Each episode is primarily framed around one person's experiences, but the other plots weave in and out. Anna Chlumsky plays the journalist who's determined to write a story investigating the reality behind the image. Each episode is primarily framed around Julia Garner plays Anna Delvey, who took New York society and the financial world for thousands of dollars as a purported German heiress. ![]() There’s also a podcast (haven’t listened yet but it’s on the list).Julia Garner plays Anna Delvey, who took New York society and the financial world for thousands of dollars as a purported German heiress. Equally, Williams’s job at Vanity Fair makes for some impressive name-dropping (photo shoot with Annie Leibovitz, anyone?).Īpparently Netflix and HBO are in race to make this story into a television series, and I’m sure whoever does it, it will be brilliant viewing. There are so many glorious New York moments in this book – ‘The décor had a Provence-does-Meatpacking feel, even though we were technically in SoHo…’ – which was certainly part of its appeal for me. I enjoyed Williams’s honesty (she openly admits to feeling flattered by Anna’s attention and approval) but you also get a good sense of her confusion, anguish and desperation when things take a turn. My Friend Anna is light, easy reading – if ‘beach-memoir’ is a sub-genre, this book is it. However, when things began to go wrong Williams came to the realisation that where she had ‘…felt connection, Anna felt control.’ We crave validation, from friends and from strangers.Īdditionally, few of Williams’s other friends questioned Anna’s authenticity. Why is exclusivity appealing? We all want to be included. Williams openly states that she considered Anna a friend and enjoyed her spontaneity and confidence – ![]() It is easy to read these stories and think that you would never be fooled by a person like Anna but, as Williams points out, she was a trusting (not naïve) person, who believed that ‘…it’s a mark of good fortune not to have developed the type of cynicism that comes with so-called street smarts.’ And while Anna’s enigmatic behaviour ‘…had once been fun and intriguing, it was now alarming.’ Back in Manhattan, the repayment never materialized and in the months that followed, Williams made countless attempts to be reimbursed, all of which Anna dodged, ignored or responded to with increasingly elaborate lies. And I let her.īut when Anna proposed an all-expenses-paid trip to Marrakech at the five-star La Mamounia hotel, and Williams, through an extraordinary set of circumstances was forced to ‘temporarily’ foot the US$62,000 bill on her credit cards, their friendship was compromised. Yet, wanting what she wanted, she set our course and kept me on her raft. When it came to material possessions, Anna was pared down, but when it came to indulgent experiences, she couldn’t get enough… And since Anna liked to have company, she pulled me into the deeper water with her, where I knew my way around (thanks to my job and past experiences with wealthy college friends) but was not capable of floating on my own. Once Williams was part of her entourage, Anna picked up the tab for regular dinners at Le Coucou, infrared sauna sessions, drinks at the 11 Howard Library bar, and regular workout sessions with celebrity personal trainer, Kacy Duke. ![]() In 2017, Williams – mid-twenties a photo editor for Vanity Fair living in a studio apartment in New York – meets Anna Delvey, a ‘German heiress’ who was in New York to work on “…the Anna Delvey Foundation, a visual-arts center she was developing that would house gallery space, restaurants, members-only lounges, and more.”Īnna was charismatic, ambitious and generous. And it is the detail that makes this memoir so engrossing. ![]() It took all my restraint to not type ‘Anna Delvey’ into Google as I was reading My Friend Anna by Rachel DeLoache Williams because, although I was vaguely aware of the outcome of Williams’s ‘ Sex and the City meets Catch Me if You Can’ story, I couldn’t recall the detail.
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