Memo Pad: New Look, Same Covergirl... French Touch...

NEW LOOK, SAME COVERGIRL: O The Oprah Magazine doesn’t have a new editor in chief yet to succeed the departing Amy Gross, but whomever he or she is, they’ll have a brand new cover design handed to them. And yes, it still features Oprah. The June cover has the talk show queen pictured against a white background, with brightly colored cover lines. “The May issue marked the eighth anniversary of the magazine so June felt like a new beginning and the perfect time to make a few tweaks,” said a spokeswoman. She added that there will not be any major design changes inside the magazine. — Amy Wicks

FRENCH TOUCH: Laetitia Colombani’s next film could do for contemporary fashion what Sofia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette” did for macaroons. “Mes Stars et moi” or “My Stars and Myself,” due on French screens in October, has Emmanuelle Béart, Catherine Deneuve and Mélanie Bernier playing actresses who shuttle from fashion shoots to premieres wearing the trendiest brands. Béart, for example, wears Dior couture for an Elle cover shoot scene. Deneuve is slated to wear Yves Saint Laurent, Hermès, Prada, Fendi and other brands, while newcomer Bernier gets a wardrobe of Lanvin.

JOLLY GOUDE: Jean-Paul Goude has been filming out of Africa. The photographer, who helped jeweler Fred fete its revamped Place Vendôme boutique Tuesday night, said he just wrapped up shooting a film for Guerlain in South Africa, due for release in September. Goude also is in talks to have characters from his portfolio made into a line of brooches for Fred. Mélanie Laurent, meanwhile, who hobnobbed with fellow French starlets Zoe Felix, Aïssa Maïga and Alice Taglioni, said she was looking forward to attending another party: as a guest of Louis Vuitton for Cannes’ yearly amfAR gala. The rising actress also is working on a Franglais folk-pop album. On the decks, DJ Ariel Wizman, who’ll soon be heading to Tokyo to provide the music for a Lanvin men’s show there May 26, said he’ll be releasing his second album in September.

MAKING AN IMPRESSION: In the age of Google, arriving unprepared for an interview is even harder to explain, but Christina Ricci was pretty graceful about George Gurley’s slipup when he interviewed her for BlackBook. When Gurley asked Ricci, “What’s it like being the face of Louis Vuitton?” the actress paused. Then she said, “Well, I’m not anymore. I was one of four actresses that they used in a campaign once and it was really fun. I liked it. I would like to be the face of Louis Vuitton. I am not, however. You know who is? Scarlett Johansson is the face of Louis Vuitton. Wrong interview.” The issue, with Ricci on the cover, hits this week. — Irin Carmon

THE ZELL SELL: A few months into the job as chairman and chief executive officer of the Tribune Co., Sam Zell is trying his hand at calming the frayed nerves of his thousands of employees. He has authorized wacky — some might argue oddly sophomoric — press releases with headlines such as “Surely you can’t be serious? Marc Chase — president of Tribune Interactive!” and set up an e-mail account for employees to directly get in touch with him (so far, 3,000 have sent e-mails to the boss and Zell said he has replied to all of them). “People want this to work,” he said. “These people care and have a vested interest.” Zell also set up an online idea bank for employees, which has received more than 2,000, providing insight to improve the company. His comments came during a conference call yesterday on the state of the company.

Zell acknowledged that the future will involve divestitures. Offer books will be ready in the next two weeks for the Chicago Cubs, and a transaction could take place before yearend. He also talked about Newsday, acknowledging that there are interested buyers but he hasn’t made a decision yet. In line with the rest of the industry, Zell said that print advertising revenue is down this year, due in part to a continued decline in classified ads. — A.W.