Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

It's been a month since Tina Brown launched her Barry Diller-backed website, The Daily Beast. But it appears the massive budget for the new launch—reportedly $18 million over three years—didn't create room for a fact-checker on staff. The Smoking Gun reports that Brown's site was fooled by a Canadian college student who posed as Jay McCarroll, the winner of the first season of Project Runway, when he submitted a design for a burlap dress for Michelle Obama to wear to the Inaugural Ball.

♦  André Leon Talley urged fashion students at the Art Institute of Philadelphia to vote, "no matter who your candidate is," and said of Anna Wintour: "She is not that person in 'The Devil Wears Prada.' She is like Catherine the Great of Russia. She has kept that magazine on top, raised money for the Met and for the Democratic party." [WWD]
♦  Election eve shocker! Donna Karan and Diane von Furstenberg are voting for Obama. [WWD]
♦  Michael Kors could care less which network Project Runway winds up on: "I just want people to watch the show." [The Cut]
♦  In the new Agent Provocateur campaign, Helena Christensen doesn't look very happy in cheap red lace, and we don't blame her. [The Mirror]
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♦  What does Bravo have in the works to replace Project Runway if it moves to Lifetime? There's a Runway ripoff called The Fashion Show. There's also Celebrity Sew-Off, in which "celebrities" will compete in a competition for their own clothing label, which should be totally awesome because we've always wanted to buy jeans designed by Jill Zarin. [THR]
♦  The sponsors for Bravo's fifth season of Top Chef? Campbell's Soup, Diet Dr. Pepper, and Quaker. [AdAge]
♦  Because you haven't heard enough about Bravo today, the NYT magazine profile of Bravo boss Lauren Zalaznick (left) is now online. [NYT]
♦  More details on the cuts and layoffs at Condé Nast. [NYP]
♦  Condé Nast's glitzy Fashion Rocks show is no more. [AdAge]More

♦  The battle over Project Runway rages on: Harvey Weinstein is now claiming that Bravo intentionally undermined the success of Season 5 by changing the show's airtime, running "mundane and unappealing" ads, and "revealing spoilers about future episodes." [THR]
♦  Barack Obama will appear on The Daily Show tomorrow night. [AP]
♦  The New York Times is not running out of money, say execs at the paper. [NYO]
♦  MSNBC moved into second place in the primetime cable news race, beating CNN for the month of October. [THR]More

Once upon a time if a reality TV star was lucky enough to be granted a full 15 minutes of fame, he or she would grab every single money-making opportunity, regardless of where it came from. But Christian Siriano, the diminutive winner of Project Runway season 4, catchphrase coiner, and assymmetric haircut standard-bearer, represents a new breed: He's not for sale to just anyone. Well, not quite. More

♦  Lauren Hutton is the new face of the Olsens' clothing line, reportedly, although it's not clear whether that means the younger Elizabeth and James label or the more high-end The Row. Ashley Olsen on the 64-year-old actress: "She's just a wise woman and she's a traveler and she's obviously a style icon." [Vogue UK]
♦  The Olsens' appearance on Oprah yesterday was noteworthy for many reasons, but none more than the fact that Ashley totally lies about what she eats for breakfast. [Fashionista]
♦  Donatella Versace must not be too worried about the recession: Versace is launching a perfume in a "that comes in a gleaming, hand-stitched white leather train case." The price: $2,100. [WWD]
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♦  The New York Times has endorsed Barack Obama, not surprisingly. [NYT]
♦  If Bravo loses Project Runway, there's always the copycat show Fashion House to fill the void. [NYP]
♦  Maer Roshan's Radar magazine has folded. [Gawker]
♦  OK! has a brand new editor, publisher and executive creative director. [NYP]More

♦  The election, the economy, and Madonna and Guy all faded into insignificance last night when MTV aired the first clip of The City, and we saw our girl Whitney stepping inside Diane von Furstenberg HQ and getting ambivalently eyeballed by Olivia Palermo (who seems to have a weirdly strong screen presence). [NYO, NYP]
♦  The sixth season of Project Runway has wrapped: Rebecca Romijn, Eva Longoria and Lindsay Lohan reportedly make guest judge appearances, although regular judges Nina Garcia and Michael Kors earn less airtime than before. Yet due to legal issues we can't wrap our mind around much less summarize, no one knows when or where the show will air. [WWD]More

♦  Barack Obama locked up 17 newspaper endorsements over the weekend compared to just two for John McCain. [E&P]
♦  John McCain will make an appearance on Letterman on Thursday. [CNN]
♦  Don't mention the recession to Tina Brown: Her new site will burn through $18 mil. over the next three years and most staffers are making more than 100K. [AdAge]
♦  Is the tween magazine over? [AdFreak]
♦  Jon Stewart's Daily Show is heading to the Middle East. [THR]More

♦  Diane von Furstenberg has not only designed a collection inspired by Wonder Woman, she's also authored a comic book featuring superheroines Diva, Viva and Fifa. [WWD, DVF]
♦  Backstage at Marc Jacobs' Louis Vuitton Paris show, the models flipped up their skirts to show Cathy Horyn an important detail: lace underwear monogrammed with LV. [On the Runway]
♦  Jessica Stam's East Village apartment, designed by Rafael de Cardenas, is sickeningly fabulous for a 22-year-old. [Jezebel]
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♦  Will Project Runway move to Lifetime from Bravo? NBC won the first legal battle against PR producer Harvey Weinstein on Friday, which means it's not entirely clear where the show will end up. [NYT]
♦  The Sun may publish an issue tomorrow after all. [Portfolio]
♦  Tina Fey to the rescue: Saturday Night Live has seen a major boost in ratings so far this season. [THR]
♦  Vanity Fair on the face-off between Maria Bartiromo and Erin Burnett. [VF]
♦  An Indian version of GQ debuts this month. [Guardian]
♦  Howard Kurtz says unseen clips of Katie Couric's interview with Sarah Palin are on the way; CBS says it has released everything it's got. [HuffPo]
♦  The Times looks back at the drunken career of the Post's Steve Dunleavy, who's retiring after 41 years in the business. [NYT]
♦  The Wall Street Journal has launched a mail-order wine club. Really. [NYT]

And the Winner Is... | The fifth season of Project Runway is far from over, but the winner has already been selected and Tim Gunn was spotted (and photographed) with a film crew in Lower Manhattan on Saturday filming what may have been the season finale. We won't ruin it for you in the event you like surprises, but if you're curious to see who walked away with top prize, see here.  [Urbanite]

• The sixth season of Project Runway has been pushed back and will not debut on Lifetime until January 2009. [EW]
• The New York Times Co. is closing one of its distribution companies and will lay off 550 employees as part of the move. [NYO]
• QVC is broadcasting live from Bryant Park beginning today. [WWD]
• HBO is launching a web video series with Jessica Rose, the star of "lonelygirl15." [THR]
• JK Rowling has won her much publicized lawsuit over copyright infringement. [NYT]
• The cover of Esquire to celebrate its 75th anniversary is electronic. [Portfolio]

Everything's come up roses for Michael Kors is the theme of his profile in today's Times, which details how the designer has gone from surviving Chapter 11 in the '90s to being recognized by starstruck young girls in restaurants today. While quotes are wheeled out to testify to his talent—Bette Midler describes his clothes as "clean... but they have that little bit of edge," and Allure's Paul Cavaco says they're "chic but not neurotic"—reality TV is clearly responsible for making Kors the bankable brand he now is, a depressing indictment on the world we live in if ever there was one.More

• Judith Regan has been slapped with a suit by the law firm that repped her in her spat with News Corp. [NYDN]
• Days after Viacom launched its own celebrity gossip site, the AP has announced plans to start celebrity news service, too. [E&P]
  
• Shepard Smith has slipped up again, this time uttering the word "cunt" on live TV. [Jossip]
• L'Oréal is sticking to their story and denying that they lightened Beyonce's skin in their magazine ads. [E!]
• TREsemmé is ditching its Project Runway sponsorship once the show heads to Lifetime. They'll sponsor the new CW show, Stylista, instead. [Advertising Age]
• Real estate titan Doug Durst's family saga—his brother, Robert Durst, was accused of three murders over the years—is being made into a movie with Kirsten Dunst and Ryan Gosling called All Good Things. [NYO]