Who Was the Hollywood Con Queen | Ep 272

05-06-25

Episode Transcription

00:00 all right. Here's another episode. You all gave us the feedback. You don't like the intros. We don't know what to do anymore. You guys go. I don't spoil the episode, the intro. All right, we won't. Here's the we still got to do an intro. I got to say welcome to the comedy podcast. is an episode that is about a scam. Someone sure it's a true story. It's not a scam. It's 00:27 okay, a bit a business for this way. Okay, so if someone gave you the opportunity of a lifetime, how much are you willing? How far are you willing to go to make sure you get that that dream that you don't let it slip? Yeah, I would don't don't don't don't don't don't don't go all the way to Jakarta. You let it slip, you know yeah. This is an episode. It's where we're again. It's a comedy podcast. Please, you know we have to say 00:53 we have to do an intro because people will comment and they'll be like I hate having jokes aren't funny. You guys are funny, but this is serious. It's a serious alien episode or whatever, but then we can't do an intro because the people who listen to our show are like you're spoiling the episode. You put us in a tough spot. You're in a corner now, so it's may six. You put us in a corner speaking of being in a corner. I'll be in Jacksonville, Florida and 01:16 some other places. I'll be at the corner of the country, Florida, North Carolina, Alabama, Texas, Ohio, Kentucky, even or anywhere near those places. You're going to want to check out the church comedy tour. We're going back out Shama and Mike and myself and that's jerry miners dot com slash shows. We'd love to see you there. That'd be awesome. And if you're sitting here and you like, didn't you just do Florida and Texas 01:43 I asked him the same thing. said, why are we doing that again? But if you miss it. 01:46 and they were like not chance. We talking about it because the tour company forgot that about us. They were doing their fry bigger fish like Elmo and and would be on ice or whatever do they've got so many weird and the gathers and stuff. You know we can't compete with that. We're just the dumb little comedy church tour so church comedy tour, church comedy, whatever either way. I'm laugh was actually do the venue in Cincinnati. Ohio is sick like it's a really cool. You live in Cincinnati, Ohio or near there for Indianapolis Indiana. It's one of those like 02:16 really like it's an old church. If I showed it to you now, you have it's an old church that's now a venue yeah and oh it's so cool. So anyway excited about that. Here's the episode I think. 02:31 Hey man, what's up? Wait, we can't start yet. I got to tell you about this guy I said next to my flight, so I won't say his name, but he is a grant cardone adjacent person okay, and he sat in the middle seat in delta comfort plus, so they're not making it okay, but he's I mean you know he is he's posting stuff the whole time. He's written a couple books. Okay, I you look him up on social. I just happen to see his name on the thing and I because I saw him like 02:58 posting a grant card own thing and I was like I'm weird and so yeah and he's got an established presence. He's not just like a low person, but like I don't know buddy yeah, but he's out speaking. He's written a couple books for whatever, but this man had a pack of gum and he offered me one being as like. no, that's all right and then he had to be swallowing all of them, because he was just because I'm not. I'm not joking. The entire pack of gum was gone by the end of the flight, 03:27 so he was just he was doing it as soon as his flavor. He's like and then he's popping another he offered to me twice on the flight and I was like no, that's a no. What you do like an hour later, I'm like looking in the pocket in front of him. I'm like. Did you take all the no you've been swallowing that gum she's so was it nicotine gum? I don't know. You have a problem. He's offering strangers next to him nicotine gum 03:54 you look to me like hey man, you like big tobacco. I've been trying to get into it. I've been trying to work my way in the nicotine. We did a whole okay, so there was an editing issue. I'm not an issue, but some some notes got made Robert okay in our is it a regaler episode recently yeah they you we did this whole pro smoking bit 04:18 and then I remember us being like guys. We're not pro smoking, but evergreen network is and like we did that joke, but then it got cut out. So honestly, listening to that bit sounds like you and I are pro smoking yeah, yeah, which I am. I'm saying we I feel like we have to be like no. I think smoking is bad for your health, but it is cool. Oh, we're anti should not do there are 04:44 there are kids, if you do it's cool kids who listen to this and I don't want them to think that I smoke. I don't yeah yeah he doesn't smoke cigarettes, smoke. don't smoke, but I think smoking school. 04:57 all right. Sorry I brought. I tried this is this is this is for when my manager was later. You should you can see in earnest. I tried so anyway, what's the and don't think this week either, but if you do anyways, if you did that be cool. I cool. If you did, have you ever heard of the Hollywood Con Queen? 05:19 the what the Hollywood con Queen, I wrote you when you started that word. I heard the first part of that and my heart was like stop Hollywood con Queen, okay, Hollywood con Queen right it yeah. That's they serve a soft serve. It's like a dairy Queen, but it's the con Queen 05:49 Okay, yeah, you're close yeah right on your honestly Hollywood Con Queen, okay, why are you saying at the same time as me is that that's going to click something to my brain? I just like to say it's a fun. It's a fun phrase right all right, so the Hollywood Hollywood Con Queen yeah. Where should we start this story? Let's start it from I'll tell you about. Have you ever heard of freelance photography? Okay, yeah, is that who this person is? 06:14 Close. don't trust a lot of you know who I don't trust the most and I don't even know if these guys are still around because we're not in the age group anymore. Remember when we were twenty two and there was a bunch of these photographer dudes with long hair and they would exclusively take pictures of the hot girls. Yeah, you know and they'd be like oh yeah, I got modeling pictures with it's so sketchy to me. It's kind of like it's honestly it is the twenty tens equivalent of the two thousands like modeling contracts at the mall. 06:44 where the guys are like oh yeah, you should be a model. You want to do a model photo shoot? You know I'm talking about. Remember that did somebody offer you that at the mall when you were a kid? Is that what you're trying to say right now? Have you not? Have you not heard of that? That was like super common in two thousands big in like Missouri. No yeah, it was like you would go in the mall and it was always high school girls. These dudes would approach high school girls and be like be like hey, you should be a model, but it was weird because they would exclusively approach high school girls that were with their moms. I think I don't know if this is true. 07:12 but then they would like they would be like you should be a model and then they would ask their mom. They be like yeah. You think they could be a model and then they would get them to sign up, exploit that mother daughter relationship of like. Do you think your kids ugly and the mother has to be like no yeah, but my kid could absolutely she's beautiful. She could be a model right and so like then you back the mom into a corner where she can't say no yeah yeah. It's a whole tactic, not the same. I'm talking about these news who were like we were like twenty two twenty three 07:40 No, no, no, no, no, because they did the same thing. They did the same thing. They were for people weren't talking to their mom when then they could and then they could. I am they would take them to their little mall studio and then they would have a bunch of promo material and these dudes would take them out to a field and they would take a picture of it. That was two thousand. I also met them in the that was the south. No, no, no, no. They met him through Instagram. I'm talking about a serious that you're doing stupid little bit. This is a serious thing to shut up. Okay, I'm so mad. All right, 08:06 I really review about how I'm being mean to Tim, but at least acknowledge how annoying he is. You know saying I people like Jaren's really kind of a jerk to Tim lately. Do you even realize that what it is to deal with this person can't get a sentence out with him being like? Oh, you don't like the malls like with the moms, the moms, the malls like freaking let me talk brother. So anyway, I'm talking about I'm talking about dudes who are twenty three moms in the mom, mom, the the boss, the ball, you know the ball, 08:37 I tell the last fifteen seconds the dudes were there. They all looked the same yeah, yeah, and they would. I think their tactic was to get high school seniors who were just turned eighteen yeah take their senior pictures and then they would groom those girls through college yeah yeah. That was a weird thing that we all let happen yeah yeah, but yeah, because I remember that being like 09:01 I specifically remember it and I feel like you know exactly who I'm talking about in the Springfield area. Yeah, when we were twenty five and I was like you got to I remember us being like at a you weren't there. I was at a friend's house and that that specific guy was there yeah and I remember thinking in the corner. I was like you got to give up this game because now it's like now you're seven years older than them. Yeah, 09:26 Yeah, it's it's it's different. We were a different one same age yeah, but it's like dude, you're come on man yeah, because what are they paying him? That's what I'm saying. I don't think they were and I actually have it on good authority from a person that I'm married to from all mom for one of my mom. No, that it was like so that guy specifically, but also like this is what they would do is they would 09:55 to get him to do like a modeling shoot or whatever. So they take the cool pictures or whatever and they would like push them into doing like a like a a boudoir. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and it's like why would you suggest that that's very strange or like a summer bikini shoot yeah and you're like hey we should make like yeah that should be punishable by the law. You know yeah being sketchy like a freaking weirdo and really weird yeah it's that's so weird. It's strange anyway yeah 10:25 it's just something I think about a lot at the mom. Mom's guys never did that yeah. They were never they were in the ball yeah. It did kiss their mom, which was which was weird. That was weird. I'm not for her. I'm for with you. What you got going on, Darlene, you know, I'm about no 10:55 they went up and the mom was like don't flirt with my daughter and he was like I'm not flirting with her. I'm for you pretty lady and the mom was like this is a super weird. She's like what do you got you guys? Are you I she could be a I'm tracking you good. I know what you okay and let me tell you a story. So this guy this thought the freelance photographer, freelance for those that understand is where there's no employer. You're just your own boss and 11:24 Hey, can I finish? Yeah, finish the sentence. 11:30 that's where your own your own boss and you're your own marketing team and you go so you finish you go out there and you get the clients and that's the whole thing yeah and you pay a lot more taxes. Oh sorry, you pay a lot more taxes yeah. I was about to say that yeah you were. I sorry I sorry 12:00 So in Hollywood, lot of the entertainment, a lot of the like state hands, photographers, videographers, audio engineers, writers, they're all gig workers. So gig workers, what normally happens, especially in the entertainment industry, is they get hired on a contract and then they have to get themselves to the contract. 12:28 typically not always, but typically the terms of the agreement will be your reimburse for all travel expenses after the fact, but they still have to get themselves there in the first place. So they have a gig worker. So like when I get booked for a gig, I got to figure out my travel and stuff to get there and then I submit receipts and then that person pays my flights back to me exactly and so it's the same thing and so there was a story in twenty seventeen, a specific specific photographer. We don't have his name. He's anonymous, 12:57 okay. He works for anonymous. He got contracted for gig work, okay, specifically called by. Let me see if I can get a picture of of her real quick for you, so you can you can see who this was. This is you know who this is. No, this is Leslie Glader, Clatter Glader. She's a producer on homeland. 13:26 the walking dead, true blood, madman, NYPD, blue, you know, like a lot of a lot of tv. Like she's a big time tv producer. Sure. And so this guy he's living in Colorado Springs. He's a freelance photographer. He's he's done like some decent sized projects, but he's never like broken into like Hollywood, you know. Okay. So he gets a call from her and she says, hey, I'm working on a storyboard for a new project that I want to pitch to Netflix. Okay. And he, says, I need somebody 13:55 to go get some photos on site for the storyboard. I'd love to contract you for this work. And so she says, the locations that I need you to scout and take photos of are in Jakarta, Indonesia. And so she says, I need you to fly out there, take a bunch of photos. have a list, a shot list of everything I need you to go capture photo of. And so he has a phone conversation with her. She ends up sending a contract. 14:25 to him, emails a contract, gets this very official contract, fills out the contract, has probably six or seven phone calls with him prior to the date of travel. And so he books the flight, flies out to Jakarta, lands, gets the car to the hotel, gets to the hotel. Next day, goes out, starts capturing all the photos. She calls like six or seven times that day and then gives him all this new stuff to take. 14:53 changes starts changing in in Indonesia. So he's there in Jakarta starts changing the schedule on him saying okay. Hey, you need to actually go here, go to this different place and so she shifts the schedule around. He ends up being there for three or four days, capturing photos going all over the city and my plans are changing. He's getting picked up by different drivers and drivers are showing up and he is scheduling the drivers. Yeah, drivers are showing up yeah to pick him up and take him different places. 15:23 and every time a driver shows up, he's got to pay the driver because he's footing the bill. Remember and so he's putting the bill for all this stuff. He goes takes all these photos flies back to the states, gets back to color springs that night. He lands in color springs, lands back there, uploads all the footage, immediately gets a call from her and she says hey, we're going to have to reshoot a couple of these any chance you can hop back on a flight. You could go back tomorrow 15:53 and he's paying the fight. Yeah, he's he's putting the bill and he says and so when this happens, he says oh, I don't I don't know like I'm honestly I'm a little shy for cash like this was I spent a lot of what I had to get out there on this trip and she's like oh don't worry reimbursements coming like we will reimburse you and he's like he's like okay he's like he's like but like I mean I'm really just for cash. He's like don't worry reimbursements coming. We will cover it. I just need you to get back out there to reshoot these couple things and so 16:21 a little begrudgingly. He's a little annoyed, but he's like this is a huge opportunity. He's like this is a massive hollywood yeah. This is a massive hollywood this producer and she's using me to pitch something to netflix like she's got to pitch this new show to netflix and so she's like this is could be his big break and so he's like I need to I need to just go for it like it's so here's where it goes. It's not actually her. I get it right. I'm saying this is what should happen to those creepy dudes 16:50 is we should run up their credit card to have them do this. We should call him be like hey 16:59 jones having ideas. We're watching him have ideas in real time. Forget. said any of that 17:10 Just forget. I didn't say anything. You know, you didn't see that. What's that? Are you an investigator watching this three years of the future? No, you're not. Just gaslight them to the video. 17:26 So anyways, he flies back to Jakarta, captures these other photos. He gets a call while she's there while he's there and she says, hey, I want to make an adjustment. She's like, I actually want to get some shots in Bali and I would love to send you out to Bali to take the photos. You went to Indonesia, shoot man. 17:49 they ask for Indiana. I video, but the photo my God, wait, this is what Indianapolis looks like. don't know. I need Apple is look like this. Wow, I got a this stuff like this is really gonna be an apple right now. Wow, 18:13 I swear to the Indianapolis have all this water in the jungle. This is crazy. I love this place and so then she's like she's like you got to go to Bali a little bit of back and forth. Really, really difficult. He finally agrees, goes to airport and while he's waiting for his flight and has happened recently, I don't know if you remember this, the volcano in Bali erupts and so then his flight gets canceled. She's very upset. She calls him freaking out. You can't get any pictures of it. Yeah. 18:42 and so she's really upset. She's like she's like you got to figure out a way. She's a wait. Keep your not there yet. She had she had planned and she planned the volcano eruption to kill him, blow him up right. A local freelance photographer and that's what all canoed. That's what I'm saying man. The volcano was an inside job. She played the volcano. I was really a volcano. 19:10 this is sick. live in it, so he goes he she's trying to get him to Bali. She can't get him to Bali. He comes back to the states lands in Colorado Springs, yeah and then she calls almost immediately and it's like hey. I know that this is pretty inconvenient with the way the travels been the last couple days. You go right back, but she says, but I just got a meeting with Netflix tomorrow. I need you in Los Angeles tonight, so we can play in our pitch and she's like she's like. I didn't expect this to happen. She's like I need you in Los Angeles tonight. 19:39 and then tomorrow. Okay, to be real though, this does happen and it's really freaking annoying. I don't the rich people don't understand how anything works, so they're just like straight up. They just don't. They have no idea. They have no comprehension of what it means to book a flight and leave your house and get out like they're just like you be in l. Tonight yeah, because they're well, no jets and yeah exactly and they will just make it happen and you're like. What do you mean make it happen like we're going to book you on the spirit airlines? We're going to pay for the uber x to get you to the update and what will just begin you're like 20:09 this can't. We can't do this tomorrow. No, no, got to do it now right now, right right now, now, right, right, right. Yeah, so to be fair though, the other side of it is that so many of these producers and stuff have learned that if you don't do it now chance yeah is done and this is a multi million opportunity where it's just like oh if we can't lock it down tomorrow, then it's like you guys have time next week. Oh next week is yeah we're we're forgetting all about you next week. We're actually going up is yeah that's honestly what it feels like is that they're just like now it's got to happen tomorrow or we're going to 20:39 die like. yeah, yeah, we're all right. We put next week is a volcano actually a company wide retreat this weekend and we don't plan on coming back. We ain't going to be back. So what do you mean? You don't plan on coming back? Yeah, it's like a team building thing, team building thing. We hunt each other for sport. You can't you do what I mean. Look, if you think about it like what's a better way to pod the doll die together. You want you won't 21:10 In the early days of this show, we did like affiliate ads where we were like a sign up for grammarly and use code till and and we got like fifteen cents and now we just do patreon. It's a much better way. It's better for us as creators. It's better for you as listeners and it's a much more fun way for us to interact. We do monthly hangouts like on zoom. We just hang out and play games online and and get to know each other. It's a really fun time so 21:37 but still use our code till in at grammerly dot com because I think it's still I might get like a couple cents from that, but join us on patreon because we're having a great time. Yeah, if you don't, we're going to have to start doing mobile game ads. 21:54 So he goes at to L. A lands in Los Angeles yeah that night and in Los Angeles that night, he doesn't know why for kids or he does not nothing to live for in Colorado. He calls it he's like he's like hey, I'm in Los Angeles where we meet my wife would not let this happen and and she says oh I actually went to Los Angeles. 22:16 right Smith, Louisiana, La yeah, La yeah, that's what we call it down. We call it in Louisiana and the net like head for you to get Louisiana right off the Mississippi, right out the northern Louisiana, not even one of the cities Netflix HQ. Yeah, it's like Walmart. Why us Ruskin, Louisiana, Ruston, Ruston, Ruston, Rusty, rusted 22:43 so Franklin, Louisiana, there's a place there called the dirty donkey and incredible yeah. You remember that place right? I remember yeah yeah yeah it's one those places that they have a giant the giant burrito you and if you finish it you get a free t shirt. So I got two shirts that night and well you know it wasn't enough yeah yeah it wasn't enough yeah. They got a waffle house. have to work yeah 23:12 No, so he lands in Los Angeles, cause her and is like hey, where are we meeting? She says she goes you flew in to Lax. I'm not going to pick you up. He's like oh okay, you should have flown into Burbank. What are you doing? So he she he's like where are we meeting? Humor where we were we meeting for us and she says she says hey, I was just talking to my publicist and this is right around when the Harvey Weinstein thing is happening. 23:40 and I and she says I've been inappropriate with some people before he says it's probably best for me to lay low for a little while. Well, no, my pal Har she's like freaking. 23:54 close in the me to movement. What the heck? Well, she says she says I was talking about publicist and he thinks we should follow the Billy Graham rules. I can't pick you up from the airport because that would mean you know, a girl alone in the car. What doesn't look good could happen. We could kiss while I'm driving and that's good. I mean we probably wouldn't, but we could, but we could and you know what if we what if we kissed what if we kissed in the H V, you know 24:33 Sorry I get to work earlier, but I'm respecting the Billy Graham rule. Oh my I work early. I can't take the H. O. V. late because I respect my wife. I was taking the bus to work, but then it was me and the driver was a girl, so I had to get off punch her and throughout the bus. That is the Billy Graham rule. The Billy Graham rule is if it's me and a female driver, I'm allowed to grant theft auto that bus. 25:00 that's the rule them the rules, so he calls her and she says my public. I got to make a I got to make a valentine that says what if we kissed in the h o v lane that's really funny, so she says my publicist thinks that the optics of us in the hotel together. 25:24 oh she's like okay, okay, okay, she's like. I think my publicist thinks that the optics of us meeting in the hotel to I mean the number of meetings that just legitimately took place in a hotel room is one on one like what like I stay in hotels all the time. Yeah, I feel we like if you came to my home to not tonight with me, I would feel we were best friends. I would feel weird if you came to my hotel room yeah yeah right. I would 25:52 Well, I don't respect your boundaries. That's what I'm saying. I thought my counts and that's why you'd be outside is because you can't be trusted to respect the boundaries that I said. What you would your counselor say? I don't know. I said I told my counselor that you have really good boundaries. Yeah, don't talk to me. Don't talk about me to her. All right, that's about Tracy. See, said good bad. Yeah, she's going through a divorce right now. 26:22 okay, hold on, hold on, no one's next door, no one's next door right now. last time we were here, I don't know. You didn't know this. It's in the episode. Yeah, we made a lot of jokes about the counselor next door getting a divorce yeah, and then I ran into them in the hallway the other day and he was like yeah. 26:44 I told him what we do told me we have a comedy podcast. He's like he's like oh, is that why I heard all that stuff about the Boston Marathon, so he one hundred percent heard everything and I'm glad he was like yeah, but the Boston Marathon right not about my in you know marriage falling apart yeah. He's also getting divorce yeah. It was pretty sad, but I don't think he's getting a divorce. I don't know if that's true anyways. We could probably find out though we'll update you next week on the counselor next door. 27:13 do it like we do like one of those like those you know soap opera little thing next week on the counselor next door. Are they going to stay together? Who's to know I hope Robert does that we you know Roberts also freelance. That's the thing about having freelance is that they don't care as much as we do. 27:38 Well, yeah, if their salary it's like oh I and I I really my livelihood. If I don't do this perfect, that's what I'm saying, but if there so we need enough patreon supporters to get our employ our employees, our team to become employees yeah, so that we can lord over and that way we can end every email with comply comply. Hey Robert, I need this turned around by Tuesday. 28:06 please comply not even not even and then I don't if they don't do it. If you're gonna reach back out on Tuesday and be like hey Robert, just touching in about that thing that I said, please stop resisting please Jared and I final warning stop resisting. 28:30 You're going to get tased if you don't turn this in. 28:35 P S sorry about your divorce, because we still care about our team. Yeah, Robert's not married anymore. 28:49 so she cancels the meeting. like I don't want to do it and he's like as Netflix is still tomorrow. I'll see tomorrow. Let's just wing it. He's going to go to the Netflix headquarters yeah down on sunshine yeah and so morning comes around on sunshine. don't know if you guys know that I live in. I live in the city of angels city yeah we know so he goes up to the head quarter. He's waiting the parking lot for her 29:14 or I don't know parked. don't know. Is there a parking lot? Is there a garage parking lots? Yeah, that's why I said parking lot. My all of our cars hover. He's waiting in the hover ground and so he and then he parking lots. Tim, what do you think I live? Well, no, but I don't know if like because isn't Netflix headquarters like oh yeah in an area where there's not there's a parking garage under yeah. So I'm saying he's at the meter. He's a thing on the street, so he calls her and she's not answered and he's looking so 29:44 I'm gonna call her again. There's a homeless lady in the sidewalk. Her phone starts working and then he stops and it stops. He's like wait a minute and then he's like Leslie in she goes. We got the meats. You got the what? Hello, are you ready for this meeting? You're my last shot. 30:16 I've been eating nothing but come six weeks worried about the optics, but the optics of us being alone in a hotel room together. I'm worried about the optics of you sitting there that parking lot spot and me laying down on the sidewalk talking to you through the window drive away, roll your window all the way down. When you talk to me, I'm a person don't leave a crack. If you don't roll that with all the way down, I will break it comply. 30:44 stop resisting these dude, so he finally gets a hold of her yeah and she says bad news. Netflix bumped our meeting. It's not going to happen today next week. If you could just find a place to rent, I get you go apartment hunting today. 31:05 okay, so finally he breaks yeah and he's like he's like he's like you're not Leslie. Are you and she was yes, I yeah and so she gets really defensive. He's how a lot of people ended up in LA by the way yeah, they're just a leave a broke as they went oh and then now they're yeah now they're they can't leave so he cracks he accuses her. She doesn't break character or anything she continues like 31:31 yelling at him and being like, you're throwing away such an awesome opportunity. Like I believed in you and I gave so much of an opportunity. You're going to miss this. And so like he finally goes home when all is said and done. much did he spend on all this? He spent over $50,000 trying to pursue this opportunity. The weird thing about it though. Here's the thing. The reason he stayed anonymous is because that's kind of dumb. here's the thing that's a lot. Here's the thing that's weird though. 32:01 is throughout the whole process, the only money he gave to someone that wasn't an airline or a hotel or like Ubers was to those drivers in Jakarta and the total like between the all the trips, the total was only a couple thousand dollars and so he's like yeah, I spent like fifty thousand but throughout it is like the money is not going to this person with the exception of a very little bit to those drivers. That's what I'm saying. What do mean? Like that's what was in it for Leslie 32:29 yeah, that's then that's what I was saying the whole time. Like I don't understand what was in it for Leslie is that a couple years before that that man had approached her eighteen year old daughter and said I'd like to take your senior pictures and actually I've been thinking about the summer shoe. Could you send me a couple pictures of you in a bikini so I can see what that would look like and then Leslie was like I'm going to bankrupt this guy. Have you heard of the me to movement? Just a quick question. Have you heard of the me to movement? Oh you have. That's why we can't say no hotel room together, but also you should probably look into the me to move it all, so you get because it's coming for you brother. 32:59 because it's going to get you a freaking sketchy guy get you the me too. Move it's going to get yeah and this is a comedy podcast. I make a lot of jokes and none of this would play for a jury. I'll tell you that so this whole thing happens right. He goes home so that's what I was thinking is like she doesn't benefit from this yeah. He goes home, he's frustrated, he's very annoyed yeah unless she just likes the power yeah. 33:29 potentially, but he's still confused because it still does feel real like he looks back at it all and he's like well, like you said, a lot of this stuff is stuff that happens right. We're like they do reimburse you and they do start to kind of gaslight himself into being yeah and like the emails was from an email address that would make sense. Like it was her last name like productions dot com yeah and then like last name productions at gmail dot com gmail dot 33:58 No, it was actually like name productions dot com available, because I you know, I know we just rebranded as solar flare media, but last name productions is kind of neat. Let's find out the email was glader productions dot com sure and then the contract was like a super official contract and all the stuff that they were doing like he actually said that she had referenced other people he's worked with in the past. 34:28 and it was strange because she talked about them with details of like personality quirks like oh like they do this that you don't know from is so funny. They get ice in their drink and you're like yeah, that is weird. I guess pretty weird. They do that's a pretty not normal thing. I guess no, but like he was like he's like yeah personal personal course. You would only catch if you worked with this person and so he's like it was very strange that and so he's like he's like 34:58 she must have been actually her, but why was she sending me on this like goose chase and so he just kind of sits on this. He's really embarrassed about it doesn't really talk to anyone about it and then he sees a video on Instagram. Another freelance videographer tells her story about how what is this woman's name? Let me look another Hollywood producer center on this crazy Amy Pascal, which was the 35:27 co-chair of Sony Pictures, sent her to Jakarta and had her go on site and take a bunch of videos on site. And very similar story, like kept saying, we'll reimburse you, we'll cover this, like talk to her on the phone, had the contract, had actual email conversations, phone conversations. But this has got to be just a power thing. Yeah, but it never, never actually like came through. And so she puts this out, it goes viral on Instagram. And then he starts reading and realizing because this is like a 35:57 Hollywood videographer, a lot of our contacts were like, Hey, this happened to me too. And like all these people came forward and were like, yeah, this happened to me, but it wasn't Amy Pascal. It was, it was Kathleen Kennedy. It wasn't Kathleen Kennedy. was Sherry Lansing. And it was like all these different, like high power Hollywood women were sending them on these goose chases always in Jakarta. Um, and so it ended up coming about 40 people came forward. 36:26 Oh, it's a scammer group in jacar. Yeah, about forty people came forward and it was this woman was impersonating all these women from it's horribly. I'm setting that someone is behaving badly in your name. 36:48 So these are all like CEOs, chairs, presidents, producers, directors on major Hollywood productions, major Hollywood companies that would find these people Sherry Lansing, the former CEO of Paramount. What are you going to? I don't feel bad because she's probably responsible for the Paramount Plus app and whoever design that deserves their life. So 37:18 I have never in my life experienced something as bad as the Paramount Plus app. So all these people that came forward, they were all in the same same boat. They were freelance videographers, screen writers, actors. There was actors in there and they were all people who have been working in the industry. They have a port for a show spend on these, but they haven't got their quote unquote big break yet. It's all these people who are like right on the edge, on these on these on these cabs and in 37:47 Where is it Jakarta Jakarta? I mean the drivers they were we were paying the drivers and typically it was. 37:52 a few hundred bucks each time was like the pain. That's what I'm saying is those are those drivers running this scam ring just to get people over there and get a couple hundred bucks at a time. That doesn't make any sense. Yeah, that's why everyone's so confused is because the amount of effort that's getting put into this because for each of these, these are all half phone calls. There's dozens of phone calls a day that they're getting from these and there's these contracts they're writing. There's these fake emails. There's these fake websites that they're setting up to like look like these people. 38:20 and so yeah, that was the question. I was like this is so much effort for so little payoff. Why is this like what is happening here? Hello Thomas, my name is Jaron last name from last name productions and I'd like you to fly to Australia to meet with me. You got to pay for it. You got to pay for it. It will be worth it. 38:47 parentheses. Wait, that sounds weird. That's not how I made that. Please read this in a friendly way and not in a weird way way, dollar side, emoji, dollar set, mochi, dollars and emoji, smiley face with dollar sign on the tongue emoji, Colin P. 39:11 close parentheses, those parentheses, why this bump emoji yeah, that's a fist bump, not a punch, come up, resist, sign this pup emoji and that's a punch, not a fist, Jaron, last name, last name, production, I come yeah. These are the emails that these people are getting and 39:36 they're believing them and they're going to get a scan emails though. Like do you okay? So you know how when you get a scam email and it's riddled with spelling errors and all this stuff and we talked about this before on the problem, but you can talk about it again yeah just about how the reason that and people like oh how do people fall for that and I read it and I know obviously as a scam it's a yeah you didn't fall for it. Yeah, that's them weeding you out. Yeah, when you read that you go. Oh, that's dumb, so they know you won't fall for the next step. 40:04 if you read that and you go, this is legitimate, then they know you're at least a little dumb and will probably fall for the second step yeah. So that's that's that's what I'm saying is that like these people who do scams. This is a pretty elaborate thing for a very small payoff. That doesn't make any sense because people who do scams are actually kind of smart. They've got they are got a system figured out. They are. They know what they're doing yeah, so they Linda Glader. She goes and she contacts a New York like 40:33 private investigator firm called K two, which is so freaking cool. Should we? I wish we could be. How do you become a private investor? I would love to do that. I don't know. I don't want to well K two. Okay, how do you do that? I don't know. So K two all right bro K two. Let me, let me see. I want to show you who reaches out to K to Leslie Glater. So she she 41:01 so she's like she's like someone's impersonating me. It came back to her. She saw the story. It came back to her that she's being she is saying I'm the true victim here. Yes, me a person who's made a lot of money from the Hollywood industry and because remember it's horribly upset. I actually love that we're highlighting the women here and not the victims of the scam. You know I'm talking about like that's other victims to barely this. She's the president of Lucas. You think 41:30 you think she's like you know in her pool one day be like I can't believe someone's pretending to be me on the internet. It's destroying my mental health, whereas this guy in Colorado's what about the fifty thousand dollars in debt. He's got a wife and well used to have a wife and she paid fifty thousand dollars for the guys, the private investigators. She's out fifty thousand she probably paid a lot more than 41:55 that's and it matters. We got us to her freaking P. So yeah, I want to show you that this is the founder of K to this is the founder of K to like this is the founder. Oh, that's weird and then this is the guy who runs it. Now this is his son looking at these two people. I'm not going to tell you the names. Who do think they are David? This one 42:21 Armand. Oh okay, no, let me actually. So this is Jeremy. This is Jeremy. This is Jeremy Oh and that is the other one was his dad, Jules, okay, Jules, Jules is his name. Does that give you any better context of who I'm wondering because his dad is Jules very white. His dad looks like Dan Cathy from chick. You know saying like I Dan Cathy Truett Cathy, yeah, 42:50 I can see that and then Jeremy looks not like that guy. Well, here's Jeremy and his brother. 43:03 it's Nick Curl. These are the curl. This is the curl family to K to to roll yeah yeah. So this is Nick Curl's brother runs this private investigation firm in New York City now, so Nick Curl does his brother and goes as I need a favor because I need a favor because my Taman agent, you know, I keep sending people overseas. 43:31 and it's fake and it's not or how he sounds. Can you can you believe that this is Nick Kroll's dad? That is a make every time I look at the look up Nick Kroll's mom. Yeah, that's a good I saw say like there is look up Nick. This is another weird search Nick Corole. I'm hot question mark. 44:02 Oh, here we go. Okay, I'm going to be honest with you makes less sense really. Yeah, I see it and now I understand less. Did he have a spray tan? Is that what's happening? Did honestly must be Jeremy and Nick yeah. I mean Nick Nick looks very facial does facial features is Nick and his mom. I'm going to be honest. I don't know. That's not his mom freaking pull up. That's what it says. 44:32 here. I'll show you. I'll show you this is looks like this is from the same exact event that the picture with her brother was. I think that was his mom from when they were younger, like that was him and his mom in high school and this is him and his mom now yeah yeah she's like she looks like Armenian or something you know like yeah like yeah she's got very strong and Nick roll does to like the cheek and the nose. I'm pretty sure it is Jewish. I'm pretty sure is he I'm like ninety nine percent sure sure 45:02 but I'm saying like they have very pronounced features and it didn't look like the picture we saw of his dad looked like that. You know I'm saying yeah yeah yeah. I don't know yeah that's I agree. I agree anyways, so K to start this investigation to try to track down a person is at the same time the Hollywood reporter and investigative reporter at the Hollywood reporter. I'm still looking by the name of Scott Johnson here. 45:32 I've had a lot of pictures of his mom. Hey Nick Crow. If you see this, I found pictures of your mom. I just put those on the internet. Can you believe that here's a tick tock and I have no context for what this is, but the caption on this says Nick Crow mean to my mom? Oh interesting. 46:00 put that out there. So Scott Johnson, it's it's so hard when someone's misrepresenting your character. I would never be mean to someone's mom. That's Nick Kroll. Who's this guy? This is Scott Johnson. He's an investigative reporter for the Hollywood reporter. All right, go Joe. He puts out a cover article on this story called hunting the con Queen of Hollywood K, and so this woman who's ever whoever's impersonating all these women 46:29 gets dubbed the con queen of hollywood. This comes out and a ton more gig workers come forward in the ballpark of around four hundred people come forward to say this is happening to you yeah, and so now k two and scott johnson at the hollywood reporter both are now talking to a lot of people and compiling stories and learning more. I'd love to be a p I yeah and we look. Can we look about how to do that after this sure how to be I yeah okay? 46:58 do you have a license? That's a good question, because like if you're following someone around, what are they going to do? I'm a P I, I'm a lot of P and the I'm allowed to follow you on a P I I'm allowed to follow you of a P. 47:17 sir. What are you doing that long range photo lids? Nothing you you would make a good model. You know, hey, you're not a need senior pictures. Freaking so long. She's six hundred yards away. Let's do that thing. We're taking like ninety pictures with you. 47:47 sir, we shot taking photos of me with that really long range. What sir we are far away feet apart. We are right next to each other. I don't know. So it's in the face with it. It's such a long lens lens. How much did this lens cost you anyway? $50,000. 48:12 It's expensive to be a P. I. Amy Pascal told me to buy it. She called me. I listened to that woman from Lucasfilm. She said, here's the best P. I. Camera money can buy. 48:31 March 14th. This person is private investigator day. Did you know that happy pie day? 48:43 Thanks for checking out this episode. you like it, there is some great news for you. have a mailing list. that mailing list, we give updates on past episodes. So things in the news, things that happen for episodes. We've got over 200 episodes we've done and every week things are changing. New updates are coming out and we're keeping you up to date on what's happening in the happenings of Till and Topics. So if you want to keep learning stuff, even beyond the content of the episodes, that's a great place to do it. Also, we give updates on things that's happening in the Till and Verse. 49:10 I like that. I've never said till inverse before, but I'm sticking with it. If you want to know what's happening in the till inverse, that's the best place to do it. You can go to till and dot com. There's a link in the description or you can text till into six, six, eight, six, six. There's a lot of ways to sign up for the mailing list to make sure you keep up to date with everything that we've talked about and everything that's going on in the till inverse. But anyways, now back to this episode. 49:35 So Scott Johnson and K to go Joe start in a Joe, all these people that came forward thanks and they're slowly go by the way more and more people are coming forward and telling their story. Yeah, this is still happening. People are still getting calls from the ham in the middle of this right now. Yeah, well people don't realize it because it's so convincing and so people don't realize it until after it's all said and done and for years. 50:03 this happens in twenty eighteen. This article comes out and it wasn't until twenty twenty two when they found this person who was running. my gosh, so for years they're looking for. What do we know when like with all these stories are coming out like four or some people? Do we know what when the earliest one was yeah? So in twenty twenty two, that's what happens. The first person that happened to came forward and this guy, he actually worked in the film industry in Jakarta in Indonesia and he came forward and he was like hey, I know who this is because 50:32 this was I was the first one and the person who did it wasn't like all of them are happening on the phone now, but yeah, me was in person. It was in person and so I know who this person is. It was ninety eight. Well, it was like twenty fourteen and after this it all blew up because they met in person and so from that point forward they never met in person again and so the Hollywood con Queen is this person. 51:02 it's a man. This is a picture of him getting some tea. Okay, here's a picture of him getting tea a little differently. 51:12 Here's a picture of him getting D very differently. Go back to the last one. 51:22 because I didn't realize at first that he's floating in the room. Yeah, he's floating. He's not on something. Well, he is, but it's a yeah, it's photoshopped out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's the next one. He's getting tea. Why is very differently? Were these his senior pictures and then here he is doing whatever this is 51:46 listening he's surrounded by a bunch of bakers that are like needing dough and then some of them are like dump and has all over his bread in his hands and they're dumping the ingredients for bread on him. So one person has flour that they're putting all over him. They're all wearing white. He's wearing a light pink shirt. What is why so what stock photo is this for? What would you use this for? So he is a man who lives at the time 52:15 in the United Kingdom and he sound like a lady. Well, he's a food influencer and so he's and they fell for that no, so he's a food influencer and he's traveling around the UK at this time. Okay, posting a food influencer, posting food videos, foodie on Instagram. He's got about fifty thousand followers and at that time with fifty thousand followers, you can make a decent living yeah and he's 52:39 he's going to all these restaurants all over the UK and it's very clear that he's like staying in hostels or something because he's in a different city for a couple weeks, trying all these different food, posting all this places and then in a new city and so he's all over the UK doing this. And so these are like food influencer photo shoots that he's doing here. And so he had like photo shoots for this. But okay, before he got into being a food influencer, before he moved to the United Kingdom, he lived in Jakarta, Indonesia, grew up there. 53:09 And he always had a passion for filmmaking. He loved movies and he wanted to be an actor, but he was never had an opportunity to get into the industry. In fact, he tried and he was not blacklisted, but he didn't get a shot. didn't go his way. And so he being a not bad actor, 53:38 lashed out and so the first thing he did was the first director that he tried to get an opportunity with in Indonesia. He did essentially this scheme to them and tried to drain him of a bunch of cash as almost pays was a reving passing him yeah, and I think he liked it just really liked it yeah and that's what I saying. It's a power thing, so then he went on to just continue doing it. 54:06 with a bunch of local people in Indonesia and then he moved to the United Kingdom and he was like well now that I'm here, maybe I could I'm running out of people there and he's like maybe I could find people in the states and get them over there running out of people in Indonesia. I've done this to enough people in the industry that now I'm running out, but listen to he's so good at impersonations. Okay, we are yeah listen to what he sounds like ready 54:35 don't understand what you're talking about another makeup artist in Southeast Asia and call the authorities because she's not safe. I don't understand. email. What we'd like to know is where's our money and why haven't you been in touch with us since she was out in Jakarta? When she called us and you'd have to give us a chance to speak as well. 54:54 pulled up. We contacted we had an appointment. She ran away from the hotel and she went to the airport without informing and we'd already gone halfway. Okay, it already sent an e and so here he's impersonating a way to play too much of a YouTube video that he use. This isn't a YouTube video and so this is a man. I don't know who he who he was impersonating here. They didn't put a note on this Robin Williams, the stuffer 55:24 the point I'm making. Hello is just Mrs. Daphia. He was very good at voicing women specifically, and he was really good at impersonating them to our people who knew of these people. Yeah, believe that they were talking to this person sure, and what he would do is he would set up these these websites and he would go on go daddy and get the domains, but he didn't want these to be traced to him and so 55:49 the FBI actually had like a list of accomplices that got roped into this because he met friends and acquaintances and he got them to purchase domains for hey. Would you buy it? Hey, it's good to meet you know it's been a really great time hanging out yeah. No, Is this the part I is this the party? I was just walking by or you guys laughing quick question. What if you buy pascal films dot com for me? 56:18 last name productions dot com yeah. You could get that for me and then just set up. I've got some here's some a record, but the benefit from this really is that he just feels power over people. So he had a group on the ground of drivers and it appears like they were making some money off of this in Jakarta yeah, but he it doesn't seem like he was making much. If he was they were sending it to him, but he really wasn't making much off this, especially living in the UK and the amount of work that it is yeah for the amount of work because he was 56:46 genuinely calling each of these people dozens of times a day and said making these contracts, setting up these websites, these fake emails, sending all these emails. He just loved doing it and so he would send all these people on these goose chases out of just kind of the joy of doing it for the love of the game, for the love of the game and so they discovered who he was, but it was they discover who he was. 57:13 it was that first guy. So that first guy came forward and was like I he did it to oh okay, and so I know who it is because he ended up meeting me in person and I was like he was yeah. I was like I know you and he's like hello. He's like just you don't sound like that. Yes, I do. Yes, I do who you're thinking of is not me sorry, sorry and so okay Scott Scott you your mom is very pretty. 57:42 You think she could be a model? 57:47 Are you familiar with Nick Crowell? Have you heard of him? His mom is so hot. 58:04 did you connect us this don't so now he goes okay, it's two thousand fourteen. He's trying to get into the industry because he's trying to meet Nick Kroll's mom right and then he thinks okay, how do I get Nick Kroll's mom as a engine? Well, I got a scam like four hundred some people and then K two would be investigated me and then by K two being investigating me, then I'll have a connection yeah to Nick Kroll's mom. Yeah, you're right and so 58:31 That's the whole game, the whole gig close. So the FBI does not have enough to actually, you know, Mrs. Crow, I would like to know her more. I would love to drive in the H O V. So the FBI doesn't have enough to The FBI doesn't have enough to indict him on this. All right. 59:01 so they're like refusing to pursue this. The FBI K two is like what are you kidding me? Like he's clearly committed a ton of crimes and they're like we don't really care enough about this. You guys are private investigators, we're public investigators. 59:17 And so Scott Johnson, the Hollywood reporter author, he kind of gets obsessed with the story. He starts writing a book about him, tries to get a hold of him, calls him multiple times, emails him multiple times. He's ignoring it. And one day he's a food influencer. And at this point it's kind of like the cats out of the bag. Everyone knows who he is and that he's doing this thing, but he's still putting in the food influence. And so he does an Instagram live interview. 59:44 it's taken down. It was, think, called pure eats. I think is what was called, but it's taken down sure and so he's does an instagram live interview and on that interview he's talking about his life and it seems like he's kind of full of it the whole time, but in the interview he says he says and life's great. Like I'm it is the middle of twenty twenty the height of the pandemic. I love it. This is my favorite thing in the whole world. Nothing, nothing could stop me. Sorry you guys are suffering, so he's he's on on camera with and standing in front of the windows 01:00:13 in his loft apartment. says, I'm on the 20th floor in London. I'm living my dream life and you can see the city behind him. And so Scott sees this and he's like, hold on, I bet I can find that. Yeah. And so he starts, he had a friend who grew up in the UK calls him and it's like, Hey, this is in London and his friends like this. Yeah. And his friend watches the video and he's like, Hey, not London. That's actually Manchester. 01:00:41 And he's like, I know exactly where it is. And so he was staying in. This is a thing in the UK. They're called a part hotels. Yeah. So what they are, they're like apartment hotel mix. They're like extended stay motels that we have here, but they're like upscale. And so it's like, can kind of a couple hundred bucks a night, stay there. And it's for people who like him travel around and don't have like a spot to land. Right. And so Scott says, I'm going to get a room. 01:01:10 And so he goes and he rents a room and he just sits in the lobby in the morning and waits for him to leave. And so finally follows him. Yeah, follows him, follows him into the city, loses him the first day, the second day actually approaches him. This guy's name is actually Harvey. Well, he goes by Harvey. His name is like Hargo Bing or something like that. It goes by Harvey. Yeah, after his hero. 01:01:36 Who? Is here a two-face? 01:01:46 Yeah, yeah, we'll go with that. So he goes, he follows him and he approaches him and then harvey's very taken aback, not excited about him and approaching him in public, but then pretty quickly lets his guard down and talks to him, just kind of chit chats with him on the side of the road for like thirty minutes and he's like, I don't want to talk here and he's like, he's like here, let's exchange information. We can talk later long story short, the next four years they talk on the phone like eight times a day. 01:02:15 and scott writes a whole book. don't want to be a P. I that what that is. You just become friends with a perp for four years pen pals. What do you mean he talks on the phone eight times a day? He just keeps calling him and he's like he's like hey, can you talk hey what's up yeah and he's like he said I'll tell you everything and so he tells him the whole story and the story he gets from him and also a story he corroborates because he ends up tracking down his family is that he was born into a relatively wealthy family 01:02:44 came Indonesia, but growing up, him and his dad, they loved movies and they watched movies together. He used to watch movies all the time. Oh, that was another thing he used to do. He used to make people watch movies and take notes and write essays on them. And so he would call as Amy Pascal. I got a great role on you role for you, but I need you to do a character analysis on saving private Ryan for me. And can you do that today? I want to read what you have to say about it. And then they would send it to him. Same day. He'd write back. He'd be like, OK, can you do the Matrix two now? 01:03:15 like people were watching like legit like three movies a day doing these character analysis. He would make people do like take taekwondo classes and he's like you got to learn taekwondo. was saying you know that would be that would be justice if someone did that to some of these sketchy photographers. So what happened was him? He loved movies. He wanted to make it into the film industry, had the dream of making it there, but 01:03:45 when he was in his or late adolescence, his parents passed away and his sisters sent him to or I haven't mentioned this yet. He was gay and his sister sent him to one of those pray the gay away camps and obviously didn't work because those aren't real and don't work and they're really bad yeah and so that was obviously like a very traumatic serious experience for him when it didn't work. They refused to share the inheritance with 01:04:15 And so obviously like a very traumatic experience. He tries to break into the Indonesia film world, doesn't make it traumatic experience for him. And so it's this combination of this lashing out for what happened to him with his family, what happened to him with his, his dream and crushing other people's dreams as a result, like making people think they've got their big break. 01:04:42 and then taking it away from them and also draining them of a lot of cash in the process. There is he's now since been indicted. And so there's there in the middle of the extradition process, the UK hasn't sent him back to the United States. He's been arrested in the UK. They haven't sent him back to the United States for his trial yet. He's facing three counts of wire fraud and five counts of 01:05:10 identity theft and two counts of conspiracy to commit wired fraud and the his his attorneys, their defense that they have for him that they've been public about yeah. The defense was he has history on a personality disorder, HPD, HPD, HPD, history on a personality disorder, which is I mean like any of these like this level of personality disorders. Sure it's it's kind of like a form of 01:05:40 psychopathy where it's like he is using the trauma he experienced a fee and he's and he's kind of taking it out on a lot of other people and so even though he has it though the prosecutions like yeah. I mean yeah, many people have mental disorders can't let them or mental conditions yeah and but if they punch someone they get charged with so it's still you still can't do that yeah. You still got to do that you still can't oh 01:06:09 Oh, when all is that, what do you say? Oh, would you put it that way? Sorry guys, but tell am X that you still owe the payments on that fifty thousand dollars all told dream all told there's there's somewhere over five hundred freelancers that he's done this to over the course of like eight years and they estimate that he's cost these people upwards of four million dollars, the majority of which he never saw. 01:06:34 because it was all flights and and cabs and taekwondo classes and just things that he never made them money on you to take some taekwondo you need to take taekwondo classes and then I'll put you in the big pictures. That's exactly what happened, so that's all it would conqueen could have. was never a gram rule didn't apply. They could have been together. I was just this milky. He was just a liar yeah. 01:07:04 Wow! What's he doing now then he's in jail waiting his trial. Oh, wait, you K or US yeah he's in the UK waiting for the UK, UK jails easy UK UK jail is like like a like a bus station compared to you know saying like a what kind of bus station I got a good bus station like a UK bus yeah yeah because United States bus stations are not we take the train for a birthday. You weren't there 01:07:32 but we took the train from a birthday. You weren't there, but we took the train from the where and where were you at? I don't so at the train. I was on the other train. There was a guy who was laying in train station and everyone was like that's a dead guy. was in Santa Barbara and we were all like crap. That guy's dead. Yeah, so we called the ambulance 01:08:00 because or the hearse. I don't know who you call. You call the ambulance to make sure he's dead. So truck yeah, it is a kid called dog, the bounty hunter. No ambulance shows up and this was sad is the santa barbara, but ambulance they show up and they know him because he's like a homeless guy. He was like you know, but he wasn't dead. They checked it a little thing in his leg and he went. I'm telling you that scared the heck out of me because he's the party. He looked super dead. 01:08:30 yikes yeah, that's crazy anyway. So anyway, he's in UK prison, which is not US prison. It's different US person is a different worse, but hey, if the United States has anything to do with it, he'll be, he'll be in one, be there yeah yeah yeah yeah so yeah and then he'll use his phone calls to be like hey. What I need to do is I need you to take some tag on to classes and then also do you play the fiddle 01:09:02 Hey, thanks for watching this episode of things are one last night. If you liked it and you want more of it, we did an episode about Frank Abagnale. You remember that name from catch me if you can the movie with Leonardo DiCaprio and woody from Toy Story. So here's the thing though Frank Abagnale was like oh I you know I I became a pilot and I was a doctor and I did all this stuff and he scammed his way through all that stuff and that was 01:09:28 The whole movie is how he is a lifelong scammer, but it turns out there's one more scam that we uncovered with the episode and you're going to want to check that out. So if you haven't watched it or listen to it, it's linked somewhere around here. If you want next week's episode right now, you good for you, you can get it. If you just join us on Patreon, 01:09:45 that's a way to help support the show. If you go to till and dot com slash join, you can join our membership program and and it's really fun. We love that and then you get next week's episode and you get all of the stuff ad free, so you don't have to listen to dominoes for one. I know you don't got to listen to that stuff anymore, anyway, we'll see you next week. I people don't listen to this, but someone skipped out of the video. You know that's right. That's right. So hey, wait, none of this is real. We're scamming 01:10:14 Hey, but this is an evergreen podcast. Oh yeah, legally we had to put that in here somewhere. It's an evergreen podcast. You don't know. Let's check out evergreen podcast dot com for more information on all their shows. It's great. Wait bye. 01:10:31 Can you do like the 80s? Like... Freeze frame us? Yeah. 01:10:41 And then I can zoom in like... You know what I'm saying?


In the world of Hollywood dreams, getting your big break can seem like a once-in-a-lifetime shot. But that shot became a costly nightmare for hundreds of hopeful actors, writers, and freelancers. This is the true story of the Hollywood Con Queen — a scam that fooled over 500 people across the globe.

A Dream Gig That Wasn’t Real

It all started with a phone call. A photographer in Colorado received an offer from a well-known Hollywood producer. She said she needed photos taken in Jakarta, Indonesia, for a Netflix pitch. The contract looked real. The emails were official. He was even reimbursed — or so he thought.

The photographer paid for flights, hotels, and drivers, expecting to be paid back later. But the producer kept changing plans and asking for more. Eventually, the gig moved from Indonesia to Los Angeles. But when he arrived in LA, there was no meeting, no show, no producer, just silence.

A Pattern Begins to Emerge

At first, the victim thought it was just bad luck. But then other freelancers started to speak up. A videographer shared a similar story on Instagram. Then a screenwriter. Then an actor. A different Hollywood executive had contacted each one. All were asked to travel. All paid their own way. None got paid back.

Over time, more than 500 people came forward. All had been caught in the same scam. And the twist? The people contacting them weren’t real producers. They were all the same person — someone pretending to be powerful women in Hollywood.

Who Was Behind the Hollywood Con Queen Scam?

The scammer turned out to be a man named Hargobind Tahilramani, who lives in the United Kingdom. He had once dreamed of being a filmmaker himself. But when his dreams didn’t come true, he started ruining the dreams of others. He posed as big names like Kathleen Kennedy, Sherry Lansing, and Amy Pascal—all real Hollywood producers.

Tahilramani didn’t just trick people. He studied their lives, used personal details to seem believable, created fake websites and emails, and even made people watch movies and write essays to “prepare for roles.” But the scam wasn’t about money, not really. Most of the cash went to travel companies and drivers. The scam seemed to be about control and power.

How He Was Caught

A journalist and a private investigator finally tracked him down. It wasn’t easy. Tahilramani used fake names and moved often. But one Instagram live video gave him away. He said he was in London, but a sharp-eyed viewer noticed it was Manchester. That clue helped investigators find him and build a case.

He was arrested in the UK in 2022. He now faces charges of wire fraud and identity theft, and the U.S. is still waiting to extradite him.

The Damage Left Behind

The Hollywood Con Queen scam stole more than money. It crushed hopes and broke trust. Freelancers spent years recovering from the emotional and financial damage. Many stayed silent for fear of looking foolish. But speaking out helped others avoid the same trap.

This scam reminds us that even the most exciting opportunities should be checked carefully. If something feels off—even just a little—it’s worth examining closer.

Final Thoughts

The Hollywood Con Queen fooled some of the best and brightest in the industry. This scam wasn’t about stealing millions. It was about manipulating people’s hopes. As the entertainment world grows more connected, these kinds of tricks may become more common. Stay alert, ask questions, and trust your gut.

Things I Learned Last Night is an educational comedy podcast where best friends Jaron Myers and Tim Stone talk about random topics and have fun all along the way. If you like learning and laughing a lot while you do, you’ll love TILLN. Watch or listen to this episode right now!

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Sources

Hollywood Con Queen Scam – Wikipedia


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