Each year, when department stores prematurely ratchet up their non-denominational wreaths and tinsel for the holidays, critics start hedging Oscar bets, predicting with varying degrees of success the year's top performances. And each year, there is one movie by which I'm completely blind-sided. In recent memory, that list has included Junebug, Frozen River, and Away from Her. This year, despite its hype when the film was cast, A Single Man is that film. Have I been totally oblivious or did it come out of nowhere?

● Tom Ford has dressed numerous Oscar nominees over the years, but will he be present as a nominee at the Academy Awards in 2010 for his directorial debut? [FashionWeekDaily]
● Lauren Conrad wasn’t really serious when she said friend Lo Bosworth would be the star in the movie version of her book L.A. Candy. [Us]
● Jon Gosselin seems to be under the impression that people want to hear him speak and that radio stations should pay him $10-$12K for an appearance -- because as we all know, Gosselin is "quite funny, sharp witted and interesting." [MSN]

Tom Ford fans may have feared that his foray into filmmaking -- A Single Man, currently making festival rounds and just got snapped up by the Weinstein brothers -- might mean the former creative force behind Gucci and YSL could give up fashion altogether. Ford launched his namesake company in 2004, which includes eyewear, fragrance and a men's line stocked at his heavily ornamented, arguably ostentatious Upper East Side two-floor boutique. Now he's branching out; according to Reuters, Ford "is seeking funding to expand into women's apparel, according to a report from Thomson Reuters' private equity website peHUB."

Well isn't this inscrutable! The Weinsteins, who have had something of a hex plaguing them for a while now, have somehow, against all odds, cobbled together a seven figure sum of cash and bought the American and German rights to distribute Tom Ford's directorial debut. This film should probably nestle Ford in between Ryan Murphy and Alan Ball as far as stylized tragedies go. More inscrutable? What A Single Man is actually about. And while vague plot points are presented here, the trailer only boasts pretty people looking shocked and a dramatic score. Here's a break down of what we can expect from Ford's inaugural flick, as judged by the trailer.

Tom Ford's directorial debut, A Single Man, may have just premiered at the Venice Film Festival (where its lead, Colin Firth scored the Volpi Cup award for his performance). But back stateside, quite a few designers showing Spring 2010 collections at New York Fashion Week have been bitten by the film bug. Shipley & Halmos and Tim Hamilton showcased film-centric presentations that forewent a catwalk and models this past weekend. Steven Alan presented an original film, directed by Adam Levite, last night in the Yard at the Soho Grand Hotel in place of a traditional runway show. And, as I mentioned Monday, Gareth Pugh debuted a four-part filmic installation in Milk Studios over the weekend in anticipation of his Paris runway show.

Lock up your daughters: Inked, but sharly attired, a band of sartorial punks inject the mean streets of Milan with edge. Photography by Pieter Henket. Styling by Chris Benns. See full gallery.

Provocateur and former head of Gucci Tom Ford has been hard at work in recent months on his first foray into film, A Single Man, which stars Julianne Moore and Colin Firth. But the fashion designer (who still sits at the helm of a namesake monolith that includes menswear, eyewear, and fragrance) isn't done with the fashion industry just yet. Feverish Ford fans are counting down the days until the designer will announce the addition of women's wear into his repertoire. In the meantime, London's Times caught up with the icon ("a man who could sell merkins to a nunnery") at the launch of his latest creation: a perfume called Bois Maroccain. "I had a mid-life crisis for about seven years," Ford says of the period proceeding his departure from Gucci. As for his first footsteps back into the fashion industry post-crisis: “Of course I knew that there were people laughing and saying ha-ha look, he’s doing eyewear now and he used to be the big ‘I am’, but I knew where I was going and it didn’t bother me.”

● Tom Ford has never been subtle, so it's no surprise he chose to open his namesake boutique directly across from his former design home, Gucci, on Rodeo Drive. [LATimesBlog]
● Hugh Jackman has dropped out of discussions for Cleo, Steven Soderbergh's 3-D live-action Elvis-style musical about Cleopatra and her lover Marc Antony. Not gay enough? [Variety]
● The International Center of Photography will debut a yearlong series of exhibits dedicated to fashion photography. [WWD]

It looks as though Tom Ford will soon be taking a break from reality TV and chips to direct the film adaptation of A Single Man, Christopher Isherwood’s 1964 novel about a recently widowed gay, middle-aged college professor. The movie will be released by Fade to Black, the production company Ford formed three years ago, says WWD. Filming is expected to start next month in Los Angeles where the story takes place, and so far the film’s roster comes with serious star-wattage. WWD reports Colin Firth, Julianne Moore and Matthew Goode are all on board.

The Sunday Times features a relatively provocative profile of the man who resurrected Gucci in the mid-1990s by bringing sexy back in response to grunge. While the piece touches on Ford’s notoriously inflated ego -- “I don’t think I’m a megalomaniac,” the infamously impossible designer tells the Times -- the real gem proves to be Ford’s relatively recent transition from life of the party (a role that traces back to Ford’s late teens, when, as a student, he rubbed shoulders with the likes of Andy Warhol while frequenting Studio 54) to a middle-aged man “slobbing on the sofa watching reality television and eating crisps.”