As much as we’d like to, we can’t deliver dish from Oscar winners (Shirley MacLaine) and supermodels (Naomi Campbell, Coco Rocha and Karolina Kurkova) every week. After a head-spinning cycle of chats with A-listers, the celebrity quotient at Michael’s was of the low-wattage variety today with reality television refugee Kelly Killoren Bensimon and comedian Robert Wuhl representing the famous (infamous?) contingent. We suspect after the Academy Awards and most schools’ winter breaks are over next week, things will be back to the usual Fellini-esque circus at 55th and Fifth.

I was joined today by SELF vice president and publisher Laura McEwen and the magazine’s director of public relations, Lauren Theodore. It was a fortuitously timed lunch (isn’t it always?), because the newly reinvigorated title is on a roll. Even before our lunch, the colorful cover of the March issue featuring starlet of the moment Julianne Hough caught my eye. It turns out, the issue debuted a new, more “extroverted” all-black logo which seems to capture the forward motion of the Conde Nast title perfectly. Since its launch in 1979, the magazine has been the bible for young fitness-focused women. Now, says Laura, the title has stepped up its mission and embraced a more encompassing philosophy of “Body/Looks/Life.”  ”They are all inseparable today,” explains Laura. “When it first launched, SELF started a movement but now it’s a way of life that has gone mainstream.”

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Self magazine has launched its iPad app, available for download in the iTunes store. Each month, in addition to content from the print version, the app will feature exclusive content.

For April, users can view video of Kim Kardashian – Self’s cover girl this month – boxing (Pacquiao’s got nothing on her right hook) and voice-guided meditation. Another feature of note is a live newsfeed updated by Self’s editors that posts breaking health news.

– CYNTHIA DAGENAIS

I’m not a Barbie doll. I won’t lose 10 pounds in a week with 10 new moves, and I won’t start a diet in March only to switch it up for a new fad in April.  If you’ve got a story for women like me, who refuse to let a magazine dictate their esteem, then Self is open to your pitches.

In mediabistro.com‘s “How To Pitch,” the health and fitness glossy’s  Paula Derrow offers exclusive tips for aspiring freelancers.

“Pitch us investigative stories or great new studies based on cutting-edge research,” says the article’s director. “Ask yourself ‘Why does this fit into Self?’ If it’s new, based on a study or new trend, it appeals to women in their early 30s and helps to make their life better, then send it in.”

See? All Barbie has to offer is an impossible waistline.  Get the full 411 in How To Pitch: Self.

This article is exclusively available to AvantGuild subscribers. If you’re not a member yet, you can register for as little as $55 to access How To Pitch, receive discounts on mediabistro.com seminars and workshops, and receive all sorts of other bonuses.