So we knew that controversial man of the hour Kanye West was styling a photo shoot for Elle, but we didn’t guess that his major muse, Amber Rose, would be the one modeling the clothes, which, looking back, was astonishingly stupid on our parts. But everyone makes mistakes. Moving on! Pics from the October issue have leaked all over the interwebs! The results? Well, in-house Elle stylist and Creative Director Joe Zee has nothing to worry about because Kanye will not be stealing his job anytime soon. Then again, I’ve certainly seen worse.

But the real coup (and the one that will sell the magazines) is the bootylicious ass cheek shot, vaguely NSFW, after the jump!

Maybe sleeping in the doorway is the best way to get your foot in the door? It worked for Bri, a blogger who was living in a Wal-Mart parking lot. A few months back, she auditioned for a reality show for aspiring advice columnists where the winner would receive an internship at Elle with their longtime advice disher, E. Jean. Too bad Bri completely bombed the audition, and, of course, blogged about it. She decided to write her sob story directly to E. Jean. Jean was so moved by her letter that she responded in her monthly column. In it, she offered Bri an internship with her! In the mag, Jean opined, “At the end of the four months, if you don’t have a job and an awesome place to live, I will become your intern.” We’re looking forward to finding out which Bri finds more unpleasant—homelessness or interning at a fashion magazine. [NY Mag]

Over at Elle, Creative Director and Fashionisto Joe Zee has had an epiphany. Complains a fashion editor to Zee, “He won’t understand that it’s all about my new draped devore velvet Balenciaga dress right now. He’ll only think I’m wearing curtains,” as she laments (oh boo hoo) her first-date outfit choices. And then it hits Zee: Women dress differently for guys than they do for girls. You don’t say? It may have taken Zee a while to figure this out but he gets it now, explaining, “It’s a simple fact: He’s Just Not That Into Your Skirt.”

And so Zee enlists hot man Andy Samberg to face-off in a fashion duel of “date looks” to see if Elle editors prefer Zee’s conceptual high-fashion stylings, or if they vote for Mr. Dick in a Box’s horndog looks. The results? Both hilarious and surprising!

Just because you’re not on one of those hot-right-now vampire shows doesn’t mean you can’t be inspired by the look. Leighton Meester and Ed Westwick give in to the power of the night in a leaked photo from an upcoming issue of Elle. [Gossip Girl Insider]

In the furor over the surprisingly glam Susan Boyle Harper’s Bazaar pics that came out recently, some of you may have forgotten early rumors that she’d be on the mag’s cover rather than an inside feature story.

Well, I wrote about the rumors for another site a few weeks ago and the readers there haven’t forgotten. Instead, I’m still getting diatribe-esque comments, many of which have been taken down because they were a hot mess that violates site commenting policy. Honestly, I didn’t think I was saying anything everyone wasn’t already thinking when I wrote that the idea of Susan Boyle on the cover of high-fashion mag Harper’s Bazaar was insane.

I may not be popular for saying this, but I, for one, would rather see models on the covers of magazines. Let me explain.

Mariah Carey’s next album, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, hits shelves on September 15th. And it’ll be a lot bigger than your traditional CD. The album will come bundled with a 34-page magazine made by the folks at Elle. The ad section of the book, which covered the costs for this endeavor, will be home to lifestyle ads that reflect Mariah’s taste—Elizabeth Arden, Angel Champagne, Carmen Steffens, Le Métier de Beauté, and the Bahamas Board of Tourism. A second section of the magazine will contain articles all about Mariah, with “VIP Access to Her Sexy Love Life,” “Amazing Closet,” and “Recording Rituals.” The third part of the book will be your traditional liner notes, full of lyrics and images. The entire booklet will also be available in digital form, and an abridged version will be tucked into 500,000 copies of Elle’s October issue.

Sure, this is the first cross-platform collaboration of its kind. But isn’t this shill-fest taking things way too far?

Jennifer Aniston lets it all hang out in the September issue of Elle. The actress graces the cover of the mag in a fierce leather dress, looking as confident as ever. And she sounds that way, too. After being dubbed “the lonely girl” by pretty much every tabloid magazine and gossip show ever, Jen seems nothing but awesome as she speaks out about her single status, her childhood, and how she’d loved to have worked in microsurgery if you know, that whole acting thing hadn’t work out for her. The full interview with Jen will hit newsstands soon, but here are the best bits to tide you over. [Elle]

A few months after appearing on the cover of her first “woman’s” magazine, Glamour, and a year after her controversial photo shoot for Vanity Fair, country singer and pop star, Miley Cyrus, has gone high-fashion for Elle. It seems clear that Miley is trying to prove she’s all grown up, as she’s showing a bit of cleavage on the cover, and rockin’ thigh high leather boots on the inside, where she’s stretched across a table with a hand in her hair. See that pic, after the jump…

French Elle has bitch slapped the fashion and beauty industries with their most recent cover. Again. For the second time this year, their cover shoot was minimally made up and, dare I say it, almost natural looking. We loved when they shot hottie model Eva Herzigova sans makeup a couple months again, putting her in a pared down white blouse and similarly laid back hair.

This time though, we weren’t so thrilled. Yes, we applaud the move away from airbrushed impossibility in the general sense, but Scarlett Johansson’s cover is a tad confusing. She’s minimally made up and there doesn’t seem to be blatant airbrushing, but the clothing is a bit trampy, the hair super boring and the expression utterly vacant. This one’s just not doing it for us.

David Beckham*, what hath you wrought?

First, the New York Rangers’ left wing Sean Avery interned at Vogue and blogged for MensVogue.com about everything from what’s in his closet (Dries Van Noten, Chanel) to what it’s like fracturing one’s spleen on the ice. 

Now, Philadelphia Eagles football player, Stewart Bradley, (who is a total stud muffin, BTW) is interning at Elle magazine.  The Philadelphia Daily News reports that the 6’4”, 255 lb. linebacker may even be working at Fashion Week later this month.

Hmm, I’d be interested to know if all of Elle‘s interns get to work at Fashion Week.

(*Of course, Becks hasn’t actually interned at a fashion magazine, so this is not exactly his fault.  But Becks is responsible for the idea that gifted athletes could also be metrosexual fashionistas.  Why, just this week we posted a pic of Becks in his undies, posing for Armani.)

Not sure if you want to spend $3.99 on this month’s Vogue? Don’t worry, we’ve got Wendy Felton, Editor of GlossedOver.com, here to tell you exactly what’s up on the sex, love, and relationships front in each month’s crop of lady mags.

It’s hot outside! Looking for similar heat in the bedroom? This month in the magazines, it’s all about sex. While there’s plenty of advice for spicing things up in the July issues, the endless relationship sob stories make it even more tempting to remain celibate.

Anne Slowey, fashion news director at Elle, told The New York Times that the dress will end its long reign at the end of August, and we should all wear trousers instead. This is a sad prediction, and rather unexpected. Retail analysts at NPD Group determined that from April 2006 to April 2007, there were more than $5 billion sales of dresses, 30 percent higher than the previous year. We wear them about four days out of every week and are not sure how our legs will react to being encased in fabric all day. Dresses are wonderful creations. Yes, they’re feminine and flattering, but they have other merits, as well. As Amelia says, “They’re drafty, and they make it easier to pee in public.” [NY Times]