shocked that ABC killed the words "cum" and "cock" from Stones songs at the halftime show last night. [AP via WP]
• So how do Time Inc. mags cover the Dick Parsons-Carl Icahn battle of Time Warner? Just like they cover anything else, insists John Huey. [MW]
• Jim Cramer's crazy shtick sells big. [NYT]
• Rupert Murdoch likes Time Warner and Google, doesn't like the video iPod or the Viacom split, and promises a CNBC rival in 2006. Because what the world really needs is more Neil Cavuto. [Newsweek]
• Elle goes green for a month. [WWD]

In Sunday's Times Magazine, Deborah Solomon not only Q&A'd author Jonathan Kozol but also profiled Canadian artist Marcel Dzama, who was, Solomon wrote, "[b]orn in 1974 in the isolated Canadian wilds of Winnipeg."