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…

CONTINUED »

What do Ray Charles, Barbra Streisand, Linda Evangelista and Elle MacPherson have in common? They have all been models in Blackglama’s “What Becomes A Legend Most” campaigns. With winter just around the corner, why not put yourself on track to becoming a legend by acquiring a black mink coat?

You can purchase a mink knowing it will make you feel absolutely fabulous for years and years. Your Lamborghini might need to be traded in, and you might outgrow your little penthouse or even your boyfriend, but the mink will be there with its warmth and sensuality, a symbol of security, status, glamour, and luxury. Legendary Blackglama mink coats are made from select ranch-raised animals and are distinguished by an especially soft, silky feel and a thick undercoat.

When examining a mink, glide your hand both with and against the direction in which the hair falls. In both directions, the top layer and the underfur should both be impeccably soft. After you have selected the mink coat right for you, you might accessorize with a mink iPod cover.

•Yay! Really gay, neon colored headphones for our iPods. They will go perfectlty with the Madonna Nano. Thanks Cool Hunter.

• Get a longer listen of Madonna’s ABBA-sampled new single and check out more album artwork. She is totally rocking that Boogie Nights red hair.

• We just found out that the man who helped Stella get her groove back is in fact a big queen. Author Terry McMillan has divorced her husband, who was 24 years younger. What will she call her next book, How Stella Pulled a Star Jones?

• Andrew Sullivan’s site has been hacked. Even we don’t find it funny.

• Marlene Dietrich hated sex. Um, we knew that. Most lesbians do hate sex with men.