Vanity Fair's annual new establishment rankings—a highly subjective guide to status within editor Graydon Carter's universe—has always been more interesting for the losers more than the winners. The magazine's arbiters are too tactful to dole out many down arrows to the moguls, financiers and stars on the list; but the rankings themselves can't be fudged. Here's a list of last year's and this year's contenders ordered by the number of places they've fallen. (Those who've been dropped entirely are assumed to have been relegated to 101st place.)

It should be no surprise that the lords of private equity like Stephen Schwarzman, Steven Cohen and Henry Kravis are among the biggest losers; they're dragged down by the credit crunch. Nor will Roger Ailes and Bill O'Reilly of Fox News be that surprised to have been marked down by Bush-hating Graydon Carter. But the Vanity Fair editor will have a harder time explaining why his irascible movie producer friend Harvey Weinstein, a regular at Carter's Waverly Inn, has been knocked back 46 places. Nor should he expect to get George Clooney (down 28 points) on the cover any time soon.

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