The bizarre scam run by the “Hollywood Con Queen” sounds so improbable it’s hard to believe it’s worked for six years. The way it goes is a single mastermind picks up the phone, posing as a respected female executive in Hollywood (Amy Pascal, Kathleen Kennedy) and offers Hollywood gig workers the job of a lifetime. Promising makeup artists, trainers, or actors prestige and a studio paycheck, she convinces them to fly to Jakarta where, she insists, a big break awaits.
This week on the new podcast Chameleon: Hollywood Con Queen, created by journalists Josh Dean and Vanity Fair contributor Vanessa Grigoriadis, powerhouse producer Deb Snyder shares her experience being impersonated in detail, and it’s chilling. The Con Queen has been pretending to be Snyder, who has produced her husband Zack Snyder’s films (300, Watchmen, Man of Steel), on and off since 2018. At first Snyder thought the impersonator was simply trying to steal her identity to take out credit cards. But then she started hearing from people in the industry that “fake Debbie,” as Snyder refers to this alter ego, was calling all around town with various job offers. “It was a two-month period, where once or twice a week, another person was being targeted,” says Snyder on the podcast.
Things got even more unsettling when Snyder heard “fake Debbie” was holding casting sessions over the phone for films that didn’t exist, like Gotham City Sirens. One day Snyder even got a call from the casting department at Warner Bros., who told her that there was a rumor Snyder was spending her days holding “inappropriate” phone auditions with male actors. It was a kind of #MeToo reversal––a powerful Hollywood woman abusing her position to sexually harass lower-tier male actors, and Snyder was absolutely horrified.
Snyder tried to fight back by setting up a handsome trainer to record a conversation with the “fake Debbie,” in hopes that the Con Queen would make a misstep and reveal her identity. Listen below to hear a clip from Chameleon: Hollywood Con Queen in which “fake Debbie” stops short of asking for phone sex, but does try to rope this trainer into agreeing to work with her in personal-fitness sessions—and subscribe to Chameleon on your podcast app of choice.
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