“This whole story is completely true. Except for the parts that are completely made up.”
This is how each episode of the long-awaited new Netflix series begins “Inventing Anna” (“Inventing Anna”), about con artist Anna Delvey, also known as Anna Sorokin.
This 20-something scammed friends and banks out of hundreds of thousands of dollars posing as a rich heiress in the exclusive night circuit of New York.
But that was before the weight of the law fell on her.
His story became known for the first time on social networks in 2018, just when the new great signing of Netflix, the production company Shonda Rhimes, was looking for a juicy project.
The great creative force behind series like Grey’s Anatomy or scandal jumped on Sorokin and Netflix signed a rights agreement with the false heiressthen in pretrial detention, worth $320,000 dollars.
doCHow close (or far) are reality and fiction?
Here’s a look at some of the key characters.
They lived
The story is told through the eyes of journalist Vivian Kent, played by Anna Chlumsky (veep).
The character is loosely inspired by Jessica Pressler, who was editor at the nyc magazine.
It was she who wrote the first in-depth account of the exploits of the applicant socialite.
During the series, Vivian does multiple Visits to anna in the prisonjust as it happened in real life, and develops an obsession with his story that takes over his life.
Although the fictional character, Vivian, has a checkered past as a journalist and is desperate to find a successful story, Jessica is a well-known journalist.
Another of his items was made into the Hollywood movie hustlersstarring Jennifer Lopez.
Rachel
When the scandal broke, Rachel DeLoache Williams was the most prominent character, apart from Anna herself.
It was photo editor of Vanity Fair when they became friends and began to walk together throughout the city.
Over time Rachel received a bill for $62,000 for an extravagant six-night trip to Morocco.
At trial, she tearfully recounted that she always felt Anna would cover all the costs, and said she suffered stress and anxiety about unexpected debt.
In the series, Rachel does not come off well.
She is portrayed as superficial and self-centered.
The real Rachel told her side of the story in a book, My Friend Annawhich HBO is adapting for television.
He was uncooperative with the Netflix version and, in fact, wrote a scathing response to the series on the Netflix website. air mail last week, accusing the company of making “public relations for a scammer”.
Kacy
The real Kacy was an anonymous source in the original story and was largely removed from the media when the affair first blew up on social media.
What personal trainer for high level clients He has worked with countless Hollywood stars, including Dakota Johnson, Bruce Willis, and Kirsten Dunst.
Anna hired her for $300 per session during a period in which the “heiress” had money thanks to having defrauded a bank.
Kacy did not come out too badly from the experience, other than contracting food poisoning on the trip to Morocco (although this saved her from the bill payment debacle).
But she said she really had to deal with the awkwardness of having Anna sit in the hallway of her apartment, when her former client had nowhere to go and things started to fall apart.
In “Inventing Anna”, Kacy is played by Laverne Cox (from the series Orange is the New Black) Y Kacy seems delighted with the actress.
“I am a proud twin! Thank you Queen!” she posted on Instagram.
Neff
Neffatari (Neff) Davis was the janitor who became friends with Anna during her stay at the luxurious 11 Howard Hotel, where he racked up huge bills.
When the story went viral, Paper Magazine he called her the “typical millennial woman” at the heart of the story.
The couple seemed to rekindle their friendship when Anna got out of prison in 2021and Neff has recently been promoting the series with nostalgic Instagram posts.
“You are the Thelma to my Louise. And even though I don’t agree with all the things you did in this life, I could never turn my back on you and forget about you,” she wrote.
Todd
Anna’s attorney, Todd Spodek, received a lot of attention during the trial as he used a “fake it ’til you make it” defense strategy.
He opened and closed his defense argument with the lyrics of the song New York, New York of Frank Sinatra, insisting that his client was just trying to make it in the big city.
(This attorney is known for his lyrical defense style. Once he recited a few lines from What’s Going On of Marvin Gaye at the opening of a parricide case).
In the series, everything indicates that he decided to defend Anna because of the notoriety of the case and, indeed, he is now known in the media as “the lawyer of the false heiress”.
This moniker was recently used when he was linked to another big New York case, representing a juror in the trial against Ghislaine Maxwell (the ex-partner of financier Jeffrey Epstein who was convicted of child sex trafficking).
Like Kacy and Neff, Todd was a consultant on the “Inventing Anna” series.
He is played by Arian Moayed, who played Stewy in the HBO series Succession.
Todd told the BBC that the actor did a phenomenal job.
But he claimed that did not take over the case without chargeas implied, and that no journalist helped him with his defense work.
(In fiction, he befriends Vivian and she helps him organize the information for the trial.)
“There was no media attention when Anna became my client,” he said.
“The media attention came later. However, every time a ‘German heiress’ comes for a consultationYou know that good things await you.”
Anna
Anna Sorokin, a Russian-born German citizen, is played by Julia Garner (Ozarks), who cleverly captures his unusual accent and direct way of speaking.
Anna was convicted of multiple theft-related charges in 2019 and was sentenced to between 4 and 12 years in prison.
He served almost 4 (2 in pretrial detention) and was released in February 2021.
He then began to appear in different media and hired a cameraman, saying that he planned to make his own television series.
However, a few weeks later and shortly after posting several messages on social media about how she was the boss in New York, was arrested again for overstaying the one allowed by your visa.
He remains in jail while awaiting the outcome of an appeal against his deportation.
Todd Spodek does not represent Anna in immigration proceedings, but says he doesn’t think she has any legal basis to stay in the United States.
It may interest you:
* “The Tinder Scammer”: 5 Traps Romantic Tricksters Use (And How To Avoid Falling Into Them)
* 5 scandalous frauds that caused a stir in the United States
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Source-eldiariony.com