CONTRIBUTORS

Contributing photographer BRUCE WEBER spent three months traveling coast to coast in search of the perfect image of the body and spirit of the Olympic athlete. The result of all his hard work— VF's 29-page portfolio of Americans headed to the Summer Games—begins on page 341. Weber gave all the Olympians—from the famed, such as tennis ace Andy Roddick, to the relatively unknown yet extremely talented, such as rhythmicgymnastics star Mary Sanders—a chance to show off their skills in front of the camera before displaying them to the world. "I thought about their parents and what they've sacrificed to get them here," Weber says. "I wanted these photos to be a reward."

When contributing editor LESLIE BENNETTS met Reese Witherspoon in L.A. to talk movies and marriage, she found the 28-year-old star to be a lot less Elle Woods than Becky Sharp, the opinionated, ambitious character she plays in this month's movie adaptation of Thackeray's Vanity Fair. "Reese is very old-fashioned in a lot of ways," says Bennetts, who, as the mother of a smart, studious teenage daughter, means that as a compliment. "She's determined to succeed through talent and drive rather than through exploiting her sexuality— which is an unusual choice today." Not that Bennetts and her daughter are anti-Elle. "We thought Legally Blonde was a lot of fun," she admits.

Harvard professor NIALL FERGUSON brings a transatlantic perspective to his look at George W. Bush (see page 382), whom he compares to the English monarch Henry V. Ferguson, an acclaimed expert on international history, moved to the U.S. from England last year and has come to know the country in, as he puts it, the Age of Bush. "The first thing that hits you when you come from the outside," says Ferguson, "is that the American frame of reference is pretty exclusively American. But the United States of 2004 cannot be understood with reference to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. It's now much more like a belligerent monarchy than a rebellious republic." Ferguson, one of Time's 100 most influential people of 2004, is at work on a global history of World War II in which Asia will loom as large as Europe.

A lifelong fixture on New York's social scene, GLORIA VANDERBILT has been observed and talked about since day one. But recently, Vanderbilt decided it was her turn to sit back and reflect. Her new book, a memoir of her romances called It Seemed Important at the Time (an excerpt begins on page 396), communicates her feeling about what's most important to her: the thrill of expectation. "I really do feel that the most exciting part of my life is ahead of me," she says. An exhibition of Vanderbilt's collage paintings opens October 9 at the Andre Zarre Gallery in New York.

For this issue, contributing editor DAVID HALBERSTAM returns to two subjects he knows well—sports and the Vietnam War—with articles on the Olympics and the military service records of George W. Bush and John Kerry. Halberstam, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1964 for his New York Times war reporting, says, "There were times when firing was going on around me that I screamed at myself for coming to Vietnam." The Coldest Winter, his book about the Korean War, is due out from Hyperion next fall.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 120

FOR DETAILS, SEE CREDITS PAGE

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 114

"Driving is a metaphor for everything fundamental in life," says contributing editor AMY FINE COLLINS, whose new book, The God of Driving, is excerpted beginning on page 264. "Love, fear, death—it all gets condensed and accentuated behind the wheel. How you drive reveals a lot about who you are." Collins didn't drive at all until three years ago, when she met Attila (also pictured here), a gifted instructor who transformed her into a fledgling motorhead. "I wrote up our road adventures in real time, while they were taking place. I never knew what would happen next. The whole experience was fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants fun—sometimes literally, like when I nearly bounced off the backseat of a motorcycle."

Long before he began profiling Manhattan nightlife queen Amy Sacco (see page 272), GEORGE GURLEY met her informally—when she threw him out of her nightclub Bungalow 8. "I deserved it," says Gurley, a staff reporter at The New York Observer, "but never have I been ejected so elegantly. I was thanking her for kicking me out." For the story, Gurley spent hours inside the club observing Sacco in action. "I was surprised by Amy's ability to stay up after four A.M., socialize, take care of spoiled, intoxicated people, run a business, go to sleep, get up, have a full normal day, then do it all over again," says Gurley, whose favorite Bungalow 8 experience was knocking back tequila shots with David Lee Roth.

In 2001, senior articles editor BRUCE HANDY chronicled the short life of Cinerama—a wide-screen motion-picture system that awed audiences when it debuted, in 1952. This month, beginning on page 320, Handy delves into the history of Cinerama's photographic equivalent, Colorama. These giant murals, created by Kodak and displayed in Manhattan's Grand Central station from 1950 to 1990, greeted travelers with colorful images of family, nature, and fun. "In the early days they worked really hard to take advantage of the width, with sometimes strange results," says Handy. "There'd be a picture of dancing teenagers choreographed to look like a cast-of-thousands scene out of The Robe or Ben-Hur. "

CONTINUED ON PAGE 124

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 120

In writing about Lee Malvo—the Jamaican teenager who morphed into one of America's most disturbing domestic terrorists under the influence of John Allen Muhammad-DONOVAN WEBSTER had "access that a reporter could only dream of," thanks in part to evaluating psychologist Dewey Cornell. "I was welcomed into [Malvo's] family," Webster says. "I lived among them. All these people in his wake loved him and felt incredible sympathy for him." For Webster, the implausibility of the teen's transformation was best expressed by a friend of Malvo's, who asked, "What are the odds of the pen in your hand turning into a snake right now?" This month, HarperCollins will release The Burma Road, Webster's book about World War II, in paperback.

Laughter is still the best medicine, especially when President George W. Bush is what's making you ill. In his satirical journal of Private First Class Ricky Gonzalez (see page 332), DOUGLAS McGRATH takes a wry look at the antics of Bush and Co. "It's a good way to make fun of the president that gives you both public and private access," he says. "For me, it's almost therapeutic." McGrath, whose career as a fictional diarist began at The New Republic, is a screenwriter and director whose films include Nicholas Nickleby and Emma. He is now working on a movie that chronicles Truman Capote's creation of In Cold Blood.

This is Fanfair editor PUNCH HUTTON'S sixth year as a New Yorker and as a Vanity Fair staffer. The Los Angeles native describes her section as "everything pop culture—it's about where we live, where we holiday, what we do for entertainment." Working closely with the Fanfair team, Hutton pores over layouts, examining the most minute details in the belief that, ultimately, "it's just as much about how the page looks as what's written on it." Hutton credits her cross-country network of friends for helping her stay ahead of the curve. "I'm thrilled when we put something in the section and three months later I hear people talking about it," she says. "I love getting things first."

CONTINUED ON PAGE 136

FOR DETAILS, SEE CREDITS PAGE

c** ^°

«t#s

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 124

When photographer NIGEL PARRY traveled to London to shoot journalist and Tory-party vice-chairman Boris Johnson at his office at The Spectator magazine, he was disappointed at first to find the place looking uncharacteristically pristine. Apparently, it had been cleaned after a party the previous night. The picture brightened, however, when Johnson, with his "massive shock of gold hair," arrived via bicycle, carrying his necktie in one pocket and his breakfast of coffee and croissant in the other. He was a "superb specimen of English eccentricity," says Parry, an Englishman, who recently photographed neoconservatives Richard Perle, William Kristol, and Paul Wolfowitz for V.F.

This month, contributing editor MICHAEL WOLFF profiles Boris Johnson, the conservative editor of Britain's biting politicalcommentary weekly The Spectator (see page 242). Wolff was intrigued by the fact that Johnson—London's hippest Tory, who, despite his ubiquity in the British media, has largely been ignored by the American press—is "an editor of an opinion magazine who might well become the prime minister of his country. His main interest, as opposed to most politicians, is in expressing himself." Wolff has won two National Magazine Awards in the past three years.

Photo-research associate IAN BASCETTA'S job incorporates the best of both visual worlds: researching classic, exquisite photos and producing the shoots of rising stars. From finding those tiny little heads on the Horoscope page every month to assigning portraits for the Proust Questionnaire and Vanities opener (this month it's Rashida Jones, on page 327), Bascetta is always on the lookout for a great image. "I'll be on the phone one minute talking to the basement archive, begging for the rarest photo of a Hollywood legend," he says, "and the next second I'm talking to an ingenue's agent about her dietary concerns and measurements."

FOR DETAILS, SEE CREDITS PAGE