CONTRIBUTORS

On page 108, contributing editor JIM WINDOLF goes behind the scenes with George Lucas and the cast of Star Wars: Episode IllRevenge of the Sith. "Some critics have argued that Lucas is more interested in selling tickets and toys than anything else," Windolf says. "But I think the Star Wars movies are heartfelt. He's in the same league with other directors of his generation who are taken more seriously, like Martin Scorsese, Robert Altman, Steven Spielberg, and Francis Ford Coppola." As a kid, Windolf saw the first Star Wars movie four times during its first theatrical run, in the summer of '77. "Nobody rented videos back then, so my friends and I went back over and over. We did the same thing for Tommy, Jaws, and Young Frankenstein. Also Earthquake, but that was mainly for the 'Sensurround'—this special effect that shook the seats."

When writer DONOVAN WEBSTER arrived in Jordan to meet 10 Iraqi detainees, some from the ill-fated Abu Ghraib prison, he didn't know that he had obtained an interview with the prisoner whose lawyers claim is the hooded man in one of the scandal's most haunting images. "What was shocking was how lovely a person he was," Webster says. "All of the detainees were swept up in this, for better or worse. They're not so much angry as bewildered and perplexed by what happened." Webster's first piece for Vanity Fair, about D.C.-area sniper Lee Malvo, appeared in September 2004.

For his first V.F. piece, SCOTT ANDERSON traveled to one of the most volatile areas of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Gaza Strip. Anderson, third from left, and photographer PAOLO PELLEGRIN, second from rightshown here with members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades—have collaborated on reports from trouble spots such as Albania, Libya, and Sudan, but Anderson says that Gaza "made for a degree of almost disorientation. One night I'm with an Israeli Army ambush squad, a few days later I'm talking to Palestinian militants, and on the next day Jewish settlers," he says. "What's unique about Gaza is the close proximity of the parallel universes."

CONTINUED ON PAGE 54

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 50

Contributing editor PATRICIA BOSWORTH writes frankly about her former boss Bob Guccione, larger-than-life pomographer and founder of the Penthouse empire. "It was both challenging and surreal to edit an erotic magazine for women at the height of the sexual revolution," says Bosworth, who for one and a half years served as executive editor of Viva. What was it like to interview the ailing Guccione 30 years later? "The only difference is, this time he didn't keep me waiting for two hours." Bosworth is completing her biography of Jane Fonda.

Upon hearing rumors of a surge in burglaries in the exclusive neighborhoods of West Los Angeles, contributing editor MICHAEL SHNAYERSON was skeptical: why hadn't it gotten any press? As one story led to another, he began to understand. "Residents were reluctant to talk," says Shnayerson. "Some were scared; others feared the news might have a chilling effect on real-estate values up in the hills." Yet, by the time he headed out to investigate, frustration had overcome fear. "People are finally saying 'Enough.' They really feel something has to be done. Many victims were even willing to go on the record." Shnayerson is working on a book called Coal River, about mountaintop removal in West Virginia.

This month DOMINICK DUNNE, who has written for V.F. about the trials of O. J. Simpson, the Menendez brothers, and Martha Stewart, traveled to the small town of Georgetown, Delaware, to cover the Eisner-Ovitz-Disney trial. Dunne (far right, with Kim Masters and Michael Eisner) relinquished Manhattan's social scene for the out-of-court drama that unfolded at one of the town's two main eateries. "The hub of social life was lunchtime at Smith's Family Restaurant," he says, "where people from the courthouse and the locals all discussed the trial. It was packed every day." Dunne is filming the third season of Power, Privilege, and Justice, for Court TV, and working on a novel called A Solo Act.

I Contributing editor JAMES WOLCOTT, who dissects gay TV this month (page 80), foresees a larger political battle in the making. "Since the election, it's as if Philip Roth's The Plot Against America were being enacted—only with gays' being targeted instead of Jews," says Wolcott, whose blog appears at vanityfair.com. "The 2006 midterm elections threaten to throw more anti-same-sex-marriage referendums on the ballot, and I'm hearing more complaints from cultural conservatives that 'the homosexual lifestyle is being shoved in our face'—which suggests they're going to try to make a move against TV programs they consider too gayed-up."

FOR DETAILS, SEE CREDITS PAGE