About HollywoodChicago.com
HollywoodChicago.com (an Illinois LLC) was launched to deliver timely and trusted local and national news, reviews and interviews for the exciting arts and entertainment spectrum. Founded by veteran journalist Adam Fendelman, we are your daily source for:
- Breaking film news (covering the U.S. with a specialty on Chicago)
- Film reviews (delving into what makes success or failure rather than just what happens)
- Humanized film interviews
- Chicago theater reviews
- Television reviews
- DVD reviews
This is our privacy policy. These are our global news pickups. Our logos are here. Our media kit is here. To get to know us better, our staff biographies in order of joining are below.
HollywoodChicago.com is syndicated on Starpulse.com, which is consistently listed in the comScore top 100 Internet entertainment properties. Starpulse.com reaches an average of 8 million monthly visitors and 45 million monthly page views.
Examiner.com is one of the fastest-growing Web sites for local news and information. Serving 57 local markets, the site connects consumers with a premium blend of news and information from the best local sources.
HollywoodChicago.com is syndicated as its Chicago film channel. Examiner.com averages 2 million monthly unique visitors and 6 million monthly unique page views. The Examiner is also in print in San Francisco, Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
Adam Fendelman: Publisher, Editor-in-Chief
Dustin Levell: Senior Staff Writer
Patrick McDonald: Staff Writer
Allison Pitaccio: Staff Writer
Rachel Faith: Hollywood Correspondent
Alissa Norby: Chicago Theater Critic
Adam Fendelman: Publisher, Editor-in-Chief
Adam Fendelman has been a writer since the womb (even then he was scribing in his head). Raring to put his art to real-world practice, he leapt out of the University of Missouri-Columbia journalism doors in 2000.
With no prior background in business or tech writing, little did Adam know his first journalism gig out of college would be for MidwestBusiness.com. While currently serving as its editor-in-chief, his other ecstasy found a home with the creation of HollywoodChicago.com: film. Adam lives for being moved.
He backdrops his life with the stimuli that make him feel alive. Film, theater and fine fare jive especially well in his world. He thrives after the sun goes down, relishes dotting his mouth with sweets and savors foreign wheat beer if the pour’s done right.
These days in Chicago, he can be found daring to champion his hometown St. Louis Cardinals, attempting to work out, screening zillions of movies and supporting struggling actors everywhere. Though he doesn’t yet have kids, HollywoodChicago.com is his baby.
Adam is also a Chicago theater critic for Centerstage Chicago (part of the Sun-Times Media Group), a Chicago film writer for Go2 Media, the Chicago IsMyHome editor, an accredited film critic with the Chicago Film Critics Association and a Rotten Tomatoes-listed film critic. He is also the exclusive cell phones guide at About.com (part of the New York Times Company).
E-mail Adam Fendelman.
Read Adam Fendelman’s writing in our news section and our reviews section.
Dustin Levell: Senior Staff Writer
Dustin Levell is a recovering Hoosier who received a degree in mass communications from the University of Evansville.
While there, he attended lectures by Kevin Smith and Jules Feiffer and founded the University of Evansville Film Society. The society brought a mix of classic American and international cinema to campus.
Dustin spent six years working as a projectionist at a movie theatre. While most people think this would allow him to see a lot of movies, he spent most of his time watching teenagers make out in the back of the theatre.
In Chicago, Dustin can be seen on stages around town as a comedian and actor. He plans on one day flying to Pittsburgh – not today, but one day.
E-mail Dustin Levell.
Read Dustin Levell’s writing in our news section and our reviews section.
Patrick McDonald: Staff Writer
It is rumored that Pat McDonald was conceived at a drive-in during a double feature of “It Came From Outer Space” and “Touch of Evil,” which may explain his movie review perspective.
After scoring a film minor from the movie-mad Indiana University, McDonald took a detour from his Chicago advertising career to volunteer for the city’s film festival. He established an e-mail movie review newsletter in the 1990s. Following the millenium, cyberspace beckoned and the McDonald movie reviews joined the blogosphere in The Last Blog in Cyberspace.
He was discovered for HollywoodChicago.com while wearing a tight sweater and sitting at the Woolworth’s soda fountain (or at least that’s how he likes to tell it). His movie writing has also been featured in the San Francisco Chronicle and NBC 5 Chicago. As part of the HollywoodChicago.com team, he swings from both sides of the plate (whatever that means).
E-mail Patrick McDonald.
Read Patrick McDonald’s writing in our news section and our reviews section.
Allison Pitaccio: Staff Writer
Allee Pitaccio is a native Californian with a severe case of wanderlust that has propelled her global quest for the perfect story.
Since her 2001 graduation from the University of San Francisco, she has played many roles in the worlds of film, photography and writing. She can always be found in one of the many stages of a film production and rarely leaves the house without a camera and pen.
A strong passion for music keeps her moving. When she’s not strolling the boulevards of urban existence, she can be found in the closest body of water or perusing a nature trail. Learning new languages and delving into fantastical realism novels keeps the nerd in her alive. Allee’s foreign film obsession frightens the masses.
She supports herself as a freelance producer/predator and has a collection of culinary shows, documentaries and narrative features under her belt. In addition to HollywoodChicago.com, Allee also is a freelance writer for Beyond Race Magazine. She continues to work on her never-ending novel in her spare time.
E-mail Allison Pitaccio.
Read Allison Pitaccio’s writing in our news section and our reviews section.
Rachel Faith: Hollywood Correspondent
Rachel Faith was born a storyteller, which seemed to get her into trouble when she promised her third-grade class a concert put on by her “cousins” Donnie and Marie Osmond. When they didn’t show up due to “irreconcilable differences,” Rachel then realized she required an alternative universe.
Movies seemed to soften the blow, and from “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” on, Rachel knew she was destined to write and work with the people who also hid under their desks when there was an assembly.
Now living in West Hollywood and working in the cool world of post-production, she finds herself in the dark – picking out flaws in picture and sound – as well as writing stories of her own for HollywoodChicago.com.
She adores sci-fi, classic and indie pictures and constantly pulls for Nathan Fillion to be the next Indiana Jones. You can check out her random blog about her life, the shoes she wants to buy and the movie stars she wishes were still alive here.
E-mail Rachel Faith.
Read Rachel Faith’s writing in our news section.
Alissa Norby: Chicago Theater Critic
Alissa Norby has been “one of those” theater nerds ever since the dawning of the ages. At the age of eight, Alissa put on her first musical comedy in the swing set of her backyard. The show, whose cast consisted of the local third-grade Girl Scout troop, received mostly mixed reviews.
Not to be deterred by what the critics had to say, Alissa spent all of the next 10 years on and around the stage, which may be why her parents filed so many missing-person reports.
She then ventured off to an all-girls college on the east coast where she studied how to change young people’s lives through theater and critique it at the same time. It was here where Alissa learned to channel her bubbling theater thoughts and criticism into paper and ink.
After starting her theater criticism career in college, she became a contributing theater writer for various publications up and down the coast of California.
When Alissa isn’t offering her thoughts on various productions, she works with schools around Illinois to combat violence among youth. At home, though, you can usually find her pretending to be Bette Midler in her living room. As a complement to the rest of the team, Alissa brings a unique and fresh voice to the HollywoodChicago.com clan.
