Vatican: 'Pope Doesn’t Wear Prada'

The devil may very well wear Prada, but now we know -- the pope does not.

I’ve been a member of the Us Weekly Fashion Police for more than five years now, and its forced me to keep up with the increasingly competitive world of celebrity style – a world so big it now, apparently, includes Pope Benedict.

After Esquire included the 81-year-old pontiff on its annual list of “Best Dressed Men” – calling him “Assessorizer of the Year” for his stylish red leather shoes – the rumor started that the holy father was a Prada devotee.

Now, the official Vatican paper, Osservatore Romano, is calling such talk “frivolous,” and that the pope’s flamboyant hat and shoes are not an expression of vanity, but of Church tradition.

"The pope, in summary, does not wear Prada, but Christ," the paper stated.

Still, I can’t help wondering if the pope ever sings Elvis Costello’s great hit, “The Angels Want to Wear My Red Shoes.”

Weird News Highlights

• Fruits of Violence: 7-Eleven Clerk Attacked With a Banana (Dumb Crime Du Jour);
• Honk Once for 'I Do': Church of Sweden to hold drive-in weddings to make marriage more accessible (Love Sex & Marriage);
• Urine Trouble: 170 cats (or more) removed from Wis. home after neighbors complain of pungent smell (Humans Behaving Badly);
• Full Moon Education: High school student drops his pants at graduation, gets arrested and has his diploma withheld (Tales Out of School);
• No Joke: Canadian comic must face human rights tribunal after squaring off with heckler (Our Litigious Times).

Photo © Win McNamee/Getty Images