Anna Sorokin (Anna Delvey) is the subject of the Netflix documentary “Inventing Anna,” which follows Sorokin as she immerses herself in New York’s high society circles while passing herself off as a wealthy German heiress.
Anna’s elaborate lies eventually fall apart, and after several unsuccessful scams and unpaid hotel bills (there are many! ), she is arrested.
An intriguing “present-day” storyline is provided by the miniseries’ parallel narrative, which follows the determined journalist Vivian Kent as she uncovers Anna’s story.
Vivian seems determined to prove herself in the journalism industry despite the odds and the scorn of her elders.
In the background, there are rumblings about a scandalous case involving her reporting and a lost opportunity at Bloomberg.
Donovan Lamb, another character, also enters the fray. The real scoop on what happened. To wit: let’s delve in.
Who is Donovan Lamb?
While following Anna’s convoluted tale of cons and cons, Vivian is distracted by a personal incident from her past.
Vivian interviewed a young man named Donovan Lamb a few years ago for an article, and now he’s the focus of a show called “America Investigated,” which looks into questionable journalism.
Donovan was interviewed by Vivian back when he was a senior in high school because he supposedly made over $70 million in the stock market.
But the young man eventually admitted in public that his claims were false and that Vivian had pushed him to exaggerate the situation for media attention. Of course, this led to a backlash against Vivian in the media, which we see play out onscreen.
This incident, like many others in the show, seems to be inspired by real events. The 2018 article by journalist Jessica Pressler for New York Magazine that served as the basis for ‘Inventing Anna.
Pressler reportedly profiled Mohammed Islam, a senior at Stuyvesant High School who, at the age of 17, claims to be worth $72 million from trading the stock market as part of New York magazine’s 2014 annual ‘Reasons to Love New York’ writeup.
After the article went viral, Islam admitted to the New York Observer that it was all a lie. Pressler was criticized for this, but she stood by her story, saying it was “sceptical enough,” and letting readers know it was based on rumors.
Why was Vivian Kent Fired from Bloomberg?
As the time draws near for Donovan Lamb’s interview on ‘America Investigated,’ Vivian is pressured by her superiors to also go on the show and give her side of the story. Nonetheless, she makes the decision not to.
She was supposed to start working for Bloomberg, but the controversy over her reporting on Donovan Lamb prevented her from starting.
When her piece on Anna Sorokin becomes one of Manhattan Magazine’s most-read pieces, Vivian feels finally validated.
You probably already guessed that there’s a real-world analogy here. Pressler was expected to join the investigative team at Bloomberg News.
Despite the media frenzy that followed her story about the “$72 million teenage stock whiz,” the journalist remained in New York Magazine.
A few years later, the real-life journalist also wrote the wildly popular story about Anna Sorokin, just like Vivian Kent.
