Step aside Tinder Swindler, Inventing Anna has taken the Netflix watching community by storm – and I binge watched it when I was off work with a stomach flu, so that I can bring you my ill gotten (if you’ll excuse the pun) opinions.
me watching tinder swindler: this man is trash, i hope he rots
me watching inventing anna: pic.twitter.com/AoNtza01vg
— Sanjee Baksh, PhD (@S__Baksh) February 15, 2022
First of all, the scope is much more grand, the show is much more watchable, the acting is lovely. The heists are much more cunning, or are they even heists at all?!
The Netflix series was inspired by a New York Magazine article, “How Anna Delvey Tricked New York’s Party People,” written by Jessica Pressler and published in 2018. In Inventing Anna, Anna Chlumsky plays Vivian Kent (not Anna, despite her name) a journalist based on Pressler, who becomes involved (probably too involved) with Julia Garner’s fake heiress who is the titled Anna.
Straight off, her accent is supposed to be weird and jarring, and those of you who know Garner from Ozark are going to be very thrown by this German/Russian mashup, but you’ll get used to it. It’s the latest blessing from Shonda Rhimes, the first show the Bridgerton producer herself has written for the platform. If you’ve watched Grey’s Anatomy or Scandal (The Fixer), you can expect to see all your faves from the ‘Shonda-verse’ of actors.
pointing at all the actors i recognise from the shonda rhimes cinematic universe is more than a job, it’s a passion #InventingAnna pic.twitter.com/vMU7ERv9pt
— suzie (@sunshinedyke) February 11, 2022
Now all the entertainment aside, it’s based on a true story – and the ‘victims’ are mad-mad at how the series seems to walk a tightrope between innocent and guilty. In a Men’s Health article, Rachel Williams, the real-life ex-friend of Anna Delvey/Sorokin, who appears as “Rachel” and who was, in fact, swindled for $62,000 by Sorokin on 2017 trip to Marrakech, recently lambasted the Netflix series.
She scammed her own friend out of $62k for that Morocco trip. #InventingAnna pic.twitter.com/XjRMFBPb9J
— Nikki G. (@bynikkig) February 12, 2022
“I think promoting this whole narrative and celebrating a sociopathic, narcissistic, proven criminal is wrong,” Williams told Vanity Fair in a recent interview. “Having had a front-row seat to [the Anna circus] for far too long, I’ve studied the way a con works more than anybody needs to. You watch the spectacle, but you’re not paying attention to what’s being marketed.” Williams criticized the series for portraying Sorokin heroically—as a savvy and inspiring hustler, and not as a convicted felon. (Sorokin is currently in ICE detention, facing deportation.)
And what’s more – the real Anna got PAID for the show. Netflix reportedly paid Sorokin $320,000 for the rights to adapt her story. (That’s almost R5 million!) Now before you throw your computer across the room in a rage, wait till you hear how she spent the moolah.
She apparently used the money to pay off her debts, according to Insider.
Anna Sorokin used $199,000 to pay restitution to the banks, $24,000 to settle New York state fines and more than $75,000 in attorney fees, Insider reports, leaving not very much of that Netflix money at all. The state of New York had frozen her funds in May 2019 under the “Son of Sam” law that prevents criminals from profiting from their crimes. However, a judge ordered her accounts unfrozen ahead of her February 2021 release from prison so that she could pay off her victims. She still maintains that she never stole, but her appeals attorney Audrey A. Thomas said Sorokin still believed she owed the money. According to Thomas: She said, ‘You know, I want them to be paid. I didn’t steal the money, but I do owe money, so I’m not going to fight it. That’s not who I am.’
The coin is up in the air, was she a hustler trying to prove that the rich only help the rich – and she was on the verge of getting through, or was she just a scammer who didn’t know when to stop? The whole Marrakech trip certainly was extreme. We all learnt a big lesson about not picking up the tab for a friend if they invited you somewhere, (looking at you, Rachel.)
Watch for yourself and let me know.
Idk, Shonda really had me rooting for the wrong team. I honestly wanted her to get that loan so badly. I get she’s a fraud but this girl put in the work. The game is the game #InventingAnna pic.twitter.com/iXiuAPFW9g
— When maddy beat cassie (@shapurrpurr) February 11, 2022
Anna Sorokin was released from prison in February 2021 but arrested again just six weeks later for overstaying her visa. She remains in ICE custody as she waits to learn if she’ll be deported to Germany.
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