Meet the real Vivian Kent from Inventing Anna: Jessica Pressler is the inspiration behind the Netflix hit and was also responsible for Jennifer Lopez’s Hustlers movie
The actual lifestyles journalist additionally wrote approximately the New York distinct dancers who might emerge as the idea of Hustlers earlier than stumbling at the tale of Anna Delvey
She as soon as set the report instantly on what’s truth and fiction withinside the Netflix hit collection – and the reality of being conned with the aid of using a excessive faculty scholar in her in advance days
“What’s definitely exciting approximately a majority of these con artist tales is they inadvertently reveal that we stay on this toxic culture,” journalist Jessica Pressler, whose article fashioned the idea for Netflix’s Inventing Anna, informed the Shondaland internet site recently.
Pressler’s tale information the upward thrust and fall of rip-off artist Anna Delvey (actual call Anna Sorokin) who pretended to be a German-born heiress, which changed into became a miniseries with the aid of using manufacturer Shonda Rhimes for Netflix. On the display, Pressler changed into fictionalised as Vivian Kent – performed with the aid of using Anna Chlumsky.
Massachusetts local Pressley isn’t anyt any stranger to fame. In her decade-lengthy career, she has written compelling exposés and function articles for prestigious courses like New York Magazine, GQ and Elle.
But she is certainly turning into extra famous – Netflix stated its customers streamed 77.three million hours of Inventing Anna withinside the first week of its release.
Here we check her charming lifestyles, her involvement withinside the collection and the way she changed into as soon as conned with the aid of using a excessive faculty scholar.
Her tale stimulated Jennifer Lopez’s Hustlers
Before Inventing Anna, there has been Hustlers. Pressler mentioned the charming tale of a collection of distinct dancers who conned wealthy guys in her 2015 New York Magazine article “The Hustlers at Scores”, which changed into later became Jennifer Lopez’s seriously acclaimed 2019 film.
Her article changed into nominated for the National Magazine Award in 2016 and he or she ended up being portrayed with the aid of using Julia Stiles on screen. “Early on, I saved questioning the man or woman might get cut, due to the fact my affect changed into that journalist characters aren’t sexy,” she informed The Los Angeles Times. “There’s no typing, which I assume is a excellent choice,” she added.
Pressler remains buddies in actual lifestyles with the ex-dancer Roselyn Keo, the idea for the function of Destiny performed with the aid of using Constance Wu withinside the film.
A photographer informed her approximately Anna Sorokin
While she changed into reporting the tale of what might emerge as Hustlers, Pressler changed into tipped off approximately Sorokin with the aid of using a courtroom docket photographer named Steven Hirsch. “Do you already know different ones [female con artists], due to the fact I changed into considering perhaps doing a ee-e book assignment on it. Have you visible any new, exciting, amusing matters lately?” she requested Hirsch, as she informed Vox’s Recode Media with Peter Kafka podcast in 2018.
Pressler isn’t always certain in which she stands at the actual Sorokin. “I definitely have now no longer landed on whether or not she’s brilliant, conniving, or if she simply form of occurs to be withinside the proper region on the proper time and has a bit bit extra tolerance of uncomfortable situations,” she informed the Shondaland internet site.
Pressler’s different articles have centered on Hollywood celebrities (Alec Baldwin, Channing Tatum, Cynthia Nixon), Silicon Valley CEOs and influential human beings – including style fashion dressmaker Tory Burch or her 2011 piece with New York City socialite Lynn Tilton.
She changed into “scolded’ with the aid of using Shonda Rhimes with an iconic respond
People are obsessed on the Shonda Rhimes-produced Netflix collection for its tantalising tale, however now no longer the whole lot passed off the equal manner in actual lifestyles. For starters, yes, Pressler changed into 8 months pregnant whilst she wrote the item, however she didn’t genuinely move into labour as she completed the exposé.
“It’s a lot extra dramatic due to the fact it’s a TV display, however the arc of the emotions that I had reporting the tale, the emotions I had approximately journalism being complex and whether or not that is an exploitative task – this is stuff I changed into considering,” she informed Vulture recently.
After she gave beginning to her newborn, Pressler didn’t test her emails – because it became out, Rhimes had emailed her asking to broaden the tale.
“I changed into walking on a treadmill after I study the item in New York Magazine approximately Anna Delvey, and I recollect actually leaping off of the treadmill and calling my office,” stated Rhimes in an interview, however she didn’t get a respond till a month or so later. Realising the error, Pressler apologised to the Hollywood manufacturer simplest to get hold of a “scolding” that left Pressler without a doubt smitten.
“Don’t ever apologise for the paintings of being a female and a mother. If you have been a man, human beings might be placing you on the duvet of Time mag for looking after youngsters and doing any paintings in any respect on the equal time,” Pressley recalled of the long-lasting e-mail respond, including that she had it framed.
She changed into as soon as conned with the aid of using a excessive faculty scholar
Mirroring actual lifestyles, Inventing Anna confirmed how Vivian Kent ran a fake tale on a child named Donovan Lamb who claimed to have made millions, earlier than admitting that he lied. But the display modified some information. In actual lifestyles, Pressler did document on a excessive faculty scholar – a senior at Stuyvesant High School named Mohammed Islam – who claimed to have made US$seventy two million making an investment in shares on his lunch break, which became out to be a hoax.
He then admitted in an interview with The Observer that he gave Pressler the fake facts simply to affect her. Due to the blunder, Bloomberg News rescinded their task provide to Pressler and The New York Post needed to run an apology to its readers (however Pressler’s editors stood with the aid of using her and took complete responsibility).
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After Inventing Anna got here out, Pressler informed Vulture that she didn’t convey up the tale to Rhimes first of all because it changed into already at the internet, however she understood why they covered the tale arc. “I get that there’s this parallel in that you’re writing approximately a con artist after which seem to were conned,” she stated.
Her actual-lifestyles husband is likewise a creator
On the display, whilst Kent is hell-bent on pursuing the Sorokin tale, her supportive husband is continually visible with the aid of using her side (performed with the aid of using Anders Holm). In actual lifestyles, Pressler married creator and creator Benjamin Wallace in 2008, in keeping with The New York Times. The e-book said that the couple have been married on the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in Philadelphia and that Wallace is a contract mag creator and creator of The Billionaire’s Vinegar: The Mystery of the World’s Most Expensive Bottle of Wine.
Pressler graduated magna cum laude from Temple University and is presently a unique correspondent for Vanity Fair, according to her LinkedIn page. On social media, she has over 24,000 fans on Instagram on the time of writing – and, yes, she is observed with the aid of using the actual Anna Delvey.
