About HollywoodChicago.com From Founder Adam Fendelman
HollywoodChicago.com 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
- DVD reviews
- Blu-ray reviews
- Chicago theater reviews
- Top 10 lists
- Television reviews
- Video game reviews
We are on the Tomatometer at Rotten Tomatoes. We are credible on NewsCred. Our privacy policy is here. Our global news pickups are here. Our logos are here. Our media kit is here. View our archives here. 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 7 million monthly visitors and 120 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: Founder, Publisher, Editor-in-Chief
Brian Tallerico: Content Director
Patrick McDonald: Senior Staff Writer
Matt Fagerholm: Staff Writer
Allison Pitaccio: Staff Writer
Rachel Faith: Hollywood Correspondent
Alissa Norby: Chicago Theater Critic
Joe Arce: Senior Staff Photographer
Adam Fendelman: Founder, Publisher, Editor-in-Chief
Adam Fendelman has been a writer since the womb (and witnesses say he was scribing in his head even then). Raring to write and get paid for it, he leapt out of the University of Missouri-Columbia journalism doors in 2000.
Though he doesn’t yet have kids, HollywoodChicago.com is his baby. Helmed by Adam and joined by a team of veteran critics, HollywoodChicago.com is a daily arts and entertainment publication focusing on Chicago and the national scene with movie reviews and interviews as well as reviews for TV, DVDs, Blu-rays, video games, theater and more.
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.
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.
He’s also a Chicago theater critic for Centerstage Chicago (part of the Sun-Times Media Group), a Chicago film writer for Go2 Media, an accredited film critic with the Chicago Film Critics Association and a Rotten Tomatoes-listed film critic. He’s also the exclusive cell phones guide at About.com (part of the New York Times Company) and a writer for The Huffington Post.
E-mail Adam Fendelman.
Read Adam Fendelman’s writing in our news section and our reviews section.
Brian Tallerico: Content Director
Brian Tallerico has been professionally covering the entertainment industry for seven years and has writing experience that dates back much further.
He has worked as a film and music critic at school papers every year from middle school through college (though his writing has changed a bit since giving “Slippery When Wet” four stars in the sixth grade).
At Kalamazoo College, Brian explored his interests with an English and theatre/communications degree and gained extensive experience both acting and directing for the stage without ever losing his passion for writing.
Since graduating, Brian has been published in magazines, newspapers, reference books and online outlets as diverse as a cinema reference book like Magill’s Cinema Annual, a video store magazine called Stumped and an east coast paper known as Lucid.
As an online editor, he has experience assigning, scheduling, editing and publishing content not only for himself but for a team of writers at diverse sites including UGO, Test Pattern, Actress Archives, Screenwriter’s Voice, Screen Talk, The Deadbolt and Movie Retriever.
In his time in the industry, Tallerico has written and edited more than a thousand TV, film, DVD and video game reviews. He has built a reputation with every single studio and network and has interviewed some of the most high-profile people in front of and behind the camera.
He is a proud member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and is a Rotten Tomatoes-listed critic. He never forgets that none of what he has accomplished would be possible without the support of his wife, Lauren.
E-mail Brian Tallerico.
Read Brian Tallerico’s writing in our news section and our reviews section.
Patrick McDonald: Senior 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.
Matt Fagerholm: Staff Writer
Matt Fagerholm has been making movies ever since he could draw. He had several hundred features under his belt before he attended kindergarten (most of which were directed by Victor Fleming). His love of visual storytelling has led him to become a professional film writer, enthusiast and critic whose work has spanned various mediums.
As the assistant A&E editor for the Columbia Chronicle, Matt wrote weekly film reviews and interviewed some of the industry’s biggest names.
He also hosted film discussions on Columbia College radio station WCRX, presented one of his analytical papers at the University of Notre Dame’s Midwest Undergraduate Film Conference, won two journalism awards for his work at the Columbia Chronicle and studied the current state of world cinema at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.
Matt made a series of student films while at Columbia and graduated with a bachelor’s of arts in film and video. Since then, he has written for various publications including The Onion AV Club, Screen Magazine, Reel Chicago and Film Monthly. Cinema has been his lifelong passion and he loves discussing and debating it with fellow film buffs.
E-mail Matt Fagerholm.
Read Matt Fagerholm’s writing in our news 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.
E-mail Alissa Norby.
Read Alissa Norby’s theater reviews.
Joe Arce: Senior Staff Photographer
For more than two decades, Joe Arce has been one of Chicago’s premiere celebrity publicity photographers. He has captured and crafted the candid images of more than 350 major celebrities.
Listed in the prestigious Library of Photography, Arce’s award-winning work and Web site are a virtual who’s who of Hollywood, fashion and the world of arts and entertainment. His noted “beyond the glitter” brand of celebrity portraiture offers up the viewer a rare and often-humorous glimpse of unguarded moments peeking behind the limelit curtain or backstage door.
Initially a frustrated guitarist, Arce began the 1980s shooting publicity for other Chicago bands as a favor. It wasn’t long before the flash from his camera rather than his fingers began opening backstage doors and eventually landed him on the tour buses of his childhood rock idols. Before he was old enough to rent a car, his world-famous tour mates were now likewise hanging his photos on their walls and inviting him cross country to shoot their kids’ birthday parties.
After a short stint as senior staff photographer for Backstage Pass Magazine and numerous tours as a personal band photographer for Lynyrd Skynyrd (among other such major headliners), Arce opened his first studio and began shooting fashion. He began with the portfolios of the model girlfriends of several of his former rock-star clients.
Next came national ad campaigns and work with rising young designers. It wasn’t long before major agencies on both coasts were sending their models and actors to Arce for testing. Switching his focus to arts and entertainment and notably celebrity publicity, Arce became a freelance fixture within the Chicago media as both a still photographer and later as a writer, producer and talent booker for a prime time independent Chicago arts and entertainment weekly.
Away from the limelight when he’s not busy enduring the horror of shooting some nude potential Playmate rolling across his studio floor, HollywoodChicago.com’s resident lens master reclusively hides away with his large collection of handmade celebrity publicist voodoo dolls while working on his future behind-the-scenes tell-all and watching hair metal videos on YouTube. Arce is still waiting for Heather Locklear to call.
E-mail Joe Arce.
See Joe Arce’s exclusive celebrity portraits.
