CONTRIBUTORS

The author of eight V.F. cover profiles, contributing editor Ned Zeman says this month's subject, Colin Farrell, "is the first and probably the last celebrity who never seemed to want the interview to end." After two days of pub-crawling through Farrell's hometown of Dublin, Ireland, Zeman turned off his tape recorder and said, "O.K., we're done," only to have Farrell respond, "No, we're not. We'll swing by later and go for a gargle or two." Zeman adds that he would like his mother, Evelyn, to know he really tried to remove all profanity from Farrell's quotes, but when he did so "the story was half its length."

Writing about big-wave surfers reminded contributing editor Evgenia Peretz how surreal the job of a reporter can be. In Santa Cruz this March, she walked into the house of someone named Flea, and about 10 bleary-eyed guys, with names such as P-Dog, Skindog, and Barney, emerged from a cloud of pot smoke. "I admit I was frightened," says Peretz, who knew zero about surfing before being assigned the story. But after drinking a few beers and enduring critiques of her wardrobe and name-calling ("late-night-in-the-library latte girl" being a favorite), she became friends with them. "Now Barney and I chat on the phone and plan visits," says Peretz. "One day he may even get my name right."

The author of 15 books, including last year's Flaneur: A Stroll Through the Paradoxes of Paris, Edmund White first met Beatrice Monti della Corte when they worked together on a 1997 V.F. article on the artist Cy Twombly. White then visited her and her husband, author Gregor von Rezzori, at their home in Tuscany and was enchanted by both the landscape and the couple. He returned in 2000, after von Rezzori died, to take part in the writers' retreat there. "They were very different as a couple, because he was dreamy and she is very practical and goaloriented," says White, whose article on the retreat begins on page 132. "There is a French expression that fits her: Elle ne perd pas le nord, which means she never loses sight of the north."

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The first time A. E. Hotchner went to Elaine Kaufman's famous Manhattan saloon, Elaine's, he was with Nan and Gay Talese. "Arriving with them gave me a nod of the head," Hotchner says, referring to one of the four stages of greetings Kaufman gives her notable clientele. "It wasn't until the publication of Papa Hemingway in 1966 that I graduated to the peck on the cheek, which was a great honor. Now I'm a great big hug and kiss." On page 140, Hotchner honors her nearly 40 years of operation.

He has covered wars in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Sierra Leone, but contributing editor Sebastian Junger, with photographer Teun Voeten (far left) in Albania, says his story about the trafficking of women from the former Soviet republics was the most frightening article he has ever reported. "The dangers of war are very identifiable," Junger explains, "but organized crime is a threat anywhere at any time." This is the fifth V.F. article that Junger and Voeten have worked on together.

Contributing photographer Mark Seliger, who shot 134 covers for Rolling Stone since 1987, makes his first appearance in V.F. this month with a spotlight on the Austin Powers girls and a story on big-wave surfers. "You're hanging out with extremely passionate but supercool athletes," Seliger says of the surfers. "They're like the guys from Ridgemont High grown up and sophisticated." Seliger's books include Physiognomy, Lenny Kravitz, and When They Came to Take My Father: Voices of the Holocaust. He is currently working on a book of portraits of artists, all photographed in the stairwell of his Greenwich Village apartment.

With the death of makeup artist Kevyn Aucoin, the world of fashion and beauty has lost a great innovator and friend. Naomi and Linda, Cher and Liza, Gwyneth and Julia— all trusted Kevyn to transform them into swans. Sometimes, if he wasn't available, the shoot wouldn't happen. When V.F. assembled some of today's most glamorous actresses—including Catherine Deneuve, Sophia Loren, and Nicole Kidman—for the 2001 Hollywood-issue cover, pandemonium nearly broke out in the quest for his attention. "He was a confidence giver in a world filled with insecure beauties," says V.F. fashion director Elizabeth Saltzman. "And he was just a damned good guy."