TAKEDOWNS

Wintour Too Low Brow for Met?

Vogue editor's celebrity soiree at museum criticized.

On Monday evening, everyone who is anyone in New York City will be attending Anna Wintour's Costume Institute Ball at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. One person not likely to be in attendance: Michael Gross, author of Rogues' Gallery, a new unauthorized history of the Met. In the book, Gross blasts Vogue editor Anna Wintour for using the revered museum as a means to prove her place in high society. According to Gross, celebrities like Justin Timberlake, Marc Jacobs, and Kate Moss have no place at the Met—an institution that used to embody an "old money" image that shunned ostentatious displays of wealth. Supporters of the gala say the $75,000 tables rake in tremendous amounts of cash for the museum in tough economic times. But many can only shake their heads at the soiree that exalts an exhibition of Jackie O's clothes over the latest magnificent canvas from the Renaissance.