CRACK IS WACK Us Weekly‘s October 4th issue

When is Jann Wenner going to realize the best thing he can do for his bank account is stay on vacation?

Us Weekly‘s Oct. 4 edition, with Whitney Houston on the cover, looks to be the title’s worst-selling issue of the year so far. Sales estimates based on checkout scan data indicate it sold about 800,000 copies—a full 20 percent below average.

Normally, this might be cause for Wenner, who owns Us as well as Rolling Stone and Men’s Journal, to throw one of his legendary tantrums. But there’s no much-abused minion to pin the blame on this time: Us insiders say Wenner bulldozed editor in chief Janice Min into giving Houston the cover. “It certainly wasn’t Janice’s idea,” says a source.