While both Hachette Filipacchi and Hearst remain mum on the fate of Nina Garcia, Fashion Week Daily has confirmed exclusively with a source involved in the negotiations that the former Elle fashion director has accepted an offer from Marie Claire and will join the title as fashion director in September. This confirms the initial reports by Fashion Week Daily on May 8 that Garcia was joining Marie Claire editor-in-chief Joanna Cole's senior staff.

Garcia will replace Tracy Taylor, who has left the magazine. Garcia will attend the upcoming round of fashion weeks with the Marie Claire team. An official announcement on Garcia's hire could come as soon as the end of the week.

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As for the rumors that Marie Claire will replace Elle as a partner on Project Runway, they remain hearsay. "There has been no update," a spokesman for The Weinstein Company confirmed. At this point, Elle is confirmed for season five of Project Runway with season six undecided. "Negotiations are just starting, if even that," said a source. Garcia's hire at Marie Claire is "completely separate from Marie Claire's possible interest in Project Runway," the source added.

Toy peddlers are laughing all the way to the bank with Heath Ledger's Joker doll selling out at New York stores. Droves of people lined up early at the Toys "R" Us store in Times Square to get their hands on plastic figurines depicting the dead actor's character in the upcoming Batman sequel, "The Dark Knight."

"There are none left in the warehouse, either. You will be waiting a while if you want one," one store employee said. The hard-to-get Joker dolls, which sell for $9.99, were already up for grabs on eBay - with one being sold as part of a $55 package with a Batman figurine. Toys "R" Us spokesman Bob Friedland downplayed the sellout, which comes on the heels of Ledger's death from an accidental drug overdose in January.

"We are getting these products, all of the 'Dark Knight' action figures, on a regular basis," he said. A Mattel spokeswoman said the action figures were delivered to some stores a week ago, but many New York outlets were still waiting for shipments yesterday.

"I'll tell you one affair she didn't have," he told the co-hosts. "I put all my best moves on Barbara. ...I had been in love. I had a huge crush on Barbara." But Geraldo says she "gave [him] the brush off," pinching his cheek and saying, "Oh, you're so cute."

I can exclusively report that Ms. Winfrey’s upcoming interview with Cruise includes questions about Scientology, his verbal smackdown with Matt Lauer on the Today show and, yes, the infamous couch-jumping incident.

Winfrey actually revealed these details herself during this weekend's Las Vegas taping of her joint interview with Tina Turner and Cher. And that isn't all Winfrey shared. The first of the two-part Cruise one-on-one has already taken place at his estate in Telluride, Colo., Winfrey said. "Oprah said Tom gave her a ride on a snowmobile," one Vegas audience member told me. "She also said Katie and Suri were there for the interview, too."

Before the Cher and Turner taping at Caesars Palace, a member of Winfrey's entourage hit the stage to ask everyone not to repeat anything they were about to see or hear. "She had everyone repeat in unison, 'What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas' several times," my source said. Come on, O! Did you really think everyone in the audience of 4,000 or so was going to keep a lid on it?

Some parents reacted with outrage over the weekend when the television program Entertainment Tonight began showing commercials promoting a scoop: Ms. Cyrus, the star of the wholesome Disney Channel blockbuster Hannah Montana, had posed topless, albeit with her chest covered, for the Vanity Fair photographer, Annie Leibovitz.

Screen grabs of the photo quickly popped up online, sparking a blogosphere debate. "Bonfire anyone?" wrote Lin Burress on her marriage and parenting blog, Telling It Like It Is, referring to the mountain of Hannah Montana retail items -- makeup, shoes, clothes - in the marketplace. "Parents should be extremely concerned," Ms. Burress said in an interview. "Very young girls look up to Miley Cyrus as a role model."

It is doubtful that one photograph -- especially one that is tame in the context of an Internet awash in nude photographs of other starlets - could dent the Hannah Montana machine, said several Wall Street analysts. Retail sales for the franchise are expected to total about $1 billion in 2008. A motion picture is in the works for 2009 and Ms. Cyrus signed a seven-figure book deal with the Disney Book Group last week.

But keeping a teenage entertainment franchise on track in an age when stars are monitored around the clock by bloggers and paparazzi is extremely difficult, even for a company with the experience of Disney. Executives are constantly battling to keep minor slipups from growing into full-blown controversies. Last week, the public relations problem du jour was a green bra; photos online showing Ms. Cyrus pulling away her tank top to flash her underwear.

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Ms. Cyrus had a different view in a prepared statement released on Sunday: "I took part in a photo shoot that was supposed to be 'artistic' and now, seeing the photographs and reading the story, I feel so embarrassed. I never intended for any of this to happen and I apologize to my fans who I care so deeply about."

Beth Kseniak, a spokeswoman for both Vanity Fair magazine and Ms. Leibovitz said, "Miley's parents and/or minders were on the set all day. Since the photo was taken digitally, they saw it on the shoot and everyone thought it was a beautiful and natural portrait of Miley."

Sources very close to the recent Nina Garcia fiasco confirm exclusively to PerezHilton.com that she was indeed fired from her role as Fashion Director at Elle magazine. Why??? She simply stopped working!

"She became too busy with Project Runway the last year to two," a mag insider tells us. "Nina had been spending about 8 hours a week on average actually in the office and working, and had her 2 assistants doing all of her work for her." How Devil Wears Prada of her! HOWEVER, we're also hearing that Nina may be coming back to Elle! What, say you? How so????

"The mag -- and Project Runway -- is looking into the possibility of giving her the silly and totally inconsequential title of 'editor at large" so she can still work on TV," a source tells us. "But the Runway people have been shopping around for a replacement for her for months because they have been anticipating her getting fired."

Elle is said to have parted company with its fashion director and Project Runway star and author Nina Garcia sources said late Friday. Neither Garcia, Elle editor in chief Robbie Myers nor a spokeswoman for Elle could be reached for comment.

On Tuesday, Elle hosted a dinner with Moschino to celebrate Simon Doonan's new book, "Eccentric Glamour: Creating an Insanely More Fashionable You", but Garcia was notably absent.

Speculation about Garcia's departure has swirled for months, especially after the arrival of Joe Zee at the beginning of 2007 as creative director. Last spring, Garcia left the magazine on maternity leave, and began writing a monthly fashion column for Elle upon her return. Garcia was in the office on Friday morning, but by the afternoon, sources close to the building say Hachette’s Midtown offices were abuzz about the rumor.