Vogue

Not long ago, fax machines and e-mail inboxes at Vogue, the world's premier fashion magazine, were briefly assaulted with thousands of angry letters. Not about the latest gorgeously photographed fashion trends or beauty products in its influential pages but about a single, colorful ad: for Camel No. 9 cigarettes. "If you draw income from the advertisement of tobacco," Heidi Thompson of Freeport, Ill.

HUGH GRANT is sent many scripts for romantic comedies. "There's one sitting on my computer right now," the movie star says from his home in England. "It starts in hell. I won't go any further." Indeed, what's offered to Grant, the swankily good-looking, ironic star of such memorable romances as "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and "Notting Hill," often isn't pretty. Or romantic. Or funny.

The image business is getting a new power couple: The trendy Los Angeles photography studio where the Vanity Fair cover of a pregnant and nude Demi Moore was captured is joining forces with its biggest cross-town competitor, which once played host to Snoop Dogg. Smashbox Studios and Quixote Studios, two of Los Angeles' best-known photography houses, will pool their resources to create a new company, starting Dec. 1.

Dancer Willi Ninja, a star of the documentary "Paris Is Burning" who was considered the godfather of the dance art form "voguing" and inspired Madonna's "Vogue" music video, has died, friends and relatives said. He was 45. Ninja died Saturday of AIDS-related illnesses at New York Hospital Medical Center of Queens, they said. Madonna, speaking through a spokeswoman this week, said she was sorry to hear of Ninja's death.

The modeling industry is supposed to be all about who's young, who's hot and who's next. Yet Linda Evangelista finds herself on the cover of the August issue of Vogue at 41 and pregnant. It's her 10th cover for the magazine, and she's the first model, not a Hollywood star, to be featured on the front in more than a year. Her pals from the supermodel heyday a decade ago are faring equally well: Naomi Campbell, despite her run-ins with the law, is still queen of the catwalk at 36.

Ashley Lantz had no idea what her major would be when she was a freshman at Colorado School of Mines, but she knew that she liked the idea of living in exotic places. Lantz, 23, decided on petroleum engineering. Now she's in the vanguard of the "Great Crew Change" as companies seek to replace an entire generation of workers who entered the industry during the last oil boom.

Crossover art, like globalization, is here to stay. That barely explains how "J.O.B. the Hip-Hopera" turns the Stella Adler into the most pulse-racing pad in town. This sensational rap cantata by writer-performers Jerome Sable and Eli Batalion pulls the street backbeat into groundbreaking heat. Revised from Sable and Batalion's 2002 fringe festival hit, the new, through-rapped edition jams, breaks and vogues the Book of Job into sly corporate commentary.

Vogue, the bible for women's fashion, is about to get a baby brother. Conde Nast Publications, a major magazine publisher, says it will begin publishing Men's Vogue as a bimonthly next April, following the success of a test issue that went on newsstands last month. From Associated Press * FINALLY Mansion mania: First it was a ride at Disneyland. Then it was a movie with Eddie Murphy. Now the Haunted Mansion will be a comic book series.

Some employees are finding it much easier to see a doctor these days. In the last year, large companies such as Capital One Financial Corp., Discovery Communications Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp. and mortgage guarantor Freddie Mac have opened on-site medical clinics with physicians and nurse practitioners. The clinics offer medical treatment for free or, compared with the company's health plan, at reduced prices.