It was something of a coup when Vanity Fair, in May, did what its Condé Nast sibling Portfolio couldn't and poached Fortune's winsome star writer Bethany McLean. If Portfolio's uncertain editor Joanne Lipman was annoyed then, she must be really steaming now that rival Graydon Carter snagged his latest catch from her own magazine. Vanity Fair's editor just inked an exclusive deal, the Observer reports, with Michael Lewis, who had contracts at both Lipman's glossy and with the Times magazine. Carter lured Lewis even though the Liar's Poker author recently saw his pay upped at Portfolio and despite a grudge the financial writer harbored against Vanity Fair for 10 years over an an unflattering 1997 profile. How did Carter do it?
