Well, Interview Magazine adores her! A glowing new profile in the mag reminds us that there is going to be a lot of loving-her-or-hating-her going around when the first issue of Pop magazine with her as editor hits the stands in September. Is she a fierce art and fashion visionary who is a role model for little Russian girls? Or, is she a horrible money-grubbing slattern who is using her rich boyfriend to finance her hobbies? You decide!

Real Name: Daria Zhukova

Age: 28

Residence: London, but spends lots of time in Moscow, L.A., and other capitals.

Source of Wealth: Roman Abramovich, her Russian billionaire boyfriend—and, if you're going to sell your womb for billions of dollars, there are uglier guys to sell it to. Just saying. Also, her father Alexander, an oil magnate who was once held in Tunisia for arms dealing, may be chipping in too.

Background: When her parents divorced in the early '90s, Dasha's mother Elena, a microbiologist, moved her first to Houston and then to L.A. She studied biology and literature at University of California, Santa Barbara. She spent her senior year in Moscow and has been a habitué ever since.

Famous Ex: Russian tennis player Marat Safin.

Famous Friends:

• Stella McCartney
• Larry Gogosian (pictured)
• Jeff Koons
• Olympia Scarry, socialite
• Natalia Vodianova, model
• Derek Blasberg, writer (who did the Interview, um, interview)

Projects:

• Launched L.A.-based fashion line Kova & T in 2007 with friend Christina Tang. It became famous for it's latex leggings and hipster aesthetic (see left).
• Started the Center for Contemporary Culture (better known as The Garage), a modern art gallery built in a converted Moscow bus depot, last June. After a lavish opening where Amy Winehouse performed, it's first show was by Russian artists Ilya and Emilia Kabakov. Next up was items borrowed from the François Pinault collection and followed by a collaboration between director David Lynch and shoe designer Christian Louboutin. Is a venue for the Moscow Art Biennial next month.
• Named editor-in-chief of British fashion magazine Pop in February, to replace founding editor Katie Grand, who left to open Condé Nast's Love. The first issue under her reign comes out until September. The fashion world hasn't been keen on her appointment considering her lack of editorial experience. Monday, the mag's cover by Damien Hirst leaked.
• The bun in her oven, which is due November-ish

Blasberg, who was once implicated in conspiracy theories over who's really pulling New York's socialite strings, has appeared in a couple of pictures palling around with the younger Bush—including one of them sitting next to each other at a New York Rangers game:

So what conclusions can we draw from this weighty evidence?

1. Derek Blasberg likes hockey.
2. Barbara Bush likes hockey, or at least likes attending hockey games in the company of Derek Blasberg.
3. As well as doing some other stuff about town with Derek Blasberg.
4. Hockey may or may not become a standard event for the socialites of New York to attend.
5. Blasberg and Bush have not been photographed together at a Knicks game.
6. The Knicks suck way more than the Rangers.
7. In the words of the intrepid investigative blogger Eric McErlain himself, "Not a whole lot."

[AOL Fanhouse]

The prime candidates for string-pulling action would seem to be James's former competitors Olga and Valentine Rei, the siblings behind the bizarre sociological experiment that was Socialite Rank. But they say they've got nothing to do with him and we sort of believe them! "We have not read his site for months. We're not sure anyone does. The only brief contact we've had with James was when he came to New York for the first time. We politely invited him to lunch and he was unfortunately too busy at the time. We wish him luck, though," Valentine sniffed.

A competing and perhaps more credible theory is that James may be the puppet of "writer" Derek Blasberg and muppet-faced socialite Fabiola Beracasa, who "gave James a list of what socials can and cannot be on it," according to a tipster who claims to have heard this from "a credible source."

"He stopped covering all the 'controversial' people, and all the black or asian people and the only people he puts are all the same. And just derek and lyle are the only guys." Fascinating! We've yet to hear back from James about this. Perhaps his dark overlords vet his correspondence.

Well, besides anything like sense being made by "filmmaker" Arden Wohl. She disdains comparisons to Edie Sedgwick cause she thinks she's more like Flannery O'Connor: "Even though she was a pious woman from the South who died very young, I can look up to her writing and her ability to document her surroundings." Okay!

But anyway, the question remains, where was Tinsley? Maybe the explanation lies somewhere in this paragraph:

If this is just a 'socialite' story, I don't want to be a part of it," many of the women sought for this portfolio declared. "Anyone who calls herself a socialite isn't one," came another pronouncement. "I don't want to look like some rich girl who doesn't have a job — I work hard!" was still another refrain. More than one woman wanted to know who else had agreed to participate before signing on. As one of them explained it, if everybody can get this season's It bag, then who really wants it?

[Image via Park Avenue Peerage]

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

Just Asking [Page Six]

Many of the 25 women to be honored were there, as well as an abundance of the kind of dorky/cool/queeny gays who dictate what is fashionable. On the list: Annelise Peterson, Bonnie Morrison, Eleanor Ylvisaker, Ali Wise, and a bunch of chicks we haven't heard of but are, you know, pretty.

Fashion legend Robert Burke, a short bald bespectacled gentleman, was there. Barney's Gene Pressman chatted with Men.style.com's EIC Dirk Standen [Ed. Note: So hot. So smoking hot.] and of course Derek Blasberg worked the room like it was a gigantic udder and he the milkmaid. Speaking of gigantic udders, Julia Allison, appropriately pushed up, was also to be seen, on the prowl for the solitary single straight.

Now the whole project of having a bunch of dudes, straight and gay, within the fashion industry voting to include women who are also in the fashion industry and potentially who could dispense favors and kickbacks to the judges is one fraught with potential conflicts of interest. Wait, what? We're surprised by horse-trading and casting couches? So what if a couple of girls get their pretty picture taken and then a couple of extra gays get flown to the shows in Milan?

—all of us

Kittah [Wikipedia]
How to Create LOLCats aka MemeCat aka Kittah aka Cat Macros [engtech]

Secret Society [Radar]

Socials Ring The Bell [SR]

Earlier: How Is This Socialite Different From All Other Socialites?

From Tatiana Boncompagni's story in November, "Could You Call Them 'Business Climbers'":

Women like Ms. Beracasa (creative director of an estate jewelry company), Ms. Mortimer (designer of her own handbag line) and many others are exploring a new socialite end game — one in which they become a brand with mainstream recognition (extra points awarded for an actual logo). Aggressively milking the fame they acquire through their irrepressible urge to dress up and be photographed, they are spinning off businesses that may one day provide nest eggs for the time an inherited fortune runs dry or a Palm Beach marriage goes down in flames, or simply as a means of personal fulfillment.

''The idea is to turn this all into something,'' said Ms. Beracasa, who has a bombastic beauty reminiscent of Rita Hayworth and a platinum pedigree (her late stepfather was Randolph A. Hearst, and her father, Alfredo Beracasa, is a banking scion). ''You get to a point where you've created a brand, and you can branch out from there.'

And let's compare with Blasberg's take in yesterday's (UK) Times:

"The word socialite used to have a negative connotation, alluding to a frivolous party girl who was rich and didn't worry about anything," says Fabiola Beracasa, the daughter of the uber-hostess Veronica Hearst, reached by phone in Paris between the Dior and Valentino couture shows. Beracasa, a curvy brunette with a penchant for miniskirts and hosting over-the-top Hallowe'en parties, is the creative director of Circa, a large international buyer of antique jewellery. "The rules have changed," she says. "It can now mean a businesswoman or someone with the ability to promote and sell a product, even if it's herself."

Spoilt Little Rich Kids? [Times UK]
Could You Call Them 'Business Climbers'? [NYT]

I skipped Rock & Republic to celebrate Lily Donaldson's birthday, which ended up at Gramery Park. Lily, Caroline Winberg, Lisa Cant and all the studly Eurotrash that follows in their skinny, prebuscent wake were there looking healthy and vibrant and young (oddly enough while they chainsmoked and guzzled champs). Bitches. So that's why I've spent this entire morning not eating and hating myself. But then again that's not very different from any other fashion week, is it?

After the jump, Derek's feeling on "long runways" and some other faggy fashion-y stuff.

Um, what happened to the past 14 hours? And further, what happened to my neck? After Phillip Lim (great show—I love a long runway—and the menswear was cropped and brilliant) I came home for a snack before Benjamin Cho. I woke up about an hour ago still on the couch with my minature winnie dog haven eaten the rest of my Domino's pizza (cause, obviously, fashion week encourages me to eat healthily and all) and still laying on the couch, LLBean boots still on.

I can't think of pretty girls in dresses and fur because I just saw pretty boys in dresses and fur.

Thakoon was sweet. And I never thought I'd say that about a collection that incorporated a hoop skirt, ostrich feathers and, what was my high school pet peeve, black and navy worn together. When he came out he looked so proud and adorable (and young).

But the real inspiration was the hipster prom at Eugene. I've never seen so much acid wash, half-ponies, tapered jeans, and heavy eyeliner in all my life. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Dress & Primp Blog [JaneMag.com]

Earlier: Before They Were Sorta Famous: Derek Blasberg, "Writer"

Noon I ran downtown to the Yigal show. I wore the cute white dress and jacket that we picked out on Thursday, and it was soooo cold! Why would I rather look good than be warm? I got to the show and sat next to Meredith Melling Burke from Vogue and Bergdorf's Roopal Patel, who both have back-to-back shows because of their jobs. I don't envy them. I mean I love fashion, but it's really exhausting to run around like that!!!

1:30 p.m. I went back to my office, changed into my BCBG outfit and by 3 p.m. was back in the tents for the BCBG show. When I walked in, I was stopped for photos so I took a few, and then a few more, and as I walked away, I realized the tag was hanging off the BCBG jacket I was wearing! I was a little embarrassed, but it was a busy jacket so maybe it just blended in?

The show was energetic and uplifting; the clothes were fun and flirty. Afterwards, Derek Blasberg and I went backstage and then off to the W lounge where we swapped schedules and gossiped.

Backstage at BCBG, Dinner at Craftsteak [NYM]

Earlier: Gawker's Mild Obsession With Derek Blasberg

[Image: Tricia Romano]

Well, I will say that this time of year is the dull time for us chroniclers and our barnacles. Even the weather is dull, although certainly not boring considering its implications. I'm always surprised at the mean-spiritedness that emerges so frequently from us audiences, or the so-called nameless-facelesses who blog their (little) hearts out. I always wonder why? For what? To be a bitch? To possibly hurt? Insult? Maybe; you never know. I have to say it is funny, however, both haha and odd, to be referred to as "old." And true, very true, especially if you're very young (which is how we all view people who are younger than we by decades). But it makes you laugh too because no matter your age, one of the surprises in life is that you never really grow out of feeling the way you felt when you were a kid. Curious but true. And when one gets to a certain age, there are all kinds of anxieties which arise in a variety of ways. Not dissimilar to acne, for some of us who shall remain nameless (and faceless). Because it's a process of processing. There are all kinds of clarity that result too. Which is how you can laugh at the real idiots, no matter how silly or nasty they seem.

After The Rain [NYSD]

Earlier: Socialite Rank Shutout: David Patrick Columbia Too Ugly-Inclusive

Above, Blasberg's politically active past.

At right, from his yearbook: Most Likely to Succeed. How right they were.

And below right, his yearbook photo.

Did you go to high school with someone Sorta Famous? Photos and other memorabilia may be sent to the usual address.

Earlier: Field Guide: Derek Blasberg