Seated onstage at the WQED studios are: (Left to right) writer/producer Maxine Lapiduss (Roseanne), screenwriter Carl Kurlander (St. Elmoâs Fire), talent manager Eric Gold (Jim Carrey), producer/executive Bernie Goldmann (The Matrix), director George Romero (Dawn of the Dead), director Rob Marshall (Chicago), and screenwriter Peter Ackerman (Ice Age).

On October 25, 2003, the Steeltown Entertainment Project brought back some of film and television's top producers, directors, and writers to their hometown for a summit to discuss ways Pittsburgh could better help participate in what has become this nation's second largest global export: entertainment.

Pitt in Hollywood members helped organize the event, which was lucky enough to be attended by Rob Marshall (director of 2003's best picture, Chicago), Terri Minsky (creator/executive producer Lizzie McGuire, Less Than Perfect), George Romero (director of Night of the Living Dead), Jack Smith (co-executive producer, Young & the Restless), and Jamie Widdoes (director, 8 Simple Rules, My Wife and Kids) among many others!

Many others who couldn't make the summit such as John Wells, the exec. producer of ER and West Wing, Shirley Jones (Miss Pittsburgh 1952), and comedian/actress Mitzi McCall (Ice Age) were part of a short film called Pittsburgh: Hollywood's Best Kept Secret, produced by another expatriate Laura Davis and her husband Tjardus Greidanus about how Pittsburgh nurtured them as artists, and the potential the city has to become an outpost for the entertainment industry.

More pics from the Summit

George Romero was one of 400 or so guests who crammed into The Andy Warhol Museum to celebrate the first-ever Pittsburgh Entertainment Summit

Maxine Lapiduss, Bernie Goldmann, and George Romero

Steeltown Entertainment's Maxine Lapiduss and Rob Marshall

Bernie Goldmann

Eric Gold

Jamie Widdoes and the Moms and Dads

Peter Ackerman and Rob Marshall

Joe Negri

David Conrad chats with Maxine Lapiduss at the Warhol Party