Launching "The New Issue" with an old publishing great probably strikes some of you as a bit, well, you know - queer - but that's our style. Faithful readers know we like to turn things bottoms up. Remember our very first issue, "The Narcissist Issue," in which we took a new, more positive look at that tired old concept, narcissism?

We're inaugurating this, "The New Issue," with a fresh look at legendary Condé Nast editor Leo Lerman for a number of reasons. First and foremost, Knopf recently published over 600-pages of Lerman's insightful, touching and celebrity filled journals, letters and general scrawlings. Reading through The Grand Surprise, it struck us how much we - yourselves included - can all learn from a man like Lerman.

From modest beginnings, gay, Jewish and "no beauty," as Lerman's former assistant Stephen Pascal described his late boss' looks, Lerman rose to the highest echelons of New York society. He wined, dined, danced and - most importantly - laughed with the likes of Marlene Dietrich, Truman Capote, Andy Warhol, a few Rockefellers and some Kennedys. The index to The Grand Surprise reads like the best invite list in the world. In history, perhaps. No surprise Lerman loved to party. He could turn what appeared to be nothing into the most spectacular something. Sure, Leo was special, but his pages reveal the "grand surprise:" we're all capable of something great. We just have to find out what that "something" could be.

As part of our mission to learn more about Lerman, we sent our editor, Andrew Belonsky uptown to sit down with a few of the editor's old chums: Joel Kaye, Jonathan Marder, the aforesaid Pascal and, of course, Lerman's long-time lover, Gray Foy. Read the results, some excerpts and find a few surprises, after the jump…

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Before there was Pink is the New Blog, Perez Hilton, or Jossip there was Andy Warhol. Most people know Mr. Warhol for his art, his films, and his wigs, but what many don’t know is that Andy was a first class gossip.

The Andy Warhol Diaries were written by Pat Hackett and pulled from phone conversations the artist had almost daily from the 1970s up until his death in 1987. When the rather large book was released posthumously in 1990, it acted as a social account of the 70s and 80s, a large bound edition chronicling the lives of Hollywood stars, New York society, and the glitterati of the art world.

The book is a fascinating read. Taking an insider view in the celebrity world, Andy dishes with the best of them, calling Liza, Liz, and Sophia Loren names. He talks smack about Jackie O and tells who was at Studio 54 and what they were doing.

In an age before celebrity rags and the Internet it seems perfect that Andy was first at this too. Those gossip mags and sites owe a lot to him. He was blogging before blogs even existed.