Angelina Jolie cultivates a reputation as a Hollywood outsider who cares so little about her press, she doesn't even have a publicist. But Vogue learned otherwise while preparing to profile the orphan-collecting actress for its January issue. According to a source, Jolie initially objected to the magazine's choice of writer to conduct the interview, Jonathan Van Meter.

"There was a line in a previous story he had written that had pissed her off," says the source. Perhaps it was the part in Van Meter's April cover feature on Jennifer Aniston where he notes that the home-wrecking Jolie and her new boyfriend Brad Pitt "began to seem faintly ridiculous" as they traveled the world playing diplomats?

At any rate, Jolie backed down in the end, and Van Meter conducted the interview.

But it's not the only time Vogue editor Anna Wintour has butted heads with a Hollywood power player of late. Sources say megapublicist Stephen Huvane was badmouthing Wintour to "anyone who would listen" earlier this fall after wrestling with her over the September issue's portfolio of Kirsten Dunst. Wintour was dissatisfied with the initial images from the Annie Leibovitz shoot, which took place at Versailles and featured elaborate costumes from Marie Antoinette, and demanded it be redone—prompting Huvane to wonder aloud to several friends whether Wintour hasn't amassed too much clout.

In the end, he may have had a point: the cover was a flop on newsstands, selling far fewer copies than the September 2005 issue with Sarah Jessica Parker. "There was some back and forth, but we worked with [Huvane] and worked it out," says a Vogue spokesman. Huvane declined to comment. As for the September issue's low sales numbers, the Vogue rep says, "We knew going in that it wasn't going to be a commercial cover, but we were very pleased with it."