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Hollywood Con Queen

Hollywood Con Queen

7.0

A compelling three-parter about a swindler who cruelly and successfully scammed hundreds of people by impersonating Hollywood’s executive elite

TV Show

United States of America
English
Documentary
2024

TLDR

Our generation could’ve gotten our own Ben Kingsley if this guy had channeled his talents into acting instead of sociopathic scamming.

What it's about

A three-part documentary about Harvey Tahilramani, the “Hollywood Con Queen” who scammed hundreds of freelancers, mostly from the entertainment industry, into paying him an estimated total of $2 million.

The take

True crime documentaries have a way of stretching out a thin story for views. For instance, what could have been an hour-long film is tediously and often unnecessarily extended into five or so episodes. Thankfully, that’s not the case in Hollywood Con Queen. Three hours is a reasonable length to cover Harvey Tahilramani’s wild crimes and even wilder stories. His biggest offense thus far is pretending to be bigshot Hollywood executives (among them famed producer Amy Pascal and Universal chairman Donna Langley), then luring freelancers into flying all the way to Indonesia to deposit sums of money to his account. If he’s not manipulating them, he’s demanding them to commit sexual acts, effectively abusing them. Despite that, Tahilramani is convinced that he is somehow the victim of all this scheming, and it’s his first-hand account, along with the victims’ harrowing testimonies, reporter Scott Johnson’s excellent reporting, and private detective Nicoletta Kotsianas's staunch investigation that make Hollywood Con Queen a compelling true-crime watch.

What stands out

Tahilramani’s level of delusion is off the roof.

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