Inventing Anna - Netflix

[HeyItsPickleRick]

I've been obsessed with this case since listening to The Fake Heiress on BBC sounds. Is anyone else watching?! I love the casting of Anna.

I almost think this should be long, drawn out drivel.

Literally everyone involved in this story is spinning a shaggy dog tale for some purpose or other.

@longwayoff

Oh dear. Still she owed them $60k on her VF Amex didn't she? So hopefully that helped towards it.

Minor spoiler alert:

But in the show, they said that AmEx cleared the debt for her, so she didn't have to pay anything back. Not sure if it's true or not.

Amex cleared vanity fair’s debt to them, which was run up by a foolish employee.

Let’s be honest, putting a ridiculous jolly to Morocco on the corporate credit card is not something anyone would imagine would be OK. I’d expect to be sacked if I tried anything of the sort.

It’s a tale of various people looking for other people to pick up the bill for them. Rachel as much as anyone else.

Let’s face it, you don’t expect your friends to pay for your holidays and meals and drinks (and clothes). That’s weird. Even if your friends are wealthy, you don’t expect them to pay for you as if you’re their dependent.

It takes a particular kind of attitude to seek out other people to pay for their social lives - whether by scamming them or more acceptable approaches.

I'd like to know more about how Anna actually got on the social scene in NY to meet her boyfriend. She must of had some money to buy designer clothes, get invites to parties. I did read she met her purported boyfriend (not called Chase) at a dinner party - how did she get in with the in crowd? Did she really get into Central Saint Martin's and quit after a week and then get an internship in Paris for Purple which took her to New York where she decided to stay - she must have had some educational qualifications, references and fashion savvy and portfolio to get that internship.

I think Rachel panicked in Morocco - she'd never been in trouble and those guards looked pretty scary - add in the fear of being jailed in a foreign country and I'm not surprised a "nice, middle class girl" handed over her card.

It was interesting how at the start Anna had people (such as the bf) picking up the tab for her but when she got pally with Neff, Kacy and Rachel she was the one basically buying"friends". I don't think being pally with any of them was helping her advance her society standing really.

I didn't understand the finances. No hotel I know would let you run up that bill without a verified payment method or payment by installment.
Also they all seemed to keep buying her "I'll send a wire" "There are problems with international transfers" excuse as if no one in New York had ever had to deal with that. Near the end she was able to write a cheque (do so many Americans still use cheques?) from one bank account and pay it into another bank and draw funds the same day - any banks I know would want the money to clear before paying out large sums.

I was really distracted by Anna's bad wigs - mangled Barbie doll hair.

I also disliked the journo and her "gurning" - she was bonkers leaving her child to pursue the story and seemed caught up in the Anna as "just a kid", "innocent" line. In real life I think her lawyer is someone who has defended all manner of nasty gangsters .

I can sort of understand the finance thing a little bit from visiting NY a few years ago (around the time this was all going on I expect)

I was really surprised how antiquated payment systems were considering the US is a tech leader. No chip and pin/contactless. We ended up using cash a lot because we were tourists and took travellers cheques but when we did use our Visa it was via those machines that create a carbon receipt to go in the till.

Given all that I can see that wire transfers might have been a fairly normal thing. Obviously like everything AD pushed it to it's very limits but the hotels could have been used to wealthy foreigners paying with wire transfers.

Yes, it still amazes me that the US is so behind in adopting more up to date payment methods. I don't think I'd even know where my cheque book is!

I judged this too soon - I’m on the Rachel episode and so enjoying it now. It’s an incredible story. I like the journalist framing and how the story is pieced together from different interviews.

As a pp said it’s fascinating how what Anna did is not that different from start up culture. I can’t remember what episode it was in (Alan maybe?) where it was said that rich people don’t like to touch their own money but use it as leverage for investment. If they pull it off their core money isn’t touched but added to…I guess what Anna was counting on. If successful no-one would know you didn’t have the capital, they’re banking on ideas and dreams.

The show keeps on going on and on about how clever she is but to me, I think she is quite stupid and to be honest I'm quite surprised she even came this far with zero personal charm, delusional business plan and zero peoples skills and I'm not sure how she ever hanged out in those circles in the first place. Most of the things she does isn't smart at all, it's things normal people are afraid to do in real life to not end up in prison. One thing she has was probably being fearless but apart from that I'm guessing the US has a very fragile system to be even conned by Anna to a certain point. If she was clever, she would have had a plan b and c in place but she was so worked up about this foundation and loan where her whole existence depended on it. Neff I would call smart as she was saving for her project and slowly making her way to it apart from dining in a very expensive restaurant with Anna and picking up the tab and even for Rachel, I wouldn't dine or holiday if I can't pay for it no matter how wealthy my friend is which is why Rachel is no different to the women in Tinder Swindler and Neff got lucky as she got her money back.

The Labour scene is ridiculous. And infuriating. The doctors talk about her rather than to her. It’s awful.

This has reminded me, many years ago a friend explained to me how easily he had run-up personal debt - no car, no house - of £250k which would have bought you a nice Victorian 3 bed London house at the time. He had a very lucrative job, and expensive boyfriend with an expensive drug habit and a taste for luxury clothes and holidays together with a busy society social life. Apparently, if you had his job and earning potential, lenders fought to give you money. He had no capital, he owed so much that he was actually broke and like Anna, I suppose, he lived on credit and switched his debt between many different lenders hoping it would never catch up with itself. Sounded like a complete nightmare but he thrived on the adrenalin. Old school friend. We live very different lives.

This is so shocking!!!

Rachel looks so much like Mrs Meldrum it’s distracting.

Did anyone watch that film about the guy who pretended to be Sidney Poiter in the New York arts scene and got free beds and meals?
I wonder if there is just a certain credibility that if someone knows the right things to say, them they get believed.

@TigerLilyTail yeah that's true, she also sold her story to Netflix for a different series to this and wrote a book about it

@Iamthewombat

www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/04/my-misadventure-with-the-magician-of-manhattan

Here you go. Rachel’s story, as told to Vanity Fair. Full of self pity and attempts to make herself sound clever, as if she belonged in Anna’s imaginary world of art appreciation and extreme wealth.

“Her world wasn’t foreign to me—I was comfortable there—and I was pleased that she could tell, that she accepted me as someone who “got it.”

“My eyes scanned the setup and paused on a photograph…part of a series by Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto. Light emanated from a seemingly blank, rectangular movie screen, casting its glow out from the center of the composition onto the empty stage, seats, and theater…the result was otherworldly. Looking at his work always reminded me of Shakespeare, a play within a play…the viewing experience was meta and inverted”

(Somebody call pseuds’ corner!)

The magazine obviously saw through her, though. They sub-titled Rachel’s piece, “as an added bonus, she paid for everything”. Despite Rachel working for Vanity Fair. Not very sympathetic treatment from her own employer.

I tried to read her article and had to give up. It was very badly written. Interesting that she ended up being the best swindler of them all. Anna paid for Rachel's meals, drinks, clothes. Then Vanity Fair/Amex picked up the bill for the holiday. And Rachel made all the money for the article; the book and the TV show.

I wonder what angle the other show will take Obviously Rachel presented herself as an innocent victim. Will Lena Dunham have fallen for that? Will they be panicking that Netflix went for the opposite portrayal? I'm imagining it like the Mitchell & Webb 'are we the baddies sketch?'

When the journalists were worried about the Rachel article scooping them, and then they read it and were relieved. I hope was a real thing based on how badly written it was.

I think the journalist comes out of it all looking terrible. Really unprofessional and just totally taken in by Anna. Same with the lawyer. Ethics and standards just seemed to be optional in so many ways.

The show builds sympathy for Anna only by showing how awful all the other people involved were. And by making her look a bit useless and deluded. I didn’t feel like her sentence was some travesty. She intended to defraud people in all sorts of ways and was totally unrepentant.

Even the attempt at a sad backstory for Anna wasn’t hugely successful. It appeared there was no compelling reason. She was just not very nice. Her family seemed to be at the end of their tether with a daughter who treats everyone poorly and thinks she’s entitled to everything. Which would be understandable as she is clearly a total nightmare.

I wonder what HBO will do with Rachel’s story too. The basic facts of it make it hard to have sympathy for her. She set out to gain a lifestyle far beyond her means through other people. She lost no money and gained a great deal from the process. All she didn’t get was the reward of looking like an innocent victim after she cried for the jury.

@jay55

When the journalists were worried about the Rachel article scooping them, and then they read it and were relieved. I hope was a real thing based on how badly written it was.

It’s pretty badly written and self indulgent. A grifter who picked the wrong mark.

Normal people don’t seem out super wealthy friends and let them pay for everything. Drinks, dinners, clothes, saunas, personal training, holidays. They just don’t.

Even her story of how she got the vanity fair job was a tale of manipulation rather than talent. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I did enjoyed the parts where Nora sent her off on errands but really couldn’t understand how Nora had all these idiots living with her - including the boyfriend with his rip off WAKE idea.

I don’t believe she had any business acumen beyond absorbing a few buzz words which was enough to get her so far - I don’t believe she would have had the application or knowledge to see the process of implementing the business plan.

Classic Narcissist character traits - deluded, arrogant, grandiose, entitled and obsessed with image and wealth.

She didn’t make or have any “friends” just people she could either exploit or impress.

Not sure how she came across Rachel but the other two girlfriends were essentially her “staff”.

Think she ticks the Narcissist Personality Disorder boxes…..

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition(DSM-5, 2013) describes NPD as possessing at least five of the following nine criteria.[2]

A grandiose sense of self-importance
Preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love

Believing that they are "special" and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)

Requiring excessive admiration

A sense of entitlement (unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with their expectations)

Being interpersonally exploitative (taking advantage of others to achieve their own ends)

Lacking empathy (unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others)

Often being envious of others or believing that others are envious of them

Showing arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes

I haven’t even read a word of the Rachel Vanity Fair article and already I’m fuming. Only an ignorant arsehole thinks this is appropriate to wear to the Medina in Marrakech.

I hate the over diagnosis of mental health problems by armchair psychologists.

Looking at that photo, maybe the sex and the city movies weren't out of touch after all.

I'm on episode 8. The journalist is in Germany and I'm now confused. I am not enjoying how obtuse it is, as in what is factually real and "made up". It's making an actual star of a criminal who lied and conned. It really doesn't reflect well on Netflix. Yet I am watching it.... the hypocrisy.