From fishnets to forgoing pants, plenty of sartorial parallels may be drawn between Lady Gaga and Madonna. The latter has been a formidable force in fashion for decades now, and, like Lady Gaga, she's often criticized acoustically for making music that's best described as watered-down pop. But apparently the two stars have more in common their critics and an eccentric fashion sense. They both call Steven Klein, Italian Vogue's preferred lenser, their favorite image guy. Gaga has handpicked the revered fashion photographer to direct her latest music video for a song called "Alejandro."

● Madonna has moved on from being the poster girl for Louis Vuitton to the leading lady of the Dolce and Gabbana’s Spring 2010 collection; she shot the campaign yesterday with Steven Klein. [Swide] ● Winona Ryder will join Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis in the ballerina romp Black Swan. [HR] ● Gwyneth Paltrow will push Nicole Kidman into becoming a man in their new film The Danish Girl. Paltrow will play painter Gerda Wegener, whose husband, played by Kidman, was the first post-op transsexual. [Us]

Forget Ashton and Demi. Bruce Willis and relatively new wife Emma leave little to the imagination in a new Steven Klein-shot, S&M-themed editorial for W Magazine. From what images released online seem to imply, the spread spans a whopping dozen-plus pages and showcases plenty of flesh for the rag's July issue. But that's not to say the fashion featured (thanks to stylist Camilla Nickerson) is easy to overlook, even with all of the NSFW imagery -- especially of note is the use of Olivier Theyskens' awe-inspiring FW09 footwear for Nina Ricci and fur sleeves that appear to be sourced from Giles Deacon's namesake collection the same season. Images after the jump (including those NSFW).

If you're like me and you need reams of evidence to prove that Madonna is in fact a woman and not a basilisk assuming the form of a woman, consider this sheaf of photography from the latest issue of W. Steven Klein manages to accomplish the nearly-impossible and make the diva appear humanlike. Using flourishes far more nuanced than soft-focus and lens flare, Klein exhumes sentience and sensitivity absent from the pop singer's emotional range since this single. Why, she even looks coy and vulnerable in some shots!

Sadomasochism has long played a roll in influencing fashion -- from the late, great Helmut Newton to bondage elements surfacing left and right on SS09’s runways (not to mention the theme inspiring one particular New York boutique’s foot-fetish-friendly after-party). But while masochistic tendencies may have shown up in subtle ways via a silhouette or choice in fabric in the recent past (from cage dresses and latex leggings to sky-high stilettos), these days, self-torture is becoming a norm in fashion adverts and editorials alike. Elements of the trend were first visible in a particularly disturbing "dogging" spread that fashion photog Steven Meisel originally shot for Vogue Italia (the latter found the spread too provocative for its taste; the photos were later featured in V).