>> Who's getting paid to wear Louis Vuitton's Fall 2009 bunny ears and French frippery?  Rumors say that Madonna will be returning for her second season in a row, after a splay-legged turn in a French-style LA cafe for Spring 2009.  The shoot has not taken place yet, but is expected to occur at the end of this month. 

Photographic honors for Fall 2009 go to Steven Meisel, who took over last season from Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott after their six years as Louis Vuitton campaign lensmen; logical that he would continue, since Vuitton director of communications Antoine Arnault said the liaison between the brand and photographer would likely last more than one season.  As for the repeat choice of Madonna, it was clear last season that Marc Jacobs was smitten with his choice.

And Madonna credits Steven Meisel with imparting in her the idea of reinvention — something she's done time and again.  She told Vogue in their May 2009 issue of one of her first Meisel collaborations, for the cover of Like a Virgin:

"Before I worked with Steven.  I just showed up in the clothes I was wearing, stood in front of the lights, and got my picture taken. With Steven, a team of people descended on me, started to undress me. Someone grabbed my hair, another grabbed my face, another started helping me try on various bits of clothes, and they all seemed to be speaking a language I didn't understand — the language of Steven Meisel."

"Steven had a vision. He had done his research. He had very specific references. He made me feel like I was part of something important. He treated each photo shoot like it was a small film and insisted that we create a character each time we worked but then would make fun of the archetypes we created. He was the first person to introduce me to the idea of reinvention."