CRACK IS WACK Us Weekly's October 4th issue

Us Weekly's Oct. 4 edition, with Whitney Houston on the cover, looks to be the title's worst-selling issue of the year so far. Sales estimates based on checkout scan data indicate it sold about 800,000 copies—a full 20 percent below average.

Normally, this might be cause for Wenner, who owns Us as well as Rolling Stone and Men's Journal, to throw one of his legendary tantrums. But there's no much-abused minion to pin the blame on this time: Us insiders say Wenner bulldozed editor in chief Janice Min into giving Houston the cover. "It certainly wasn't Janice's idea," says a source.

Granted, the departure from Us's tried-and-true cover formula wasn't completely out of the blue. Sources say Wenner and Min agree that the coven of female stars who've been driving the growth of the weekly category for the past three years is thoroughly played out. "How many times can you do Angelina Jolie or Jessica Simpson?" asked one frustrated staffer. Hence this week's lead story on non-working actress Tara Reid and a recent cover appearance by Patrick Dempsey (though several sources pegged Dempsey's "Sexy!" cover as an attempt to preempt any plans People might have to dub him 2006's "Sexiest Man Alive").

Experimentation might be just what Us and its rivals need—as long as the person doing the experimenting knows what he's doing. Says one Us writer, "Whenever Jann gets involved with a cover, the numbers are not good."