Vogue out of VOGUE!???

It wasn't long ago that Anna Wintour, the Vogue editor in chief known for her withering gaze, impeccable taste and ability to make or break the fashion fortunes of all who crossed her path, seemed impervious to ruin. Just two years ago, critics like Caroline Weber of The New York Times were still hailing Vogue as "the world's most influential fashion magazine," a claim that was supported by the numbers: In 2004, the publication broke its own ad-sales record with a September issue that clocked in at 832 pages. Recalls one veteran of Condé Nast, the company that publishes Vogue, "At that point, Anna was on top of the world."

These days, if the hailstorm of rumors is to be believed, the editor may be sliding from her perch. "Page Six" kicked things off with a November item that claimed: "[Anna's] thinking of retiring. She feels she's done it all and had enough. She has been putting out feelers to intimate friends recommending a possible replacement." The media-mad Web site Gawker.com took things a step further, reporting on December 2 that the Waverly Inn was "crawling with Condé Nast insiders" chowing down on "the hot, delicious rumor that [company chairman] Si Newhouse was meeting in Paris with Carine Roitfeld to work out the final details of the French Vogue editor's move to New York, where she is expected to take over the Vogue flagship from Anna Wintour immediately after New Year's." The Condé Nast–owned trade paper Women's Wear Daily then gave the rumor weight by faxing the Gawker post directly to Newhouse and running his response ("It's the silliest rumor I ever heard"). Meanwhile, insiders buzzed at the shock of it all and bloggers chronicled each development with a guillotine glee akin to that which preceded the death of Marie Antoinette.
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