CONTRIBUTORS

Vanity Fair couldn't have found a better person to examine the neoconservative movement for this issue than contributing editor SAM TANENHAUS, who is currently writing a biography of William F. Buckley Jr., a longtime ally of the movement. "There is a lot of debate and argument in Washington about how influential the neocons are," says Tanenhaus, who began writing for V.F. in 1999. "There are conspiracy types who think the neocons run everything. Then there are journalists who say they are getting too much credit. I learned that the neocons do indeed exert a powerful influence in the White House, and I realized that their world has more layers than I had thought."

SAM KASHNER has written extensively about 1950s and 60s Hollywood, but he nevertheless learned a thing or two about Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, and Orson Welles while investigating the making of their 1963 film, The V.I.P.s. "One interesting discovery came when I met Burton's widow, Sally Hay," says Kashner. "They were married just one year when he died, at age 58, and it's such a tragedy because with her he was going to have a sane life." Hay even showed Kashner some of Burton's poems. "Burton, who revered authors and poets, was a wonderful writer, and it was great to see his work," Kashner says. In December, HarperCollins will publish Kashner's latest book, a memoir entitled When I Was Cool.

Covering the reality-TV craze for this issue brought back childhood memories for writer MARK SEAL, who was just 10 when his father, Bemey Seal, left his hometown of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to become a comedian. "We thought we were going to Hollywood, and we ended up moving to Corpus Christi, Texas, where he proceeded to make himself a star in local television," Seal says. "When I met Mike [Darnell] and Mike [Fleiss] and the people who populate their reality-TV shows, I saw my dad in them— lifelong fans who would do anything to get on television and will do just about anything once the cameras are on them." A movie adaptation of Without a Badge, the book Seal wrote with former N.Y.RD. detective Jerry Speziale, is currently in the works.

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NAME: KRISTA SMITH, SIGN: Libra. BIG BREAK: Being named V.F.'s West Coast editor, RECENT PROJECTS: Cover stories on Drew Barrymore, Salma Hayek, and Reese Witherspoon, FAVORITE LIP GLOSS: Bonne Bell Lip Smackers (Dr Pepper flavor), FAVORITE DESIGNERS: Dolce & Gabbana and Levi's. FAVORITE GUY'S GUY: John Elway. FAVORITE PRETTY-BOY: Allen Iverson, CELEBRITY CRUSH:

Gwen Stefani. FAVORITE OLD TV SHOWS:Bewitched and Charlie's Angels,CONTRIBUTIONS THIS MONTH: Teen captions, Polish-brothers profile, Michael Pitt interview, V.F. Camera. CATCHPHRASE: "I mean, come on/"

Contributing editor USA ROBINSON (here with Bono at this year's V.F. Oscar party) listens to over 100 CDs for her bimonthly Hot Tracks column. Robinson, who also spends nine months a year lining up subjects for V.F!s annual Music Issue, hears music in cars, recording studios, and over the phone. She is relentless in her efforts to get music in advance of release, despite the paranoia about CD burning and downloading on-line. "As if I would even know how to do that," says Robinson, who admits to limited technical skills. "At home, I play music on a boom box from the late 1980s. If something sounds good on that, it really sounds good."

In the two and a half years since assistant art director CHRIS MUELLER joined V.F., he has become an expert storyteller. "I really enjoy digging into a manuscript, learning as much about a subject as I can, and then trying to tell a story with piles and piles of pictures," he says. In addition to designing features and columns, Mueller usually works with Graydon Carter and design director David Harris on the magazine's cover. Outside the office, Mueller, who was raised in Nova Scotia by his native-New Yorker parents and now lives in Brooklyn, moonlights as the drummer of the band Swain.

Photographer NIGEL PARRY recently traveled to the Pentagon to take a portrait of Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz for this month's article about neoconservatives, which begins on page 114. "It was strange," Parry says of his highsecurity assignment. "I have never been on a shoot where I have had to give up my cell phone. Apparently, even when your phone is off, whoever is wishing to eavesdrop can use your phone as a microphone."

In the fall of 2004, Powerhouse Books will release Precious, Parry's collaboration with photographer Melanie Dunea.