● 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]

"What makes someone an icon? Is Nelson Mandela an icon? Is Václav Havel an icon? Is the alien from Alien: Resurrection an icon? I don’t know what the requirements are.” Winona Ryder pauses to consider the well-oiled word from the far reaches of the lobby lounge at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood. Her cap is pulled down to hide the face of an Edward Gorey beauty rendered in chalk. She sits on her tiny feet as if to keep them warm.

Hey look, you're on the cover of BlackBook! What a lovely birthday present for Winona Ryder, born on this day back in 1971. On newsstands now, our November issue also features Jared Leto, La Roux, Willem Dafoe, Richard Linklater, Lily Cole, Devendra Banhart, Terry Gilliam, Jonathan Safran Foer, and Pee-Wee Herman. Oh yes. Come back next week for more, and in the meantime, see our full cover gallery.

● Tina Fey is America's Sweetheart, at least according to Vanity Fair. How do you get to be America's Sweetheart? Gain a bunch of weight in the writer's room, then lose it all and become the most attractive lady at 30 Rock. [Vanity Fair]
● Brooklyn retailer Bird will open up a pop-up store in their new (still under construction) boutique starting December 5. The store proper won't be open till early 2009, but owner Jennifer Mankins wanted to "showcase [her] favorite designers and artists during the holiday season." [Fashion Week Daily]
● Who's Brad Pitt's BFF? Film director David Fincher. It's a give and take relationship; Fincher gives Pitt a sense of creativity, while Pitt gives Fincher the clout to make dreary masterpieces that never break even. [USA Today]

When the movie Heathers came out in 1989, it was a eureka moment for many teen fans -- finally, a dark comedy about high school! Because, let’s face it, high school is dark. Heathers catapulted Winona Ryder’s acting career, and Daniel Waters became one of the most sought-after screenwriters in Hollywood. He went on to write many big budget studio movies like Batman Returns, Demolition Man, and the “loved in Denmark and Spain” Hudson Hawk. Waters’ refers to this chapter in his career as the “failing-upwards-montage.” “I got involved in doing rewrites for big action movies,” said Waters. “I was creating movies that didn’t appeal to the people who liked Heathers and didn’t appeal to action movie fans either. I felt like it was more of a job than actual writing. I said to myself that I had to stop and get back to that warm place of naiveté where I wrote Heathers.” The result: the devilishly dark and wickedly funny Sex and Death 101.