• Salma Hayek wore a lovely gown by Balenciaga for her wedding to François-Henri Pinault, an entirely appropriate choice given Pinault's PPR happens to own Balenciaga. [Vogue UK, NYDN]
• Diane von Furstenberg says she's absolutely "mortified" that one of her jackets resembles an item designed by the Canadian label Mercy. A full investigation is underway, however. [WWD]
• "Washington, D.C., is the new New York," or so says Vogue's Billy Norwich. [Style.com]
• Sad, possibly true: "The client most crucial to luxury goods purveyors is no longer a Rockefeller but a Real Housewife of New York." [NYT]
• If your boyfriend/husband's birthday is coming up, be advised that Barneys is having a massive menswear sale next Monday. [Racked]

What did I learn from Twitter today? Diablo Cody thinks dicks are dicks, Ruth Reichl makes a mean Gene Simmons, and Michelle Obama has her own big-media stalkerblog. Excellent! More Twitterings from the media elite:

Is that the first murmur of a rebellion against Michelle Obama's fashion icon status? The first lady, widely admired for her cutting edge style, reportedly insisted upon deciding the looks for all of her magazine covers, even Vogue, for which she chose her own dress and used her own hair and make-up people. But if Anna Wintour was frustrated by such control freakery, she was too diplomatic to say so, unlike More editor-in-chief Lesley Jane Seymour, from whom Michelle also point-blank refused any input: "We were like, 'Excuse me, we tell you what to wear." She wanted none of that. She was creating the cover. She was creating the image. There's definitely a will of steel there." For God's sake, no one tell celebrities that such behavior might be permitted, or there'll be mutiny! Well, for the few months that print magazines continue to exist, anyway.

It's a challenge that few in the fashion industry would be brave enough to undertake, since the results not only lay bare one's style acumen, but cut to the very heart of the rag trade's dependence on mythically overvalued clothes. So we applaud Parsons dean of fashion Simon Collins and designer Randi Rahm's willingness to participate in the Wall Street Journal's little game that asks: Can you identify the $1,145 designer dress, pulled from the rack at Barneys, among various cheap things including Thakoon Panichgul and Behnaz Sarafpour's lines for Target, and Comme des Garçons and Roberto Cavalli's for H&M?

• Mayor Bloomberg has pronounced it "Sparkle Week" in NYC as part of an effort to give a boost to the jewelry industry. They sure could use the help: Retailers in the Diamond District report that sales have dropped by more than 50 percent over the past year. [NYM, Crain's]
• Jil Sander's new Madison Avenue store has opened its doors. [Racked]
• Lauren Hutton was injured while surfing a couple of weeks ago, but she's still hoping to make it to the Costume Institute ball. [NYM]
• Is Chloe Sevigny single-handedly trying to bring back the sandals-and-socks look, or was the combo of sun and booze at Coachella to blame? [Frisky, JJ]

• The model-centric cover of the May issue of Vogue—timed to coincide with the model-centric Costume Institute Gala, of course—has been revealed. And for the third month in a row, a black woman (Liya Kebede) makes an appearance. [Style.com, The Cut]
• Oscar de la Renta appeared on The View today to try and dig himself out of the giant PR hole that followed his not-so-sweet comments about Michelle Obama in recent weeks. [Jezebel]
• Speaking of the First Lady, she's added a full-time makeup artist to her traveling entourage, just in case you happen to be keeping tabs on the White House payroll. [NYP]

• Were you looking forward to that Kate Moss cookbook that was rumored to be in the works? It ain't happening, according to her rep. [SW]
• Topshop is scouting for a second location (possibly near 34th Street), and Nordstrom is looking to crack the Manhattan market. [NYM]
• Simon Doonan on Michelle Obama's edgy fashion choices last week: "What's next? Lady Gaga zippers on the eyes?" [NYO]
• The owner of Christian Lacroix is in talks to sell a stake in the company. [WSJ]
• Designer Samantha Pleet has a fashion-centric reality show in the works. And Bee Shaffer was approached to do a show, too. [Pipeline]
• Spa Week runs from April 13 to 19, if you're interested. [Metromix]

As part of the media's professionally-mandated obligation to scrutinize and pass judgment on every last detail of Michelle Obama's fashion choices, make-up, and comportment, we're now down to her eyelashes. Or, in fact, not her eyelashes but a rather splendid pair of falsies, which an eagle-eyed journalist breathlessly describes as "full-on, all-out diva lashes, the kind you normally find on D-list celebrities or in drag-act dressing rooms." The same pearl necklace with different outfits, but flawlessly-applied fake eyelashes: exactly the kind of prioritizing we can all learn from!

If you're planning to spend the summer on Martha's Vineyard, your vacation may turn out to be a bit less peaceful this year. WWD reports that the Obamas are thinking about visiting the isle for a little R&R this summer: "Secret Service agents have been spotted casing Martha's Vineyard for what is said to be a late-August two-week getaway. The First Family's destination is believed to be East Chop, the sleepier side of Oak Bluffs." So when you see helicopters in the sky, paparazzi hanging out on the beach, and the occasional motorcade streak through Edgartown, now you know why. [WWD]

• How much did Topshop's insane publicity blitz cost the company? Let's just say a lot. [FWD]
• It looks like Anne Hathaway won't be Marc Jacobs's next muse after all. "Marc and Annie are good friends, but there are no plans of her appearing in our ads," says the designer's rep. [SW]
• Good news, Roberto Cavalli fans: It seems Just Cavalli won't be disappearing after all. [NYM]
• Gisele wore a John Galliano gown to her bullet-riddled wedding last weekend, just in case you were wondering. [SW]
• For the second time in a week (and despite a bit of backlash the first time around) Oscar de la Renta is still complaining about Michelle Obama's fashion preferences. [WWD, Fashionologie]

[A new wax replica of Michelle Obama was unveiled at Madame Tussaud's in D.C. today. So creepy. Pic via Getty]

• Is Anne Hathaway going to replace Victoria Beckham as Marc Jacobs' latest muse? That's the rumor, at least. [Daily Mail]
• One more rumor: It's said Olivier Theyskens may be taking over at Halston. [Hint]
• It's not all bad news on Madison Avenue: Jil Sander and Nanette Lepore both have stores opening in the next few months. [FWD]
• Lindsay Lohan's latest brand extension? A line of panty hose, naturally. [WWD]
• Barneys is getting a small (but much-needed) infusion of cash. [NYP]
• Filene's Basement is not bankrupt. Not yet, at least. [NYP]
• Jessica Joffe goes topless for Katy Rodriguez. [Pipeline]
• The Cut has the list of every piece of clothing Michelle Obama wore on her trip overseas. And it includes the Alaïa cardigan that she wore twice. [NYM]

The magazine industry had sincere, desperate hopes that Michelle Obama could be the next Princess Di, moving copies automatically with her smile. Not gonna happen. But following these simple Michelle Magazine Cover Rules can help:

• The New York Times Co. says it will shut down the Boston Globe within a month unless the paper's unions agree to $20 million in concessions. [BN]
• Fox News gossip columnist Roger Friedman got axed after he reviewed a pirated version of Fox's new X-Men movie, Wolverine. [DHD, NYT]
• Vanity Fair is scrapping its annual "green issue." [Independent]
• Michelle Obama may be beloved by the media world, but she isn't a sure thing when it comes to selling magazines on newsstands, apparently. [AdAge]
• Playboy's former fashion director is suing the mag for discrimination. [NYP]
• Hearst's Country Living is launching a line of products. [MW]
• Michael Crichton died last November, but two more novels by the best-selling author will be published over the next year and a half. [NYT]
• Eliot Spitzer was on the Today show this morn, in case you missed it. [Jossip]
• Fast & Furious was No. 1 at the box office this past weekend. [THR]

• Retailers in Soho who were expecting to see a boost in sales thanks to the opening of Topshop were greatly disappointed this week. [Crains, photo via Flickr]
• Some fashion insiders are a bit miffed that Michelle Obama has shown "zero interest in the big guns of American fashion" in favor of the "new and niche." [WWD]
• Daisy Lowe is getting her own show on MTV. [Pipeline]
• Victoria's Secret has signed up Christian Siriano to do makeup. [Fashionista]
• Nina Ricci's new designer will probably be Peter Copping. [FWD]
• A day in the life of Thakoon Panichgul. In Hong Kong. [Style.com]
• The beauty brand Stila may have gone bankrupt. [Fashionista]

• Bill Keller says that New York Times readers have offered to donate money to keep the paper alive, which is both very sad and very sweet. [Politico, NYP]
• Hearst has asked all of its newspapers to reduce costs by 20 percent. [BN]
• The launch of Oprah's cable network has been pushed back to 2010. [NYP]
• Eliot Spitzer will hit the Today show on Monday, presumably to talk about the financial crisis, not about his personal life. [NYO]
• Tensions are reportedly running high at MSNBC after the network decided to give Ed Schultz a show and bump Norah O'Donnell and David Shuster. [P6]
• Breaking! The media appears to be rather fond of Michelle Obama. [WaPo]
• Last night's series finale of ER generated big ratings for NBC. [NYT]
• Is Google about to acquire Twitter? Not so much, says Kara Swisher. [ATD]

Disappointingly for observers of the goings-on at the G-20 Summit, Carla Bruni Sarkozy wasn't present, so while the media feigned enthusiasm at the task of judging Michelle Obama's outfits alongside the other First Ladies', it really wasn't much of a competition. Thank goodness, then, that the Obamas are now in France with the Sarkozys, and are faced, as one serious-minded journalist sees it, with a challenge of equal weight: Our president will use the NATO Summit to lobby for more help for allied troops in Afghanistan, and his wife will try with all her might to usurp Carla as the most glamorous First Lady on the planet.

• The obsession with Michelle Obama's travel wardrobe continues: For an appearance today at the Royal Opera at Covent Garden, she wore a dress by Jason Wu and an asymmetrical cardigan by Junya Watanabe, which was either a "kooky combo" or her "edgiest fashion statement yet," depending on who you ask. [NYT, LAT]
• Speaking of Michelle in London today, can you believe that she and the Queen touched? The Queen "made the first move," reports the Daily Mail, although it was still "an electrifying moment of palpable majesté and a breach of centuries-long protocol." [DM]
• These may be difficult economic times, but Donna Karan would still very much appreciate it if you bought a pair of her new jeans for $595. [NYP]
• Roberto Cavalli can't decide if he wants to sell his company or not, but he's conducting discussions with investors anyway. [NYM]
• Men's retailers are hoping to get men to linger inside stores by handing out free booze. If anything is going to do the trick, that's probably it. [WSJ]
• Reloxin is kinda like Botox except it works quicker and lasts longer. [NYT]
• The fashionable women on line outside Topshop today. [Pipeline]

• Topshop opens tomorrow, in case you haven't heard. [NYT, Racked, NYM, Glamour, Pipeline]
• If you wish to bypass the madness in Soho, the first-ever Balenciaga outlet in the U.S. opens tomorrow at the Woodbury Commons. [NYM]
• The British media just about melted at the sight of a J. Crew-clad Michelle Obama today. [WWD]
• The Costume Institute gala is a mere four weeks away but getting people to sponsor tables hasn't been easy work for Anna Wintour. If you notice fewer mentions of Burberry, Versace, and Gucci in future issues of Vogue, now you know why. [FWD]
• Dowdy retail chains are trying to spiff things up in order to appeal to "modern women who are now shopping for style within their means." [NYT]
• Resort season isn't quite what it used to be. [WWD]
• Why is Lorenzo back in NYC? Where's Marc? It's a mystery! [Fashionologie]

So President Obama and all the European leaders are getting together to solve global terrorism, reverse the economic disaster, and "foster world unity." Not that we don't have the utmost faith that a bunch of men in suits can perform those miracles, but it's a relief to see that the international media has its priorities straight and is focusing on the real issues. Namely: How will the various First Ladies compare in the fashion stakes, is Michelle going to bare her famous arms, and how does one behave in front of the Queen of England?