INDIANAPOLIS — True crime fans are going to fly through the three-episode docuseries "Hollywood Con Queen."
"This is a rocking, crazy story about a sophisticated, diabolical con artist, who swindled hundreds of people out of money and dreams by luring them to Indonesia," said investigative journalist Scott Johnson, who was a consulting producer and contributor to the show, as well as author of "The Con Queen of Hollywood: The Hunt for an Evil Genius."
The con artist impersonates powerful female executives in Hollywood and promises the victims life-changing career opportunities.
Chris Smith, one of the executive producers of "Tiger King," signed on to direct and executive produce "Hollywood Con Queen" shortly after Johnson got involved.
"When I met Scott, he was just starting this investigation. He had done a lot of reporting, and he had decided to write a book about it," Smith said. "We weren't entirely sure where it would go, but the hope was that he would try to track this person down. That was something we thought was a longshot, but it ended up happening."
As you're watching, it can be easy to say that you would never fall for scams like this, but we truly never know what someone is going through to get them to that point.
"The fact is – and this is something I learned during the course of reporting this book – we all have our weaknesses. We all have our points of entry," Johnson said. "A clever con artist very quickly figures that out, figures out where is our ego weakest. What is that point that can be exploited most effectively? We all have one."
All three episodes of "Hollywood Con Queen" are now streaming on Apple TV+.