CONTRIBUTORS

Ingrid Sischy

When dressing to meet Kristen Stewart for this month's cover story, "Hollywood's Rebel Belle" (page 90), contributing editor Ingrid Sischy says she "almost wore a turtleneck to protect against a quick bite" from the Twilight actress. Though Stewart didn't have the fangs, Sischy learned how uniquely suited the young actress was for the role. "Her fearlessness as a performer carries over to a fearlessness in life," says Sischy, who first noticed Stewart in 2002, opposite Jodie Foster in Panic Room, Sischy heard that Stewart, then 11, kept a wolf-dog hybrid as a pet. "When years later I found out she was doing the Twilight series," says Sischy, "I thought, Just perfect."

Platon

On their way to meet Benjamin Netanyahu, photographer Platon (right) and contributing photo producer Ron Beinner heard that the Israeli prime minister's father had died. After sitting shivah, Netanyahu graciously made time for the photo shoot that accompanies "The Netanyahu Paradox," on page 102. The two also traveled to Los Angeles for "A Case So Cold It Was Blue" (page 122), which details the murder of nurse Sherri Rasmussen. Whether in the prime minister's office or at the L.A.RD. headquarters, Platon's approach is the same. "My job is to humanize situations and to tell the subject's stories through visuals," he says.

Daphne Beal and Sean Wilsey

In "Lone Star Bohemia" (page 112), Daphne Beal and Sean Wilsey detail the evolution of the artist community in Marfa, Texas, the couple's part-time home. As a frequent contributor to Vogue, Beal was reluctant to co-write the article with her husband. "I found the idea weirdly terrifying, wondering if my own voice and sensibility would be subsumed by the we-ness of it," says Beal. Acclaimed for his 2005 memoir, Oh the Glory of It All, Wilsey confirms the success of their writing partnership: "Working with Daphne helped banish the scourge of my writing life, Internet procrastination, and replaced it with live debate."

David Margolick

Contributing editor David Margolick interviewed Benjamin Netanyahu for Vanity Fair in 1996, when the politician was making his first bid for prime minister. "He terminated the interview because he got annoyed with my questions," recalls Margolick. For "The Netanyahu Paradox" (page 102), Margolick returned to Israel to profile Netanyahu, now in his second stint as prime minister. "He's matured," says Margolick. "While his feelings towards reporters probably haven't changed much, he's more deft in dealing with them." Margolick is currently working on a book about novelist John Home Bums.

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Sheila Weller

Of Grace Slick (far right), the iconic lead singer of Jefferson Airplane, Sheila Weller recalls, "Every American female over the age of 14 wanted to be Grace in 1967." In "Suddenly That Summer" (page 68), Weller recounts that year, when the counterculture was at its height. At Slick's Malibu home, the two bonded over a shared affection for guitarist Jimi Hendrix, whom Weller profiled for Rolling Stone, in 1969. "I kind of told Grace I thought he had a little crush on me," says Weller. "She stared at me and said, 'I'm jealous.' " Weller's 2008 book, Girls Like Us, is being developed as a feature him.

Amy Fine Collins

Before she was assigned to wiite about Jack Vettriano, Britain's most reproduced contemporary artist, special correspondent Amy Fine Collins had never seen one of his paintings. "He's completely self-taught," says Collins. "A working-class outsider—an ex-coal miner, in fact—essentially rejected by the entire art establishment." In "The Singing Butler Did It" (page 80), Collins examines Vettriano's work and why critics continue to turn up their noses. Collins's 2011 article for VF.com on the sex trafficking of Americans recently resulted in the creation of a victims'-services facility in Hartford, Connecticut, the first of its kind.

Tony Kushner

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner pays honor to Shakespeare in the Park, celebrating its 50th anniversary at the Delacorte Theater, on page 100. The open-air amphitheater in Central Park can present fresh challenges for actors. Kushner's translation of Mother Courage and Her Children, starling Meryl Streep, was staged there during one of New York City's rainiest years. "The set was mostly dirt, so by the end of the evening it was mud, and Meryl incorporated it into her performance," says Kushner. "Thinking of her slogging around in the mud singing 'The Song of the Great Capitulation' is one of my favorite memories of any theater that I've had anything to do with."

Lenora Jane Estes and Katherine Stirling

Appearing on newsstands later this month will be The Best of Vanity Fair: Private Paradises, a collection of articles on the ritzy hideaways and getaways that most of us can afford only to read about (for just $10.99). "It's an incredible glimpse into these other-worldly homes and lives, done with the Vanity Fair panache," says articles editor Katherine Stirling (right), who pulled triple duty this month as editor of the Vanities section and the profile of Benjamin Netanyahu. Stirling put Private Paradises together with assistant editor Lenora Jane Estes, who edits the magazine's contents pages. How often do they get to go on vacation? "Working on this was like a mini-holiday," Estes says tactfully.