Some people may be interested in dwelling on BlackBook's past, but new editor in chief Steve Garbarino would rather talk about ... the future! The December/January issue of the downtown style title will be the first overseen entirely by Garbarino, a former contributor to Vanity Fair and the New York Post. It will have an updated look, courtesy of new creative director Bryan Erickson and photo director Shannon Hall, and a new philosophy to match, says Garbarino.

"The magazine will be less about big parties and more about a small club—substance over style, quality over quantity," he says. (Although quantity will get a boost, too: BlackBook is doubling its frequency next year, from six to 12 issues.)

The new issue has two covers: one with Naomi Watts, and one with Ed Norton. There's also a Terry Richardson photo shoot of Kirsten Dunst, Kanye West, and The Strokes, and Garbarino's profile of Val Kilmer, who is on the verge of succeeding Nick Nolte as the weirdest dude in Hollywood.

"I was trying to keep the content un-trendy," says Garbarino. "We wanted the vibe of it all to be like midnight in the garden at the Chateau Marmont, when you have an intellectual and good-looking mix of writers, actors, directors, restaurateurs, architects, designers, crazy people, and elegant ghosts."

That kind of content doesn't generate itself, of course. Garbarino swears that, one newspaper's claims notwithstanding, BlackBook contributors are getting paid in a timely fashion nowadays. "The old regime had an unconscionable arrangement that writers and others would not be paid until 45 days after publication," he says. "We're getting all up to date on the late payments I inherited."

Presumably by "old regime" he's not referring to his bosses, BlackBook owners Ari Horowitz and Eric Gertler, who are actually the ones who cut the checks.