Forget the Devil, he soooo yesterday…the hottest regiligious figure to be making the fashion headlines is non other than Pope Benedict XVI himself. The Pope’s red Prada loafers are all the rage ( and talk ) at the Vatican, as is his taste for Gucci sunglasses.

The 78-year-old Benedict has not only managed to raise a few eyebrows with his fashion choices, he’s also managed to raise the conservative papal hemline as well. During Benedict’s first public appearances, it was revealed his cassock had been altered, raised just above the ankle revealing white socks and bright red Prada shoes.

Newsweek reports Benedict has requested his own tailor Alessandro Cattaneo and the 20 year old fashion house of Raniero Mancinelli to create the new holy wardrobe in favor of Annibale Gammarelli tailors, the fashion house who have made papal wear for the vatican since 1792. It is said the new design team is providing the pope with a glitzier wardrobe, “some with shimmering, sequinlike details”.

Well, it’s good to see he’s putting those donation dollars to good use, no one ever said religion had to be drab. Personally I would’ve brought in Karl Lagerfeld and John Galliano to seriously shake things up. Couture, couture, couture, it can only be a matter of time before Vogue gives us our first papal cover and Benedict starts making the rounds with Elton John and Donatella Verscae in tow.

Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards’ three-ring circus of a divorce just got a whole lot more interesting. Page Six reports Jason Itzler, the former pimp… uhm I mean “owner” of the New York Confidential escort service, is claiming Sheen hired two of his best girls, “Cheryl, a 20 year old blond ballerina and Juilliard grad, and Victoria, a 19 year old, dark-haired former Hotel Gansevoort hostess”, to dress up like cheerleaders and do a lesbian act for him at the tune of $20,000.

“They loved Charlie”, said Itzler from Riker’s Island where he’s serving time for money-laundering and prostitution charges. “They said he was a great guy, a great lover and had a big [bleep].” Itzler also claims Sheen liked to role play, meeting the girls “for romps at trendy 60 Thompson in SoHo” where he would pretend to be an x-rated movie director, guiding the two girls through “steamy lesbian scenes”.

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Vogue editor Anna Wintour and British pop icon Malcolm McLaren won’t likely be riding in the same elevator any time soon. According to The New York Daily News, Wintour neglected to invite the mastermind behind the punk rock group The Sex Pistols to her “Anglomania” gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art last night. McLaren and ex-wife, fashion designer Vivian Westwood were the creators of more than 20 vintage punk era outfits which were on display at the fund-raising gala, but McLaren didn’t even receive word of the event until last weekend.

Mclaren’s office brought the oversight to the attention of Wintour and the event organizers who assured the 60 year rocker he would have a seat at the evening’s star-studded dinner, but shortly thereafter a MET staff member informed Mclaren he was no longer invited.

A spokeswoman for the Met stated the fund-raiser had been “sold out for months” and a table for McLaren would be impossible to acquire. An outraged Mclaren commented on Wintour and the event organizers, issuing a statement saying “It’s not gracious, its not elegant, it’s not polite and it’s a kind of an attack upon the artists themselves!”

Cooper’s Own Sad Story
By Rush & Molloy
Source: New York Daily News

Anderson Cooper has traveled the globe covering war and famine and disaster, but he’s been reluctant to report on his own family tragedy - until now.
In his new memoir, “Dispatches From the Edge,” Cooper writes that reporting the horrors of Hurricane Katrina cracked open a levee holding back memories of his brother Carter’s 1988 suicide.

“For so long, I tried to separate myself from my past,” Cooper recalls. “I tried to move on, forget what I’d lost, but the truth is, none of it’s ever gone away.”

As the children of heiress Gloria Vanderbilt, Cooper and his brother knew a childhood of privilege, where artists like Truman Capote and Andy Warhol were regular guests at their townhouse. Then their father, Wyatt, died in 1978 when Anderson was 10 and Carter was 12. “The world,” he writes, “seemed a very scary place.”

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A Dim ‘View’ Of Star’s Future
By Richard Johnson
May 2, 2006 –
Source: Page Six

NOW that Rosie O’Donnell is joining “The View,” Star Jones may be on her way out. Sources say Jones fashioned herself to be the next Meredith Vieira on the show and wanted to be the moderator of the crew - but grande dame Barbara Walters wasn’t going to let that happen. “You can’t even mention Star’s name around Barbara,” said our source. “She hates her. Really can’t stand her.”

Walters gave some noticeably cool remarks to the Times yesterday about past bitterness between Jones and O’Donnell. “The only concern would be Star’s,” said Walters. “If Star wants to continue to be there, she is welcome.”

O’Donnell is good pals with Jones’ “View” nemesis, Joy Behar. Spies say Jones’ agent is calling around now. “Until she leaves, it will be must-see TV,” said an insider. “Imagine Rosie and Star going at it every day! Fabulous!” But another said, “Star’s ego won’t let this last for long.” Jones’ rep said, “Star has always viewed Barbara Walters as a mentor and is unaware of any hostility.”

Walters, via her p.r. queen Cindi Berger said, “Star has never angled or asked for the moderator position. Star can stay on ‘The View’ as long as she wants to, she has been very gracious.”