CONTRIBUTORS

According to senior articles editor AIMEE BELL, who oversaw this month's royals portfolio and related articles, the project was an extraordinary yearlong feat of collaboration on the part of the V.F. staff. She herself compiled the elaborate royals family tree (page 417) in collaboration with Guy Sainty, a specialist in royal-succession law whom she describes as "the human equivalent of the Almanack de Gotha. " With the help of the actual Almanack—a. royalgenealogy reference book—Bell spent more than a year immersing herself in European history and palace protocol. "There were many early-morning phone calls to Europe," says Bell, "but the horror of getting up at four A.M. was alleviated by the fact that they all have the most elegant manners— especially the Bulgarians."

This month, BOB COLACELLO trades in his usual title of special correspondent for that of royal expert and consulting editor. In his 19 years at V.F., Colacello has written about royals and aristocrats including King Constantine of Greece, Prince Victor Emmanuel of Italy, Archduchess Francesca von Habsburg of Austria, Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, and Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles. "It's the combination of history and glamour that gets me," Colacello says. "I think my fascination with royalty began when I came home from grade school one day and found my grandmother crying over the assassination of the teenage king of Iraq." He adds, "As Fitzgerald said of the rich, the royals really are different from you and me."

Contributing editor REINALDO HERRERA was one of the key figures in the making of the royals portfolio—a project that took more than a year to complete. Herrera, whose distinguished family hails from Venezuela, was involved in every aspect of the portfolio and served as liaison to many of the royal houses. "The monarchial system is probably the oldest system of government the world has known, and as it has evolved into a constitutional monarchy, it has become the system that ensures the greatest liberties to its subjects," he says. "Our readers will get to see the historical connections between the families: where they started, how long they've been reigning, what has happened to them. It's very interesting to see that, after thousands of years, the monarchies are still going strong."

Since coming to V.F. in March 1998, contributing photography producer RON BEINNER has put together some memorable shoots, from Herb Ritts's portraits of Monica Lewinsky to Jonas Karlsson's "One Week in September" supplement following 9/11. For this issue, Beinner produced more than 30 royalsportfolio shoots as well as the sessions with Queen Rania and King Simeon. "We had a great mix of photographers, and we did our best to match the personalities of the subjects and the photographers," says Beinner. "I would like to think they all enjoyed themselves on the shoots— I know I had a wonderful time."

Asked by Vanity Fair to write about the past, present, and future of the world's monarchs for this month's special royals issue, His Royal Highness PRINCE MICHAEL OF GREECE was delighted to oblige. "What is the future of monarchy? Is it useful? I have tried to answer these questions both for the magazine and for myself," he says. Regarding the photographs of his two daughters, Princesses Olga and Alexandra, that appear in the portfolio, Prince Michael says, "I'm always delighted to see them in pictures, because as a father I think they are extremely beautiful."

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PHILIPP VON HESSEN, who photographed several of the royals-portfolio subjects, including his sister Mafalda von Hessen, would himself be King of Finland today if Finland had a monarchy. A professional photographer, von Hessen moved to New York five years ago but rarely mixes with the local European aristocrats. "These people move in and out. I make my living in New York, so it's a bit different," he says. The modem world is also making aristocracy a bit harder to suss out. "Many Europeans love titles. But in Germany, for example, nowadays you can change your name, take your wife's, mix them together, and the like. So," he says, laughing, "a recent study said that in a few decades twothirds of Germans may have a title."

VERONIQUE PLAZOLLES, VF.'s Paris editor for the last 13 years, found working on this month's portfolio of young royals of Europe alternately exhilarating and exhausting. "It has been a very interesting assignment, to say the least—from trying to organize travel arrangements during the transportation strikes in France to finding a last-minute stylist in Stockholm," she says. Plazolles got her biggest thrill from attending Prince Jean of France's photo shoot in Dreux, France. "I felt privileged to visit the stunning chapelle royale with the prince as our guide," Plazolles says, "and seeing the crypt was especially moving." The project, she adds, "enabled me to enter a fascinating world that I didn't know at all—the world of the royals without their crowns."

In the late 1970s, contributing photographer HELMUT NEWTON (shown here in Singapore in 1939) photographed his first royal, Princess Caroline of Monaco. For this month's royals portfolio, Newton shot Princess Caroline's brother, Prince Albert of Monaco, as well as Princess Olga of Greece and Prince Emanuele Filiberto of Italy. So how does Newton, who has been shooting for V.F. since 1983, prepare for such stately sessions? "I usually wear my crown during these sittings," he says from his home in Monaco. Newton, whose photographs have been collected in dozens of books, recently completed his longawaited memoir, Autobiography, which Doubleday publishes this month.

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Growing up in Los Angeles, editor-at-large MATT TYRNAUER was always aware of Frank Gehry's architecture. "Friends of mine lived in Gehry-designed houses. He did a plan for my high school, and he even designed the local shopping mall and a Mexican restaurant," says Tyrnauer, who wrote about the architect's Guggenheim Bilbao for Vanity Fair in August 1997. "Even though Gehry is an international star, there is something intrinsically Southern Californian about what he does. It's probably impossible to fully understand what he is up to if you don't know L.A.'s peculiar charms."

JAMES FOX, author of White Mischief and Five Sisters: Hte Langhornes of Virginia, wasn't sure at first how to approach this month's article on the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. "The trouble with this story is that the ground has been endlessly covered," Fox says. "Yet I was surprised by the way newly released government documents could stir up so much fresh material and memory in an old folktale." In the end, Fox came away with a new perspective on the saga. "To enter the world of the Windsors is to enter a world of surrealism," he says. "The fondly remembered love affair of the century was really a dependence of baffling oddness."

During the year they spent researching Europe's royal families, editorial assistants ALEX MARTINELLI and ABBY FIELD picked up some valuable skills, such as how to address princes and princesses on the telephone. "It took some time to get used to saying Your Royal or Imperial Highness," Field says. The pair also spent late nights writing captions for the royals portfolio, enjoyed a few "working lunches" with senior editors, and devoted some time to choosing their favorite princes. "The royals of Europe are the equivalent of Hollywood celebrities in America," says Martinelli."Their love lives are scrutinized on a daily basis."

For his story this month about the Bush administration's silent attack on the environment, contributing editor MICHAEL SHNAYERSON zeroed in on the Interior Department. "The deputy secretary, Steve Griles, turned out to be the most dramatic example of what is both distressing and impressive about this regime: he's very smart and he really knows how to work the system to get what he wants. But the question is: Is this what the rest of us want for our public lands?" Shnayerson also gained unprecedented access to the Interior Department, interviewing Secretary Gale Norton and many of her top appointees.

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