Nina Garcia to Go From Hachette to...Hachette?

(NEW YORK) Project Runway star Nina Garcia is about to land a major gig at Marie Claire, reliable sources have informed The Daily. The former Elle fashion director was fired last month, almost a year after a new Joe Zee-helmed creative team was installed at the venerable fashion title. After appearing recently at the Hearst Tower to much frenzied speculation about Harper's Bazaar--and more speculation about a possible role at perennially beleagured In Style--Garcia is now poised to take on a position at Marie Claire which, given all the talk of a potential partnership between the magazine and Project Runway, would ensure her continued presence on the show. Currently, Marie Claire's fashion department is directed by Tracy Taylor. UPDATE: It appears that Taylor will be leaving the magazine. "We have no changes in Marie Claire's fashion department to announce at this time," a Hearst spokesperson wrote in an email. Calls to Taylor and Garcia have not been returned.

Marie Claire has faced some controversy and declining newsstand numbers since editor Lesley Jane Seymour exited the book in mid-2006. The magazine is a joint venture between Hearst and Hachette Filippachi France, which owns a 43 percent stake in the American edition of Marie Claire. From December 2005 to December 2007, single-copy sales have fallen from 486,115  [December '05 issue] to 273,798 [December '07 issue]. According to a Hearst spokesperson: "Our French partners recently renewed our agreement and have noted they are pleased with how [Joanna] Coles has transformed the magazine. Our last ABC statement for the second half 2007 states that Marie Claire sold an average of 341,000 copies per month." Perhaps a shock of Garcia's television stardom is just what the newsstand ordered.