Olivia Nuzzi’s fate at Vanity Fair is in Anna Wintour’s hands.
The Vogue queen and Condé Nast editorial chiefcaused quite the stir when she hired Mark Guiducci to helm Vanity Fair, and now Olivia Nuzzi’s questionable hire is leaving everyone rolling their eyes, we hear.
Guiducci was announced as VF’s global director of editorial content last summer, with Nuzzi being his first big hire.
The New York Times reported that the former Vogue staffer wooed Nuzzi to his glossy over dinner at the Sunset Tower, and, “received permission from his corporate higher-ups at Condé Nast to hire her as Vanity Fair’s new West Coast editor.”
But Wintour was the only opinion that mattered, we hear, and will have the last word on Nuzzi.
Sources told Page Six that Wintour, “signed off on hiring her, and will have the final say to fire her.”
“There isn’t anything that Anna doesn’t overwrite or reinforce when it comes to their overall P&L [profit and loss statement]” one source said.
Other insiders insist that Guiducci has the final decision when it comes to hiring his staff.
“All staffing and hiring decisions for VF are handled by Mark,” one source claimed.
Whatever the case, hiring Nuzzi has other VF staffers and insiders questioning the move — particularly after critics panned her book, “American Canto,” in which the former New York Magazine writer opens up about her scandalous alleged affair with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Vanity Fair published an excerpt from her book, and “everyone was grossed out,” a source said.
“Why give her a job? [Publishing the excerpt] didn’t break the way they expected. They thought the excerpt was going to be received totally different,” the first source said.
Hollywood insiders can’t see Nuzzi, 32, being welcomed by certain subjects, we’re told.
“If you’re a man in power, and Olivia wants to do a profile, is his wife letting him talk to her?” one source wondered.
“She hasn’t met with studios, hospitality groups, or any of the main suspects you’d expect the West Coast editor of Vanity Fair to meet with,” they added.
Another insider told us her role is less Hollywood and more “health and wellness.” Besides at the moment, the magazine has not assigned her any new projects, and she’s currently focusing on her book tour, we hear.
Page Six previously reported Nuzzi may be out before she even really started at VF, with one source telling us, “It looks like they are getting rid of her. I will not be surprised if they drop Olivia.”
Another added, “Even before this broke, she didn’t have a single story in the next two issues of the magazine. She never picked up her Condé Nast computer, never came to a meeting, never responded to an email she was cc’d on.”
A rep for Vanity Fair and Condé Nast did not comment.
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