Twitter’s @CondeElevator lifts lid on life at US Vogue

It's the real-life Devil Wears Prada brought to you in 140 characters. An anonymous Twitter user is risking the wrath of US Vogue editor Anna Wintour to chronicle the gossip, backstabbing and bitchiness overheard in the elevators at New York publishing house Conde Nast. Since launching four days ago, @CondeElevator has seen its popularity go sky-high with more than 20,000 followers.Fashion watchers have embraced the Twitter feed which promises "things heard in the Conde Nast elevators do not stay in the Conde Nast elevators".Apparently written by a Conde Nast staffer, the Twitter feed also asks for contributions via a gmail account - a move that should help protect the founder's anonymity and ensure that every self-absorbed and unintentionally hilarious musing uttered in the famous elevators is reported.So what do Vogue staff talk about on the 48-storey journey to the Frank Gehry cafeteria at the top of the Conde Nast building? The dispatches to date do not disappoint - conversations among staff on the illustrious fashion magazine are rife with eating anxieties, withering put-downs and tittle-tattle.Not surprisingly Vogue's staff are preoccupied with the perils of eating. One of the most amusing tweets reads: "Woman #1 to Woman #2, holding an omelet [sic]: 'What's the occasion?' Woman #2: '…huh?' Woman #1: 'I would need an occasion to eat that.'Another says: "Lady peering at her friend's to-go box of lettuce and carrots: 'Ooooh, that looks good!'"Meanwhile, as a woman bashfully holds a brownie, a male co-worker reassures her by saying: "I'm not judging you."Fashion, of course, dominates many of the conversations. One tweet reads: "Fashion Girl Fl 12: 'Do these shoes make me look like I have cankles?' Fashion Guy: 'No, they just have really fat straps.'"Another exchange goes: "Girl: 'Omigod what happened to your knee?!' Fashion boy: 'Oh god, I fell dancing!' Girl: 'Omigod it's like you came back from the war.'"And it seems Vogue staff do indeed live in fear of their famously icy editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, as portrayed in novel-turned-film The Devil Wears Prada and documentary The September Issue. One encounter sees a babbling assistant silenced by the expat-British editor: "Vogue Asst & AW in packed elevator. VA: Blah blah Duke & Duchess of Windsor. AW: Cambridge. Duke & Duchess of CAMBRIDGE. VA: I'm sorry."Another simply reads: "[silence] [silence] [silence] [silence] [silence] [silence] [silence] [silence] Summer Intern: 'Was that..?' Intern #2: 'Yeah' #annawintour"Fittingly for the self-obsessed world of Vogue magazine, the current hot topic in the lifts is, you guessed it, @CondeElevator. Journalist Kathryn Maier tweeted yesterday: "Meta: Hearing people talk in the Conde elevator about @CondeElevator." It remains to be seen how long it will be before Conde Nast executives try to hunt down the gossip mole. Maier says: "I give it two days before the 11th floor issues a memo imposing a moratorium on any talking in the elevators b/c of hilarious @CondeElevator." ·