If you happen to work in the Conde Nast building, might we suggest stopping off at Graydon Carter's office to wish him a happy birthday? The Vanity Fair editor turns 59 today. He'll be so pleased to accept your good wishes.

• Graydon Carter has backed out of hosting Vanity Fair's next Oscar party at Tom Colicchio's LA iteration of Craft because he doesn't like the Century City complex spot's "corporate feel." Laurent Tourondel's BLT on Sunset Strip will probably host the celeb-glutted affair instead. [P6]

The Hollywood rumor about rivalry between two Condé Nast editors-passed along by former New York Times reporter, Sharon Waxman-sounds incredible. Why would Graydon Carter, the behemoth of Vanity Fair, bother to ice out his colleagues at Joanne Lipman's Portfolio?

1) The first New York benefit of the Young Patrons Circle of the Friends of the Louvre took place Tuesday night at Espace: Devoted socials like Olivia Chantecaille, Fabiola Beracasa, Alexandra Papanicalaou, Lisa Anastos, Annabel Vartanian, Melissa Berkelhammer, and Devorah Rose bid on photographer Candida Hofer's pictures of the Louvre's galleries. [Park Avenue Peerage/PMc]

FOLIO magazine spotted a juicy bit at the very end of a Charlie Rose interview earlier this week with Vanity Fair chief Graydon Carter and Rolling Stone editor Jann Wenner. Rose casually asks, "What's this story that Conde Nast wants to buy Rolling Stone?" That triggers a look of sheer terror on Graydon Carter's face, and a great deal of forced laughter and jabbering between the guests. We think we can hear Graydon saying, "We'll see." What it does not trigger is a denial. RS would certainly be a decent pickup for Conde Nast, but what the hell would Jann Wenner do with himself if he sold out? (Then again, Jeff Bercovici thinks Wenner's company is in a permanent decline, and he should cash out). Click to watch the clip, and parse the reactions carefully. [If you have any further info, email us.]

The last time Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter ever met with Gonzo god Hunter S. Thompson, the drug-vacuuming writer was sitting in a hotel one morning with "a tumbler of scotch, a bowl of cocaine, and some cereal." He asked Graydon what he would like. So did the patrician editor hoover up some massive lines or what? Well, he prefaces his answer by telling Charlie Rose, "I'm such a pussy." Sigh. Click to watch the tale of Gonzo vs. Non-Gonzo in action

• Cop-slugging reporter Alycia Lane sued her former employer, saying the Philly TV station pushed her into an embarassing Dr. Phil interview, as though there is any other kind. [AP]

Think of how easy it might have been to understand Arianna Huffington's bloggy animus toward Tim Russert if there were a book out chronicling all the sordid details of their decade-and-a-half-long secret feud. (There is.) Every gossip-mongering gadabout should know the full backstory on every spat, falling out, and long-running mutual antagonism in media. Below are the volumes no shelf should be without.

"From Oscar-wining director Alex Gibney and producer Graydon Carter comes a probing look into the uncanny life of national treasure and gonzo journalism inventor Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. A fast moving, wildly entertaining documentary with an iconic soundtrack, the film addresses the major touchstones in Thompson's life-his intense and ill fated relationship with the Hell's Angels, his near-successful bid for the office of sheriff in Aspen in 1970, the notorious story behind the landmark Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, his deep involvement in Senator George McGovern's 1972 presidential campaign, and much more. Narrated by Johnny Depp." Trailer after the jump.

When media personalities were asked their 2008 resolutions by WWD, defiantly cigarette-loving restauranteur Graydon Carter said without any obvious irony: "less food, more exercise." It was an unusual ambition for the Vanity Fair editor, who so wanted a restaurant within waddling distance that he opened the Waverly Inn round the corner from his Bank Street townhouse. So how is the new fitness regimen working for the magazine heavyweight? Check out the self-mocking opening sequence from Carter's monthly video introduction to the latest issue of Vanity Fair.

• Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter blasts back at Clinton: "The responses from the former president and his camp are very saddening in their own ways. Characteristic, but nevertheless shocking." [Observer]

The trailer is out for the movie version of Toby Young's Vanity Fair memoir, How To Lose Friends And Alienate People, apparently a longer version of the one that surfaced in December. In an item titled "Devil Graydon," Page Six claims Vanity Fair Editor Graydon Carter "comes off worse than Anna Wintour did in The Devil Wears Prada." Carter should pray for such a glamorous portrayal. Instead, with actor Jeff Bridges in his shoes at the fictional Sharps magazine, Carter comes off looking a lot more like Jeff Lebowski. Clip after the jump.

Vanity Fair, which is a New York-based operation distributing expert-written content on biodegradable media — a "magazine" — via premium subscriptions and bricks-and-mortar partners known as "newsstands," is sponsoring the West Coast premiere of Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. Gonzo is being displayed on a screen considerably larger than any made by Samsung or Panasonic — using a technology which does not require any LCDs. Our spies snapped a photo of Vanity Fair's chief content officer, Graydon Carter, entering the specially designed facility. Much like Apple does with iPods and Macs, Vanity Fair is expecting a "halo effect" from its sponsorship of this screening to boost sales of its "magazines." (Photo by jacksonwest)

Graydon Carter, the rotund Vanity Fair editor and undersecretary of the celebrity-industrial complex, weighs in on the magazine's controversial Miley Cyrus photos in a video message: "She seems like a girl with a head on her shoulders," he says. Right-o! "But parents, rest easy. We think Cyrus is going to make it through adolescence. And this issue." [VF]

It's fun to imagine Vanity Fair Editor Graydon Carter personally typing up the VF blog for his restaurant Waverly Inn. Launched by an anonymous author in January, the journal does have an air of middle-aged confidence about it, as in this bit about restaurant manager Emil Varda turning on a dime to face a demanding celebrity: "Old habits die hard; a former occupant of a Polish prison camp for political dissenters, Emil has mastered the protective, cat-quick pivot." Alas, we hear the author of the blog is not Carter, but rather someone close to him:

Vanity Fair editor and Waverly Inn overlord Graydon Carter may be one of the most powerful forces in the magazine industry, but he'll have you know that he's not above starring in a funny little online video. Carter's self-mocking appearance in this clip promoting VF's Green Issue, in which he barks orders at a lowly minion, is hopefully not a sign of a trend of chief executives trying their hand at comedy. But at least his effort is much more bearable than NBC boss Jeff Zucker's recent grating appearance online. Click the video to see Graydon's acting skills in action.

After yesterday's story about a New York magazine critic apologizing to Harvey Weinstein, and the critic's suspect assertion that his apology was independent of the sharp-elbowed former Miramax chief, we heard from a well-placed media veteran who said Weinstein has long loved to brag about his ability to extract such concessions, and in fact about how he effectively owns New York media. It turns out the bragging is not entirely without reason. Said the tipster: "Name any media outlet and there is a 'best friend/recent connection that I [Weinstein] can call to kill stories/get a retraction' from." It didn't take a lot of digging to figure out what the source meant. A quick rundown of Weinstein's top-of-the-masthead connections:

One could easily argue that Graydon Carter, Vanity Fair editor and 59-year-old, has faded into irrelevance, his salad days at Spy a distant memory. I mean, there have been lots of olds on VF covers lately! This month air-brushy Madonna, and before her Bruce Willis awkwardly straddling a motorcycle, Julia Roberts glimmering dimly with a rose in her teeth, even Jack and Jackie smiling beatifically, reminding us of simpler times. Things are getting a bit dusty over there, huh? But, actually, it makes perfect sense. Carter and his friends are aging, along with his surprisingly middle-brow readership. These people don't want to be confused by some young upstart (unless they're posed carefully by Annie Leibovitz), they want dependable movie stars and the like; the familiar folks who still polish up nicely, who are accessible and classy. Rather than trying to buck the demographic with edgier fare, Carter is just trudging along after the comfort-seekers. Hey, it worked for CBS. We're not quite sure, however, how the whole Shia LaBeouf thing fits into all of this.

The people who fill the pages of celebrity magazines, timeless Graydon Carter told the BBC's Culture Show, will be forgotten in three years. In which case, why does Carter plaster transient gossip-rag characters like Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton on the cover of Vanity Fair, the supposedly classy magazine he himself edits?

Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter is apparently handing out Waverly Inn tables to anyone, as though he doesn't mind his "hot" restaurant showing up so much on has-beens portal DListed.com. Guido and Jesus freak Stephen Baldwin was just spotted coming out of the restaurant without the help of a bouncer. He followed in the footsteps of Michael Lohan, the desperate estranged father of Lindsay, and actor and drunken scooter jockey Mickey Rourke. Sure, it would be easy to blame Carter's new executive assistant for the influx of lesser celebrities, but an eventual decline for Waverly has probably been in the cards since the beginning. Maybe the naysaying food critics were right: