“I used to brag that I got the Thomas Jefferson wines,” he
said. “Now I get to brag that I have the fake Thomas Jefferson
wines.”
As a sometime stage magician, I enjoy a good sleight-of-hand. I like a colossal monstrous jape, a clever bit of illusion, and Orson Welles, both for his War of the Worlds broadcast and his film F for Fake, his dual biography of the forgers Elmyr de Hory and Clifford Irving.
Now it seems that a German con man may have duped a whole bunch of rich people into buying phony cru. Including some allegedly from Thomas Jefferson’s wine cellar. And that one of his dupes, a guy who models himself on Old West sheriffs, is intent on bringing him to justice.
Makes it hard to figure out who to cheer for.
I wish Orson Welles were still around to make a movie of this. He would appreciate all the little nuances, I’m sure.
