Anna Delvey · The Posies · Bernie Madoff
Gannett wants to remind you that it covers crime
the true crime that's worth your time
Netflix has released a set of stills from its upcoming dramatic adaptation of the Anna Sorokin/Delvey story. This is a savvy move, in my opinion: pretty much everybody and their mother used the images as fodder for #content, generating a solid bit of buzz for the series.
Its marketing copy for an Instagram drop of the photos is equally clever: “This whole story is completely true. Except for all of the parts that are totally made up.” It’s a nice way to remind folks that the series, which is written and produced by Shonda Rhimes, might not hew as closely to the facts as the material it’s adapting, Jessica Pressler’s “How Anna Delvey Tricked New York’s Party People.”
Pressler is probably used to this true/made-up hybrid by now; she also wrote “The Hustlers at Scores,” which eventually became feature film for which J. Lo should have won the Oscar, Hustlers. But while in Hustlers, the Pressler avatar was played by Julia Stiles, the Pressler of Inventing Anna is much more in the mix, if a series description from Variety is to be believed:
The series follows Vivian Kent (Anna Chlumsky), a journalist investigating the case of Anna Delvey (Julia Garner), the German heiress and Instagram celebrity who broke into New York’s social scene to make friends and then steal their money. As Vivian questions whether Anna is anything more than a con woman, the two begin to develop a love-hate bond. Arian Moayed, Katie Lowes, Alexis Floyd, Anders Holm , Anna Deavere Smith, Jeff Perry, Terry Kinney and Laverne Cox also star.
The full photoset is below, and the series is set to drop at a TBD date in 2022. — EB
You’ll have to wait until next year for Inventing Anna, but you’ll only have to wait a month for Sarah’s November bonus review. The poll is open to pick what property Sarah will cover for this month’s subscriber-only review — as I type this, 2001 Mary Tyler Moore shocker Like Mother, Like Son is in the lead, with punk rock homicide doc The Gits close behind.
You have the power to wrest that lead from those properties and hand it over to other contenders, or ensure the frontrunner remains on top; you just need to vote.
1990s rock group The Posies have broken up over sexual assault allegations. This was one of that busload of bands that seemed mass-produced in the Pacific Northwest in the late 1980s and early 90s, acts that had a couple big hits and inclusion on CDs like “Now This Is Grunge” or indie movie soundtracks about Gen X disaffection.
In the case of The Posies, the band achieved national success with songs like “Dream all Day” (above), and has somehow managed to stay together for the last 35 years. Co-founder Ken Stringfellow parlayed that success into work with notable bands like REM and Big Star. All that screeched to a halt last week, when NPR affiliate KUOW published a lengthy report detailing domestic violence and sexual assault claims against Stringfellow by multiple women. Snip:
KUOW interviewed 20 people for this story, including the three women, their confidantes at the time, Ken Stringfellow, his ex-wife, and musicians who have toured with him. We reviewed dozens of medical records, communications with doctors, and emails and texts from the time these alleged incidents took place.
Among those interviewed were seven women who said they had been intimate with Ken Stringfellow at some point since the 1990s, and that he had not been abusive. Among them, four said that despite that, he bit them (which they said was unwelcome) and had been controlling.
Kim Warnick, Stringfellow’s ex-wife, and of the bands Visqueen and the Fastbacks, was among these women.
“He never put a hand on me, but at the end of the day, it was horrible – what I had to deal with because of all his infidelities,” she said. “Never ever marry a man for his voice.”
Stringfellow has denied the allegations, but Posies member Jon Auer said that “after hearing from [a friend quoted in the story] about what happened to her…I confronted Ken about it on a phone call on Aug, 4, 2021, and canceled our upcoming shows, and flat-out told him that I wouldn’t be working with him anymore.”
Big Star drummer Jody Stephens has also announced that he won’t be working with Stringfellow any more, as has Frankie Siragusa, who joined The Posies six years ago. “I had a ton of tour posters hung up and framed on my walls, and lots of Posies stuff from tours on display in my house. I took them all down,” he said.
It’s unclear from the report if police are investigating any of the allegations, including claims of rape in a San Francisco hotel in 2015. (I left a message with a San Francisco Police Department spokesperson to see if/how they’d approach a case like this, but we haven’t gotten a response as of publication time.) Quite often in cases like these, this initial report opens the door to revelations from other victims — so I’m keeping an eye on this one to see what else shakes out. Until then, KUOW’s in-depth investigation is worth a read. — EB
Angry email composer/director Joe Berlinger is taking on Bernie Madoff. The world has no shortage of takes on the convicted fraudster, who died of kidney disease this past April. But that surplus didn’t stop Netflix from agreeing to take a Berlinger doc on the guy to series.
Deadline reports that the streaming service even secured the rights to Madoff Talks: Uncovering the Untold Story Behind the Most Notorious Ponzi Scheme in History, Jim Campbell’s well-reviewed book based on “hundreds of emails and letters” he exchanged with Madoff while the latter served his 150-year fraud sentence.
I’m having a hard time feeling excited for this one, and I’m not sure why. Is it the bad taste Berlinger’s private behavior has left in my mouth? That might be part of it, but there’s also the question of what is left to establish about Madoff’s scheme that everyone else (or just his Wikipedia page) hasn’t covered. Is there a new way to run at this case? You all are smart people — how would you tackle the story, if you were in Berlinger’s shoes? — EB
Your local paper wants you to know that they have this whole true-crime thing covered. Media monolith Gannett owns daily newspapers across the country, which means that occasionally we’ll see a little bit of coordinated coverage across the brands, like a similar-style holiday roundup or themed sports section.
It looks like one of the folks at the top decided that it was time to also do a coordinated true crime take, with local papers penning intros that cite whatever the kids are watching, then rounding up some of their investigative reporting in an effort to remind everyone that long before there was Netflix, there were good old inkstained print newspapers.
Two of those roundups that crossed my desk on Monday came from the Cincinnati and Minneapolis papers, each with an intro that (unintentionally) made me laugh a little.
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which headlined its unbylined version “There's more to these Wisconsin murder and criminal cases than just ‘true crime’” (yiiikes)
Behind every "true crime" story explored in a Netflix documentary, Dateline episode or podcast are countless hours spent by local journalists committed to uncovering the truth.
Before and after a national publication or a production company swoops in, we are doing our job to provide the depth required to understand the full story of what happened and what it means for our communities.
For us, true crime isn't a genre, and we certainly don't talk about it that way; it's the result of the work that our experienced journalists do every day to cover crime, corruption, and hold our institutions accountable.
The subsequent roundup does not mention Derek Chauvin or any other incidents of police abuse or misconduct. Do with that what you will.
Then there’s the Cincinnati Enquirer. Their unbylined list is headlined “The truth behind how we cover true crime,” and the intro goes like this:
In the Hulu show "Only Murders in the Building," a trio of true-crime podcast fans create their own show after a mysterious death in their apartment building.
At first, they approach the investigation like any armchair sleuth would - developing hypotheses, tracking leads and, occasionally, jumping to dubious conclusions.
They quickly find out, though, that uncovering the truth is more complicated than they thought.
True crime is fascinating. It's a glimpse into a criminal's mind, the challenge of putting together pieces of a puzzle behind a heinous plot, and the emotional rollercoaster that each story takes you on.
But behind every podcast and documentary, there are countless days, weeks and months that journalists in your very own backyard commit to the stories you see.
There are constant battles for First Amendment rights, securing public records, and uncovering hidden truths. Before a national publication or production company swoops in – we're there to provide the in-depth context and focus to understand the real story.
For us, true crime isn't just a genre or a fascination. It's the work our journalists do to uncover corruption and hold our institutions accountable, so you can be smarter and safer.
It’s interesting to me that these publications — and, from the looks of it, Gannett as a whole — feels like it needs to tear other properties down to build themselves up. There’s more than a whiff of butthurt in this text.
I also detect the same vibe of anti-bandwagoning you might hear from local sports team fans when they talk about the folks who only care about a team when its winning, regular churchgoers when they reference the Easter and Christmas crowd, and indie rock fans who loved that non-popular band back when it was playing teeny clubs. That strange rage that many people now enjoy the subject area that they enjoy, too! I’ve never understood those sentiments when I hear them expressed in casual conversation — but it seems even wilder to me that gigantic media conglomerate Gannett now seems to be approaching anti-bandwagoning as a corporate stance. Very odd! — EB
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