CONTRIBUTORS

Evgenia Peretz and Federico Ranipini

The scandalous love life of Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi is no secret, but what confounded contributing editor Evgenia Peretz—who wrote "La Dolce Viagra" (page 120) in collaboration with Italian journalist Federico Rampini, the U.S. bureau chief of the newspaper La Repubblica—was Berlusconi's blindly loyal supporters. "The decadence and debauchery of his lifestyle is shocking, of course," says Peretz. "What's more stunning is that he has remained in office. In any other Western country a leader like this would have been thrown out years ago—by his own party."

Jonathan Becker

Apart from their wealth, contributing photographer Jonathan Becker's principal subjects in this issue had little in common. First was Lisa Maria Falcone ("Falcone Quest," page 140), "a girl from Harlem and now on top of the world," Becker says, "photographed in a kind of upscale West. Side Story setting." Then Prince Jefri of Brunei ("The Prince Who Blew Through Billions," page 130), "a guy with countless custom-made Rolls-Royces and more disposable income than anyone should dare imagine, and there he was downtown, a plaintiff in a gritty New York courthouse subjected to a grumpy, hunched-over judge. All very New York."

Bethany McLean

When contributing editor Bethany McLean began researching Philip and Lisa Maria Falcone for her story "Falcone Quest" (page 140), she was interested mainly in his tremendous rise from hockey player to hedge-fund billionaire he and McLean grew up in neighboring towns in the Mesabi Iron Range, in Minnesota. But she soon discovered that Falcone was known as much for his audacious wife as for his financial successes. "You don't meet many people like her," says McLean.

"She's a true original." McLean's second book, All the Devils Are Here (co-authored with Joe Nocera), will be out in paperback from Penguin this August.

James Wolcott

Contributing editor James Wolcott marvels at the resilience of the Broadway musical in "Pop Goes the Great White Way" (page 76). "There was just a ton of stuff popping this year!" says Wolcott. He was struck by how much he enjoyed the mega-hit The Book of Mormon, by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, despite not being a South Park fan. "I was really impressed with the way they use Broadway history and lore. It's kind of a parody of a bombastic 80s Broadway musical, with a little Jerome Robbins and Bob Fosse thrown in. It's quite an achievement "

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Eva Gabrielsson

Eva Gabrielsson and Stieg Larsson lived and wrote together from 1974 until his death, in 2004 (shortly before his "Millennium"' trilogy of crime novels topped best-seller lists worldwide). Gabrielsson, an architect, author, and political activist, wrote "There Are Things I Want You to Know" about Stieg Larsson and Me (Seven Stories Press)—adapted in "Stieg Larsson's Long Good-Bye" (page 82)—"to show that our life made up a great part of 'Millennium,' " she says, "and to give some understanding of who we were and why we stayed together for so long."

Katie Nicholl

"I will always look back on April 29, 2011, as one of the most incredible days of my career," says Katie Nicholl, the author of The Making of a Royal Romance and the royals editor for the U.K.'s Mail on Sunday. Nicholl, who writes about the wedding and the couple's new life together in "Mr. and Mi's. Wales" (page 106), has been chronicling Will and Kate's relationship for eight years. Although she "felt a severe case of post-nuptial depression" after the ceremony was over, she looks forward to "charting the meteoric rise of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge for a long time."

Nicky Haslam

In the Hall of Fame on page 75, the London-based interior designer, memoirist, and social force Nicky Haslam salutes the conservationist Mark Shand, for whom Haslam created a "sexy bachelor pad with a bit of Indian stuff" when Shand was just 17. The Eastern touches would prove to be a lasting theme in Shand's life as he embarked on a globe-trotting career of environmental activism dedicated in particular to protecting elephants. Haslam is also on a constant world tour, with current design projects in Moscow, New Orleans, and the South of France, among other places.

Michael Shnayerson

It was at Hamptons dinner parties that contributing editor Michael Shnayerson first heard whispers about an internecine battle over one of the area's few remaining family farms. Investigating the story for "Betting the Farm" (page 92), he found it to be even more complicated than the rumors had suggested. "This month everyone will hit the beaches to relax and forget about their struggles," he says, "while only a few feet away this tense drama with enormous stakes unfolds." Shnayerson collaborated with Harry Belafonte on the singer's memoir, My Song, to be published in October by Knopf.