There’s nothing quite like a second coming, so you can only imagine how awesome it is to be the dude who’s been reborn so many times you can hardly keep count. STATUS’s first Renaissance issue cover boy, Elijah Wood, knows all about being reborn in all shapes and sizes. Starting his career as an adorable kid with a dolphin before putting on furry feet and a curly wig, Elijah is busy these days enriching the relationship between man and man’s best friend (which is apparently a pot-smoking, beer-drinking, teddy-bear loving Australian in a dog suit). With Lord of the Rings behind him, Wilfred ahead, and movies like Celeste and Jesse Forever, Pawn Shop Chronicles, and Grand Piano in the middle, it’s certain that there’ll be no end to Elijah’s reincarnation cycle.

Exclusively shot by NY photographer Kareem Black and styled by Valissa Yoe, we hung out with Elijah along the haunts of the Soho Grand and together, he and GioDion contemplate the Age of Enlightenment.

Talk about multiple personalities, we found all sorts of new ways of looking at Amanda Fucking Palmer during our interview with musician and artist (not to mention Mrs. Neil Gaiman). Chiming “keep calm and reBELLYon,” we dissect the Dresden Dolls front woman who gives a new meaning to “I’m every woman, it’s all in me.”

Don’t frack Sean Lennon‘s mother ‘coz he ain’t got no other… that goes for Yoko, too, we guess. Admitting that his life is an extension of his parents’, Sean tells our associate editor, Tindabs, that he’s not a scientist, activist, or an environmentalist. He’s just a musician trying to get the word across.

Gotye has been blowing up, and it doesn’t seem like his little bubble is going to pop. With a hit song like “Somebody That I Used To Know,” he and NanSan talk about what makes a hit and what you need to take it, too.

Also in the issue, we have Vivienne Westwood’s main squeeze and partner-in-crime Andreas Kronthaler, Ang Nawawala director Marie Jamora, Great Gatsby star Callan McAuliffe, fashion designer Juyoung Lee; and musicians Two Door Cinema Club, Bee Eyes, Stars, and Smashing Pumpkins. We also have a punch of toy designers for our Block Party as well as tat-tastic model Nathan Lane fighting for survival in our Fashion Editorial.

So what are you waiting for? Cop the copy and spread the word ‘coz it’s a new world, and we’re happy to be the first ones in.—DEXYLEBOWSKI