Peter Rainer

Through all his career ups and downs and ups, Robert Altman has been a kind of cultural hero for writer Peter Rainer ever since he saw McCabe and Mrs. Miller. “His restless creativity is a freak of nature,” he says. Rainer is the film critic for the Christian Science Monitor and formerly reviewed movies for New York magazine. He was chairman of the National Society of Film Critics from 1989-2004, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism in 1998.

Jennifer Pendleton

Jennifer Pendleton was such a dogged reporter on “TV Movies–Four Decades of Directorial Excellence” that she tracked down director Jeff Bleckner on a Sunday morning in his hotel room in Lithuania, where he was filming. “The call showed up on my phone bill for $300,” she laughs. A freelance journalist, Pendleton was previously L.A. bureau chief for Advertising Age and a reporter for Variety. She has written extensively about the entertainment industry for the Los Angeles Times, Entertainment Weekly, Fortune and many other publications.

James Ulmer

James Ulmer first reported on piracy in the early ’90s while checking out the video dens in New Delhi and Shanghai for the Hollywood Reporter, where he was International Editor. His company, the Ulmer Scale, publishes the annual film industry guides, the Actor and Director Hot Lists, which he has adapted into a book for St. Martin’s Press. Ulmer’s work appears regularly in The New York Times. He is currently working on a book and documentary about politics and religion in Hollywood.

Michael Grecco

“What surprised me was how serene his world is. It was like going to a church where he was the priest,” says photographer Michael Grecco of his experience shooting Robert Altman at his Malibu home. Grecco’s work  has appeared in Wired, Entertainment Weekly, Esquire and Premiere. He has published The Art of Portrait Photography and is currently working on a book about “found beach people” in Miami and Los Angeles. He has won awards from International Photography, Photo Design and the Los Angeles and New York Art Directors Clubs.