Yowza! You go, girl! .

Hand in hand, they worked their way through the A-list crowd he'd summoned to celebrate her at New York's Four Seasons Hotel. To a casual observer, they might have looked like the hippest new celebrity duo since Ben Affleck was first caught in lip-lock with J. Lo. But romance was the last thing on Jann Wenner's mind when the Rolling Stone publisher threw a party last month for Us Weekly's editor-in-chief, Bonnie Fuller.

In the nine months since he tapped Fuller to resuscitate his ailing celebrity glossy, she has worked the media equivalent of a miracle. Not only has she stanched its two-year hemorrhage of red ink and boosted newsstand sales 30 percent, but she has also turned a magazine once scorned as the "poor man's People" into a trend-setting phenomenon that is, in its own parlance, "hot stuff."

So swift and striking was the turnaround that Advertising Age recently anointed the 46-year-old Fuller "editor of the year"--sweet revenge for a woman who'd been ignominiously ousted from the top spot at Glamour barely 18 months earlier. "She's shown an incredible ability to put her finger on the pulse of what readers grab for on the newsstand," says Ad Age editor Scott Donaton.

Just like us. But the surest measure of Fuller's success may lie at supermarket checkout counters, where Us has ignited a new brand of tabloid war. Already, it has provoked People into playing catch-up with a handful of copycat editorial tricks. Then in late October, Germany's powerful Bauer Publishing group launched a new challenger: an Us look-alike called In Touch Weekly with a cover price of $1.99--$1.30 less than its two rivals. Together, they're elbowing their way into that rowdy, rumor-infested territory that once was the domain of Star and the National Enquirer. "They're pitched at all those people who won't admit they watch Jerry Springer," says New York magazine consultant Martin Walker. "There are people who'll buy Us that wouldn't be caught dead with a supermarket tabloid on their coffee table."

At the Florida headquarters of American Media Inc., command central for the country's chief supermarket tabs, CEO David Pecker admits the new crop of star-studded weeklies has kept his scandal sheets from fully recovering after last year's anthrax attack on AMI's mailroom. As of September, the National Enquirer's newsstand sales were down 5.7 percent from last year to 1.5 million; Star's, 4.6 percent to 1.2 million--a loss Pecker blames, in part, on a price hike of 20 cents a copy. But he takes consolation from the fact that AMI's distribution arm handles both In Touch and Us. "The better they do," he says, "the more revenue I get from the other side."

The press has tried to portray a catfight between Fuller and People's new editor-in-chief, Martha Nelson. But Us has barely grazed the checkout counter goliath. Still, within six months of Fuller's arrival, Us's circulation shot up 16 percent to more than a million--allowing Wenner to raise his advertising rate base--while People's slipped 2.3 percent to 3.6 million. At a time when titles from Rosie to Sports Illustrated Women have bitten the dust, Samir Husni, a University of Mississippi media professor, notes that every little bit hurts. "Before, there was no competition to People," Husni says. "Bonnie has done a great job of awakening the sleeping giant."

Some critics decry Us as yet another symptom of the tabloidization of mainstream magazines, where photo spreads are edging out prose. Already, Maxim, Felix Dennis's beer-and-babes monthly, has swaggered to dominance among men's magazines. And his like-minded music glossy, Blender, has shaken up Wenner's once cerebral Rolling Stone. Now New York's media critic, Michael Wolff, sees Fuller pushing the flimsy celebrity genre to a new low--"something truly and excitingly and originally taw-dry." But Wenner himself shrugs off the tabloid slur. "Hey, what isn't tabloid these days?" he says. "People want it shorter and quicker and fun."

In Fuller he found a newsstand wizard who'd increased sales so much at teen bible YM, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, and Glamour that she'd been dubbed "the Circulator." But her name had also become synonymous with the dumbing-down and sexing-up of women's magazines. Those talents made her a perfect fit for Wenner's tabloid vision. "Bonnie just got it," he says. "It was a slam-dunk."

One reason Fuller's makeover of Us has shaken up the market is that it has blurred old-line magazine categories. While most celebrity titles treat stars with reverence, Us is not afraid to poke fun. It slaps staged glamour shots of them in designer gowns next to tabloid-style candids catching Cher at her front door in a caked white complexion mask. "We humanize celebrities as well as lionize them," Fuller says, "because our readers want to know what they're really like." But she also spices up her celebrity brew by adding fashion and beauty tips that put Us in competition with women's titles like InStyle and Marie Claire. "We're trying to show the worlds of fashion and celebrity overlap in so many ways," she says. "They're both showbiz."

Not that Fuller takes either universe too seriously. Across her crammed layouts, she draws arrows, circles, and campy captions that might be mistaken for graffiti penciled in by some smirking teen: An arrow aimed at the bulging belly of pregnant Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling reads, "Bun in the Oven." Then she tops it all with video-game-style headlines like "Kaboom!" and "Yowza!"

Now In Touch is borrowing from her bag of editorial tricks. Its fanfare-free launch was typical of the Bauer group, which has managed to remain almost unknown in the United States, despite its virtual stranglehold on supermarket checkout counters. There, its Woman's World sells 1.7 million copies a week, alongside a half-dozen other Bauer titles, including Twist and J-14, aimed at the preteen set.

Shelf hog. Last June, when Bauer killed one of its soap opera weeklies, the company kept control of 80,000 grocery and convenience store racks, ensuring In Touch prime display space. So far, that canny commercial strategy appears to be putting the squeeze on both People and Us. But unlike Fuller, In Touch editor Richard Spencer--a former soap opera writer--is sticking to the traditional, awestruck approach to the stars. "We need these people to live vicariously through," he says.

Spencer credits technology with stoking America's current celebrity craze: Thanks to computers, editors can screen as many as 4,000 paparazzi shots from around the world each week. But that technology may well outstrip the celebrity sheets' budgets. A bidding war for unscripted glimpses of the rich and famous has driven paparazzi prices to a stratospheric level: The first shot of Lopez smooching with Affleck reportedly cost People nearly $100,000.

The question is: How long can the current star mania last? Time Inc. seems to see no end in sight. It's researching a new showbiz-centric version of People to compete with Us, already being dubbed "People Lite." Still, one magazine seems ready to defy the trend. In a memo to writers last week, Ladies' Home Journal announced it was cutting back on its celebrity diet--looking for stories about "real women."

PHOTO (COLOR): STAR-STRUCK. Bonnie Fuller's makeover of Us Weekly magazine has earned her kudos, ignited a tabloid war, and inspired copycats of all stripes--including People and the new In Touch Weekly.

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By Marci McDonald