rez-pip AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'lower' error

rez 2.13.0, linux centos7
rez-pip -i reportlab fails with an AttributeError:

~/packages/pip/9.0.1/platform-linux/arch-x86_64/os-CentOS-7.3.1611/python-2.7/python/pip/commands/install.py:194: UserWarning: Disabling all use of wheels due to the use of --build-options / --global-options / --install-options.
cmdoptions.check_install_build_global(options)
Collecting reportlab
Using cached reportlab-3.4.0.tar.gz
Collecting pillow>=2.4.0 (from reportlab)
Using cached Pillow-4.1.0.tar.gz
Requirement already satisfied: pip>=1.4.1 in ~/packages/python/2.7.13/platform-linux/arch-x86_64/os-CentOS-7.3.1611/lib/python2.7/site-packages (from reportlab)
Requirement already satisfied: setuptools>=2.2 in ~/packages/python/2.7.13/platform-linux/arch-x86_64/os-CentOS-7.3.1611/lib/python2.7/site-packages (from reportlab)
Collecting olefile (from pillow>=2.4.0->reportlab)
Using cached olefile-0.44.zip
Requirement already satisfied: six>=1.6.0 in ~/packages/python/2.7.13/platform-linux/arch-x86_64/os-CentOS-7.3.1611/lib/python2.7/site-packages (from setuptools>=2.2->reportlab)
Requirement already satisfied: appdirs>=1.4.0 in ~/packages/python/2.7.13/platform-linux/arch-x86_64/os-CentOS-7.3.1611/lib/python2.7/site-packages (from setuptools>=2.2->reportlab)
Requirement already satisfied: packaging>=16.8 in ~/packages/python/2.7.13/platform-linux/arch-x86_64/os-CentOS-7.3.1611/lib/python2.7/site-packages (from setuptools>=2.2->reportlab)
Requirement already satisfied: pyparsing in ~/packages/python/2.7.13/platform-linux/arch-x86_64/os-CentOS-7.3.1611/lib/python2.7/site-packages (from packaging>=16.8->setuptools>=2.2->reportlab)
Skipping bdist_wheel for reportlab, due to binaries being disabled for it.
Skipping bdist_wheel for pillow, due to binaries being disabled for it.
Skipping bdist_wheel for olefile, due to binaries being disabled for it.
Installing collected packages: olefile, pillow, reportlab
Running setup.py install for olefile ... done
Running setup.py install for pillow ... done
Running setup.py install for reportlab ... done
Successfully installed olefile pillow reportlab
12:01:49 DEBUG Found /tmp/pip-tx01MG-rez/rez_staging/python/Pillow-4.1.0-py2.7.egg-info
12:01:49 DEBUG Found /tmp/pip-tx01MG-rez/rez_staging/python/olefile-0.44-py2.7.egg-info
12:01:49 DEBUG Found /tmp/pip-tx01MG-rez/rez_staging/python/reportlab-3.4.0-py2.7.egg-info
12:01:49 WARNING Skipping installation: Package variant already exists: ~/packages/Pillow/4.1.0/package.py[0]
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/local/rez/bin/rez/rez-pip", line 4, in
run('pip')
File "/usr/local/rez/lib/python2.7/site-packages/rez-2.13.0-py2.7.egg/rez/cli/_main.py", line 118, in run
returncode = run_cmd()
File "/usr/local/rez/lib/python2.7/site-packages/rez-2.13.0-py2.7.egg/rez/cli/_main.py", line 110, in run_cmd
return opts.func(opts, opts.parser, arg_groups[1:])
File "/usr/local/rez/lib/python2.7/site-packages/rez-2.13.0-py2.7.egg/rez/cli/pip.py", line 46, in command
release=opts.release)
File "/usr/local/rez/lib/python2.7/site-packages/rez-2.13.0-py2.7.egg/rez/pip.py", line 262, in pip_install_package
requirements.extend(_get_dependencies(requirement, distributions))
File "/usr/local/rez/lib/python2.7/site-packages/rez-2.13.0-py2.7.egg/rez/pip.py", line 74, in _get_dependencies
name = get_distrubution_name(name)
File "/usr/local/rez/lib/python2.7/site-packages/rez-2.13.0-py2.7.egg/rez/pip.py", line 47, in get_distrubution_name
pip_to_rez_name = pip_name.lower().replace("-", "_")
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'lower'

Start with rez/pip.py around get_distrubution_name at line 47 and trace the call from _get_dependencies; reproduce with `rez-pip -i reportlab` using the reported environment. Done means the reportlab installation no longer raises the NoneType lower() error and dependency handling completes successfully.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.