On the recommendation of a friend, I started watching Inventing Anna, the limited series on Netflix about an emigre from Russia who inveigled her way into New York’s high society and was accused of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from Manhattan’s upper crust. It’s based on a true story, and in the course of watching it, a strange thing happened, or rather two strange things. I found myself rooting for Anna as she pulled the wool over the investment managers whose money she needed to set up her exclusive art club. And I found myself increasingly disgusted by the unethical behavior of the journalist who was writing a story about Anna for a New York magazine. The writers of this series may have been deliberately trying to get us to dislike Vivian, the magazine writer, but as a long-time journalist and journalism professor myself, I have to say I find her portrayal unrealistic. No ethical journalist I know would do the things that Vivian does, such as buying clothes for Anna, who is imprisoned on Rikers Island after her arrest, and helping Anna’s attorney plow through the voluminous discovery documents sent over by the Manhattan DA who is prosecuting Anna. Or trying to convince Anna not to take a plea deal because if she does, then Vivian would have no story.
Ironically, the series is based on a New York magazine article about the real-life Anna Sorokin, who got many wealthy New Yorkers to foot the bill for her lavish lifestyle. I find it curious that the real writer of the New York article, in this interview with Vulture magazine, doesn’t get into a discussion of the ethical corners that Vivian cuts in the series, as she tries to get Anna and others to open up for her story. Jessica Pressley, the real New York magazine writer, does acknowledge that she did give Anna a dress to wear at her trial but says she didn’t consider that a conflict since she had already written and published her story about Anna. In the series, Anna has not yet come to trial when Vivian starts bringing her clothes, including designer underwear, in an attempt to ingratiate herself with the accused embezzler.
But that’s clearly not the worst of what she does. What bothers me the most is the way Vivian attempts to get information out of Anna’s attorney by telling him that she’s on Anna’s side and offering to help him go through discovery documents. That’s an offer no self-respecting attorney would accept (because it could put the whole case in jeopardy), but the attorney in this fictional series does. Journalists aren’t supposed to take sides, but Vivian is so desperate for an exclusive that she will say and do almost anything that gets information for her story. Not cool.
Of course what Vivian does to get her story pales in comparison with the deceptions that Anna Sorokin allegedly visited upon the doyennes of Wall Street and society Manhattan. And yet in the Netflix series, Anna, as played by Julia Garner (who also portrays the sharp-as-nails blonde in Ozark), somehow manages us to impress with her smarts and sheer derring-do. The scene where she basically steals a private jet is one for the books!
I’m only slightly more than half way through the series (there are nine in all) and the fifth episode is clearly designed to make Vivian more sympathetic. She is being crucified in a documentary about bad journalists for a mistake she made earlier in her career, and while the actual transgression is a bit fuzzy (something about not thoroughly vetting a source and getting a fact wrong), it’s clear the series writers want us to empathize with her. Yet I have to admit I like Vivian’s journalist pals at the magazine more than I like her. These three older journalists have been banished to “scriberia,” a remote corner of the office, because they are no longer considered “stars.” But they’re smarter than Vivian and more ethical in how they gather information. Is that what the series creators are trying to tell us: that you can get the story without compromising your ethical integrity? I hope so!
This blog is also posted on medium.com.
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