Grand Theft Auto is one of the few post-Super Mario Brothers 1 videogames that I have actually played, but it still took a little ‘splaining on the part of my colleague Erik Henriksen to convince me that Karl Lagerfeld’s involvement in the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 4 doesn’t mean you can play as the famously eccentric Chanel designer, running around smashing car windows and such (kind of a bummer, actually). Instead you can play the game to “DJ Karl“‘s soundtrack (he’s an avid music fan and collector), leaving the criminal acts to the game’s main protagonist. Still, it’s a testament to Grand Theft as more than mere video game that they cast such a wide net to diverse corners of the current culture, creating a kind of snapshot of the times. Look for Earnest “Nex” Cavalli’s review of the game in an upcoming issue of the Mercury.

LAGERFELD: not that I couldn’t picture him smashing car windows.