Anna Wintour can’t catch a break. Just two days after PETA plastered bathrooms at the Vogue editor’s favorite haunts with stickers calling her a "fur hag," we hear the animal rights faction is planning an all-out assault on her staff—with Christmas cards.
According to PETA spokesman Michael McGraw, the anti-fur outfit is planning to mail festive green-and-red envelopes to the glossy’s staff containing illustrated peek-a-boo cards that open to reveal an emaciated Wintour in her underwear. A message scrawled on the front and inside reads: “Without Fur I Am Nothing.” (Fashionistas may recall similar cards being handed out during New York Fashion Week in 2000.)
“We have a mailing list for the entire staff of Vogue, and they’ll be going out this week to everyone,” McGraw said. Asked how PETA had obtained the list, the rep first cracked, “That’s proprietary information,” before saying, somewhat ominously, “Not everyone on Anna’s staff shares her fetish for fur.” (Of course, they could have just looked at the masthead.)
Why is PETA so stuck on Wintour?
“We’ve been trying to work with the magazine since the early nineties, but they have repeatedly turned down paid PETA anti-fur ads sight-unseen,” the spokesman said, adding that advertisements featuring “some of the biggest names in Hollywood” like Charlize Theron, Kim Basinger, and Pamela Anderson have run in other fashion mags. “We simply ask for equal time. If they’re going to promote fur through dozens and dozens of editorial and advertising pages each month, at least let us pay for an anti-fur ad.”
While Wintour shows no signs of bending to her blood-tossing bêtes noires, McGraw says the group "remains hopeful that Anna will have a change of heart." After all, Martha Stewart, who was at the top of PETA’s “worst-dressed list” last year, has since “learned about the cruelty involved and actually narrated an anti-fur video for us,” he said.
If Wintour fails to follow Martha’s lead, what kind of greeting can she expect for the next Hallmark holiday? “We have no plans yet for Easter,” McGraw said, “though Valentine's Day may see some PETA cupids outside Condé Nast.”
A Vogue rep could not be reached by press time.