Life of a VIP

 is the first episode of Inventing Anna.

Short Summary
Reporter Vivian Kent defies her editor to pursue the story of Anna Delvey, an alleged German heiress indicted for grand larceny and jailed without bail.

Full Summary
At a printer, many copies of a magazine containing a story entitled, “Maybe She Had So Much Money, She Lost Track of It.”

In voiceover, Anna explains that the story is all about her. Everyone knows who she is.

Several tweets talk about Anna Delvey.

A news anchor reports on Anna's story, explaining that she allegedly scammed her way through thousands of dollars in gourmet meals, luxury hotel rooms, and private jet flights. She left egg on the faces of the biggest names.

As Anna's mug shot is taken, her voiceover says it's all lies. She did nothing wrong. She earned her success. She advises everyone to pay attention.

NOVEMBER 20, 2017

Catherine McCaw announces the indictment of Anna Sorokin aka Anna Delvey. She's being charged with two counts of attempted grand larceny in the first degree, three counts of grand larceny in the second degree, one count of grand larceny third degree, and theft of services. She committed felonies while posing as a socialite. Investigations into her criminal activity are ongoing. Any victims are urged to call the financial fraud hotline.

Kacy Duke holds the paper reporting Anna's arrest in her gym and asks Rachel DeLoache Williams over the phone if she's reading it. Rachel can't believe it and wonders how they caught her. Kacy says it's karma. The universe corrects wrongs.

Val Boron sips a martini. Nora Radford joins him at the table and asks if he saw the article about Anna. Val reminds Nora that they never met her. Nora says it was in the papers and could turn into a big thing. She doesn't want to be humiliated. Val's convinced no one else will pick up the story. No one would be interested in her anyway.

Vivian Kent gets off the elevator and enters the offices of Manhattan Magazine. She gets to her desk, where Maud Lewis asks if she's got anything yet. Vivian says there were no assignments on the board. Barry Klein threatens to jump ship if they assign him to Melania. Maud misses writing about the Obamas. Vivian says she might have a story and the two of them plus Lou Shaw encourage her to go pitch it.

Vivian enters an office, interrupting a meeting. She hands Landon Bloom a paper, pitching the story of Anna Delvey aka Anna Sorokin. She was extradited from LA and is being arraigned today. Vivian starts to leave to go to the courthouse for that. Paul Hudson reminds Landon that Vivian is on the Wall Street #MeToo story. Vivian's not interested in that story. Landon says Paul assigns her stories. She says it's a cover story. She asks them to give her the chance to get an interview. Everything about the story is riveting. There are so many people involved and she's only 26 years old. She asks Landon to let her do it, but he just says Paul assigns her stories. Paul says Wall Street #MeToo. Landon wants copy in three weeks. Vivian leaves the office upset.

Back at her desk, Vivian stresses.

Vivian walks to the courthouse.

As Vivian slips into the back of the courtroom, McCaw asks for Anna to be held without bail, which Anna's lawyer, Todd Spodek, objects to. McCaw says the only reason she's in court is because they hunted her down and captured her. She's a flight risk. Todd says his client has every intention of coming back to court. She's a young, vulnerable, nonviolent offender. If Judge Diane Kiesel will set reasonable bail, he'll surrender her passport. Kiesel addresses Anna directly, saying she's considered bail and has no confidence Anna would return to court. She's remanded to Rikers Island until trial.

Vivian runs up to Todd on the street, saying he put up a good fight. She can't imagine a woman that age having to spend time at Rikers like that. She didn't notice if Anna had family in the courtroom. Todd offers no comment. Vivian just wants to know how Anna got mixed up in all of this. She continues talking about the details of Anna's case as she follows Todd. Todd still won't give a comment. Vivian wants to sit down with Anna, but Todd says that'll never happen. Vivian says she deserves to have her story told. She just wants one interview. She just wants Todd to talk to Anna and let her decide. Todd asks who she is and she introduces herself. He tells her to stop following him.

Vivian goes home and apologizes to her husband, Jack Mercer, because he was waiting for her at her appointment, which she skipped. She says she just got caught up. It's a good story. Anna's remarkable. Jack says remarkable is pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, working for what you have, showing up to ultrasound appointments. Vivian says it was worth missing an appointment about genitals. He lets her start talking about the story. Vivian explains what fascinates her so much about Anna, how she weaved herself into high society and convinced everyone around her that she belonged there. Jack says she doesn't have to put up with Paul. She might be overestimating how big a deal it was. Vivian says she isn't and tells Jack to drop it.

Vivian composes a letter to Anna, asking to talk to her about her story. As she types, Maud questions her effusive language, but admits flattery will get her everywhere.

Vivian wakes up to her phone ringing. It's Anna.

Vivian takes a bus to Rikers. She goes through security and the desk officer tells her to wait for the bus marked Rosie. After another bus ride, Vivian signs in with an officer wearing glitter eye shadow and asks how long it'll take. The officer says it takes as long as it takes. Vivian settles in to wait. It's 2:07.

Todd, carrying his daughter, Aggie, on his shoulders, approaches McCaw, who is walking her dog, in the park. She reminds him there are phones. He says she needed to see his face. He tells her she doesn't want to try this case. McCaw insists that she does. She embarrassed a lot of banks and hotels. She doesn't want to drop the charges. Todd says she's a folk hero. No one will convict her. They paint two different pictures of Anna. McCaw asks if he thought about helping her get another attorney. She doesn't mean to be insulting, but this isn't his wheelhouse. She's worried. He brushes off her concern, even after she says there are 11,000 pages of discovery and her legal team has seven people. She says she'll get him a plea offer he can take to Anna to avoid a trial.

At 4:31, Vivian is starting to fall asleep in her chair. The officer calls for the Sorokin visitor and Vivian pops up. She's led into a room, where she grabs some paper and a pencil and sits down. A moment later, Anna is brought in and sits opposite her. Anna thanks her for coming. Vivian asks how she's doing. Anna says she's okay. She's glad Vivian came. She was worried she wouldn't because she heard media visits take a long time to schedule. Vivian says she didn't come on a media visit because it's a lot of red tape. For a media visit, you need all kinds of permission, but any regular person can visit an inmate, so she just came. Anna knows she wants an interview, but she's not sure. Vivian says they can just talk on background for now, get to know each other, and then Anna can decide. Anna doesn't like the picture McCaw is painting of her. That's not her at all. She's not a party girl. She's trying to build a business. Even the name thing. It's not an alias. Delvey is her mother's maiden name. Vivian asks for names of people she can talk to, friends or associates, who could corroborate her side of things. Anna says if the prosecutors are so sure she doesn't have any money, they should give her bail. It would be such an easy test to see if she could bail herself out.

Anna says she wakes up every morning now thinking she's had the most horrible dream. Then something brings her back to reality. Vivian asks her if she's safe at Rikers. Anna says this place is different from real life. There are people in there who are criminals. She didn't do anything wrong and doesn't belong in prison. She doesn't know if she can make it. Vivian tells her it's going to be okay. Anna asks her if she's pregnant or just very, very fat. Vivian says she's pregnant.

Vivian arrives at her desk. Barry asks what she's up to, but she says nothing. Lou asks where she was yesterday and she lies and says she was at the doctor's. When pressed, she says she also interviewed people for her Wall Street piece. Maud immediately realizes that she went to Rikers to see Anna. Barry praises her for going rogue, even as Paul hovers at the next bank of desks. Lou's impressed, but warns that Paul will grind her bones when he finds out. Maud says he won't find out and tells Lou to come help. She asks Vivian what she needs.

Vivian puts a pile of court records on the desk. They tell her nothing about Anna's life. She needs to find someone who can talk to her about Anna. Paul sees this from his office and asks Fatima what they're doing. She says they're probably writing. Lou says the only person who knows all the names behind the Does is the prosecutor and wonders if the ADA will talk.

McCaw says no. Vivian says she's not asking her to talk about the trial or anything official. She just wants some color on the case. McCaw says no again.

Barry says no one's just going to talk. She'll have to smoke them out. Lou asks if she's called the asset managers at the banks to see if they'd talk. There's usually someone.

Vivian makes calls. She keeps being put on hold and gets frustrated. Maud asks if Anna's not giving up anything. Vivian says she hasn't agreed to the interview yet.

Todd goes home. His wife, Mags, is getting ready and tells him he's late. The kids are with his mother. It's opening night at Ailee. He says McCaw offered a deal. It's a good deal, but he hasn't told Anna about it yet, despite knowing about it for days. Mags sits down next to him so they can talk through things. He says she works at a big firm. She says it's her father's firm. Meanwhile, he works at a WeWork, with joke clients. This case is complicated and it's just him and Alexi in the office. They can't handle the volume of the discovery. She should probably take the deal. Knowing McCaw, it'll be a deal worth taking. Mags asks why he doesn't want her to. He says even with being married to her and everything he has, he still feels like one of the valets, like he's parking cars to help his mom pay rent. Anna doesn't need her car parked.

Vivian passes Paul on her way in. He says she's been out a lot and asks where she was. She says she was chasing a Wall Street lead and has something good as the elevator doors close. Fatima tells her the DA's office called Landon about some fake socialite case. He wasn't in, but she took a message, which states that the office has no comment. Vivian says she'll take care of it. Vivian then realizes Paul stopped the elevator and heard the whole conversation.

Maud, Lou, and Barry see Vivian in a meeting with Paul and Landon and know it's bad.

Paul says Vivian deliberately defied him. She was supposed to be on the Wall Street #MeToo story. He asks what she has against the women of Wall Street claiming #MeToo. She says nothing, but they aren't doing that. They're scared of losing their jobs and he wants her to bully them into sharing their stories. She's against him using those women as clickbait. Paul says Vivian thinks she's above the rules. Landon asks if they can have the room. When Vivian goes to leave, he indicates for Paul to leave instead. Once he's gone, Landon asks Vivian why everything is so difficult. Vivian says Paul looked at Harvey and found nothing there. And now he suddenly wants to cover #MeToo after every other place has done it. Vivian refuses to do it. She wants a real story. He says it's not her call. She admits that she went to Rikers and interviewed Anna. He's surprised she gave an interview before trial. Vivian knows there's something there. Landon says Paul assigns Features, but Vivian says he never gives her anything good. He moved her desk out to Scriberia, where you send the old writers to die. Landon denies that's a thing, but Vivian says it's the back left corner of the office, the part that gets no sunlight. Full of the older writers, who are amazing. Everybody knows it. Paul sent her there to die. Landon says Paul may be being cautious given the history. Vivian says there's no history. The article was nothing. It was Paul. Landon says they'll have to agree to disagree. Instead of leaving, Vivian sits down and asks for a month to do the story before someone else beats them to it. He owes her one and this is it. He gives her two weeks and says to be well-sourced. If she doesn't, he'll let Paul re-assign her. Vivian leaves and Paul comes back. He knows Landon gave in to her. Landon says in a few months, she'll be out on maternity leave.

Jack suggests that Vivian tell Paul off, then take the year off to have the baby before looking for another job. Vivian doesn't want to do that, because people may forget, but Google never does. No one else will hire her. She's getting the interview.

Vivian, Lou, Barry, and Maud pass around ideas for how to get information. Maud suggests a hotel, the one that didn't file charges: 12 George. Anna stayed there for months.

Concierge Neff Davis leads Vivian to room 517. Before she opens the door, she says she could get in a lot of trouble for this. Vivian offers her money and when she just looks at it, she offers more. Neff opens the door and shows Vivian inside. The room is bigger than Vivian's apartment. It's $1,700/night and isn't even one of their suites. The bill must have been huge, but Anna paid it and tipped with $100 bills. She's a legend around there. Neff doesn't fraternize with guests. Vivian asks if she remembers any guests Anna had. Neff doesn't and needs to get back. She asks if Vivian wants to take a selfie, because Anna took selfies all over that room.

Vivian scrolls through Anna's Instagram feed. She prints out several of the images.

Vivian calls people who are in the pictures. She meets with Nora Radford, who tells her Anna's from the Delvey family. They're big in antiques. There's a trust fund. That's all she knows.

Kacy Duke says Anna's Russian and her father's a major money guy, something about solar. Very rich.

Sasha Thomas says Anna had a painting that was supposed to be sold for about $42 million when Anna turned 25. She and her brother were going to split it. Sasha says she saw the piece, but then doubts herself.

Val Boron says Anna knew how to dress.

Kacy says Anna dressed oddly for someone with so much money, but she did have more clothes than anyone else.

Sasha says she wore the same black dress over and over again.

David Morrison of Fortress says Anna looked like a little Barbie Doll.

Jenny Whitley says she and Anna made out and she wasn't the first girl Anna was with.

Kacy says Anna told her everything and she had no use for sex.

David says Anna came to his office for a meeting and used the bathroom. There was no toilet paper and she did a number two. The odor was horrendous.

Anna scares the shit out of Nora, who still has nightmares.

Sasha's shocked that Anna was a fake.

Val says Anna had a basic face, which is how he knew she was really rich, because poor people can't have that face, not in their circle.

David wishes he knew her better.

Vivian comes home and asks Jack how much of the nursery he painted. Jack says just the one wall.

Vivian hangs the photos she's printed out all over the wall in the nursery. She shows Jack the many faces of Anna. She wonders who Anna is.

Vivian goes back to Rikers. Anna's surprised she's there on a regular visit again. She touts the benefits of a media visit. Vivian says she's been trying to get other sources to corroborate her story. She's made progress on that, but there was some confusion over some things. Anna asks if she took the bus. She doesn't have to if she does a media visit. Vivian wants to clarify things. Everyone describes her differently, as if they were talking about different people instead of one person. Anna asks who she talked to and what they said. Vivian doesn't have her notes so she can't say for certain. Anna says with a media visit, they let you bring in papers and notebooks. She asks Anna why people describe her so differently. She says everyone also had a different story of where her money came from. Anna says on a media visit, she can bring a recording device and isn't limited to 40 minutes. Vivian says VIP comes with rules. She'd have to put in an official written request and wait for approval. That can take weeks. Vivian asks Anna why everyone has such a different description of her. Anna asks Vivian if she can ask her a question. Vivian makes a face, but says yes. Anna asks her about the face and she explains that she knows Anna must have read about her. She tells her that yes, they took the job offer back and no, she doesn't know what happened to the kid. Vivian wants to move on to her, but that wasn't Anna's question. Anna asks her why she dresses how she does. Vivian struggles to answer. Anna criticizes her appearance. She's in prison and still accessorized. Anna reminds her that she hasn't agreed to be interviewed yet. As Anna gets up to leave, she tells Vivian she's considering taking the deal McCaw offered. She walks away, telling Vivian VIP is always better. You just have to be willing to do the work.

Mags and Todd sit at the end of their bed where Aggie and Brian sleep. Todd says he laid out the details of the deal and is letting Anna decide. Todd frets over which way he wants her to go. The plea is safer, but a win would be good for him. He doesn't know what he's rooting for. Mags says it's Aggie and popsicles. She never knows which kind she wants until Brian chooses and she knows by how his choice makes her feel. Anna will choose and then he'll know how he feels. They agree they won't be sleeping in their own bed tonight.

Barry thinks Anna is messing with Vivian. Maud says she may be experiencing some mental health issues. Vivian only has what Anna said on background and she can't do the story with that. She doesn't know what to do, but she can't give up. Barry tells her it's not enough for her to interview Anna. She needs not to take the deal. Maud says he's right. She needs time to interview Anna again and again to build a story. Lou agrees that she can't take the deal or Vivian's story is done. Without a trial, there's no story. If she takes the deal, she'll be sent upstate to start serving her sentence. Vivian can't drive hours to visit her every week because she's going to have a baby soon.

Todd tells Vivian Anna's taking the deal. It's a good deal. Anna has also asked him to tell her she's not interested in doing the interview anymore. She didn't like the direction Vivian was headed. Vivian says there was no direction. She has no idea who Anna is and the more she learns, the less she knows.

Dr. Harris does an ultrasound. Jack asks for the sex. It takes a minute, but Dr. Harris announces they're having a girl. Jack celebrates while Vivian curses. Dr. Harris leaves to give them a minute. Jack knows Vivian is upset, but she's also ruining one of the best moments of his life. Vivian says she's real. She thought she was going to have everything fixed before there was a tiny person she had to take care of. She wants the baby, but she thought she'd have her career saved. But now she's real and Vivian has run out of time. And he better not say that the joy of having a daughter should make up for the loss of her career. Jack takes off her shoes and starts rubbing her feet. She says she's happy it's a girl and he asks what she wants to do.

Vivian starts taking the pictures down. As she does, she stops to look at one.

Vivian dumps her back out onto the table. She starts adding more pictures to the wall, along with articles and dates for reference. In one of the photos, she spots Neff in the background.

Neff is at work when she gets a text of a picture of her and Anna. She turns around to see Vivian. Neff tells her to wait by the loading dock and calls to tell her boss she's taking a break.

Outside, Vivian asks how she and Anna became friends. Neff says they just clicked. Vivian asks to interview her and Neff immediately says no. She doesn't sell out her friends. Vivian shows her pictures of her, Anna, and two other women, Rachel and Kacy. They were good friends. Anna wants to know what happened. Neff says goodbye and tries to walk away. Vivian asks if she knew Anna was taking a plea. Neff says Anna's not dumb, so if she's taking a plea, it's the right thing to do. Vivian doesn't want to see Anna throw her life away. Neff says Vivian doesn't care about Anna. She cares about her story. Neff knows she won't get her story if Anna takes the plea. So Vivian is there to ask Neff to convince Anna not to take the deal. Vivian says it could be an important story. Neff says she's in the New York People business. Everyone wants something. If Vivian would admit that, Neff would respect her more. Vivian admits she needs the interview because she wants the career she was supposed to have. She needs to know what Anna wants, so she can convince Anna not to take the deal. Neff smiles.

The bus comes for Rikers. Vivian doesn't get on. A car pulls up. Beth, the Rikers media liaison, gets out and introduces herself. She helps Vivian into the car and drives her into Rikers.

Vivian has Anna sit down and pours her some tea. Anna says she's not doing the interview. She's taking the deal. Vivian asks her why. Anna explains that if she loses at trial, she could get fifteen years or more. If she takes the deal, she's out in four and gets deported. Vivian says everyone's calling her all these insulting things. They're deciding who she is. If she takes the deal, she's agreeing with them. The trial is her one chance to defend herself. Vivian wants the story. In return, she can give Anna what she wants. Anna asks what Vivian thinks she wants.

Judge Kiesel asks if they have a plea agreement. McCaw says they do. She pleads guilty to all counts and gets four years conditional parole with deportation. Kiesel asks if the defense has advised the defendant. Todd confirms that he has. Kiesel asks if she understands the terms and agrees. Todd says she does, but Anna says she doesn't. She tells Todd they won't call Anna Delvey a dumb socialite. Todd says his client rejects the plea offer. Anna wants to be heard in court, so they're going to trial. McCaw looks over at Lane, in disbelief. Anna looks back at Vivian, which Neff notices.

Vivian says she can give Anna what she wants. Anna asks what Vivian thinks she wants. She can make Anna famous. Everyone will know her name.

Anna lies awake in her cell.

Val says Anna didn't take the plea. Nora says there's going to be a trial. They both sip their martinis. Nora tells Val that a reporter tried talking to her and asks if Val talked to her. He says he didn't and Nora says she didn't either.

Main Cast

 * Anna Chlumsky as Vivian Kent
 * Julia Garner as Anna Delvey
 * Arian Moayed as Todd Spodek
 * Katie Lowes as Rachel DeLoache Williams
 * Alexis Floyd as Neff Davis
 * Anders Holm as Jack Mercer
 * Anna Deavere Smith as Maud Lewis
 * Jeff Perry as Lou Shaw
 * Terry Kinney as Barry Klein
 * and Laverne Cox as Kacy Duke

Guest Stars

 * Caitlin FitzGerald as Margaret Vanderburn-Porter
 * Rebecca Henderson as ADA Catherine McCaw
 * Kate Burton as Nora Radford
 * Tim Guinee as Paul Hudson
 * Debra Mooney as Judge Diane Kiesel
 * Armand Schultz as Landon Bloom
 * James Cusati-Moyer as Val Boron
 * Montego Glover as Dr. Harris
 * Kaydx as Lane

Co-Starring

 * Francesca Sweeney as Aggie
 * Allegra Sweeney as Aggie
 * Luca Sweeney as Brian
 * Olivia Khoshatefeh as Fatima Shadid
 * Chris Cafero as David Morrison
 * Mlé Chester as Beth
 * Kyle Beltran as Alexi
 * Winslow Bright as Jenny Whitley
 * T.L. Flint as Visitor Room Guard
 * Ro Underwood as Booking Officer
 * Miche Braden as Glitter Shadow Officer
 * Rachel Green as Lady Corrections Officer
 * Kathleen Garrett as Sasha Thomas
 * Onika Day as Desk Officer
 * Beth Bradley as Canine Officer
 * Claire Jamison as Pregnant Woman
 * Israel Acevedo as Officer
 * Isaiah Aldridge as Nico