Vanity Fair’s annual “Hollywood Issue” was a big success this year, pushing it to the top of March fashion magazines, in terms of ad pages gained compared to last year. Vanity Fair posted 261 ad pages this year, up 44 from March 2011, when the issue featured 217.

Edward Menicheschi, Vanity Fair’s Publisher, told min the plump issue was thanks to “significant [growth] in all luxury sectors of the business… especially retail, fashion, beauty and automotive.”

Marie Claire was the runner-up for March ad page growth, with 42 more pages. For the rest of the top five, head over to min.

Last evening at Florida’s Ocean Reef Club Condé Nast CEO Charles Townsend hosted an award ceremony to honor the company’s outstanding performers.  Townsend handed out a lot of hardware Condé’s magazine’s had reason to celebrate.

Wired’s Howard Mittman was named Publisher of the Year and the magazine’s entire business staff was lauded for 24 percent ad page growth.

Vogue publisher Susan Plagemann and her sales team won the Peak Performance Award for a 16 percent rise in ad pages.

Rick Levine, Condé Nast’s SVP of editorial operations, took home the Corporate Executive of the Year Award for his work in the digital arena.

Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Graydon Carter and publisher Edward Menicheschi were recognized for spearheading the company’s largest profit gain by any magazine last year

Stop looking into Justin’s eyes. Just stop it for one second! We have some news: Vice President and Publisher Edward Menicheschi has promoted Mary Connelly to Associate Publisher of Vanity Fair. Connelly came to the magazine in 2009 from Vogue, where she was American Fashion Director.

At Vanity Fair, she took on the position of Advertising Director, Sales Development, and managed the magazine’s entertainment and spirits categories.

Okay, now you can get back to being creepy.