Recommendation: "Chameleon: Hollywood Con Queen"

 It’s been some time since I found and listened to a multi-part limited documentary podcast, but I’m into one now I can highly recommend, “Chameleon: Hollywood Con Queen,” from Campside Media, which is smaller than the giants like Wondery, Gimlet and Spotify. It reminds me a bit of “The Shrink Next Door” and “S-Town,” in that “Chameleon” unspools an odd type of crime story or fraud story that reveals itself as the episodes unfold.

“Chameleon” tells the tale of a bizarre Hollywood scam in which someone posing as a movie producer convinces aspiring personal trainers, make-up artists and other rank-and-file craftspeople who are trying to get established as film professionals, to travel to Indonesia for what looks to be a big blockbuster style epic production. The marks were convinced to front their own airfare and expenses with promises of reimbursement, and when they arrived in Jakarta, were driven around in a hired car, mostly aimlessly, to production meetings that would get canceled and location sites where no work was yet underway.

 

For male marks, like Eddie, a L.A.-based personal trainer, this would be frustrating, annoying and aggravating, but female marks, like Heather, a U.K.-based make-up artist, started wondering if they were in danger of being abducted for human trafficking, because of the way the scam manifested itself by putting them into a state of confusion and uncertainty about what was really going on, which made this a terrifying experience.

 

That’s the opening two episodes, but please do listen for yourself. I’m now on episode five out of eight, and as this podcast continues, the hosts drill down on whether the scam was the work of a network of people or just one mastermind. The evidence from the accounts of some of the marks who were victimized for relatively small amounts of cash (in the range of $500-$3,000 a piece) mounts, and the hosts, journalists Josh Dean and Vanessa Grigoriadis, examine it in depth to uncover what is really going on, and how and why it is being done.

 

The appeal of “Chameleon” is its binge-worthiness. Each epsiode centers on one personality involved in the story, including professional investigators who get involved, and some of the real Hollywood players whose identities were being stolen to carry out the scam. The episodes each run between about 30 to 45 minutes, so they are nice digestible chunks, and often will leave the listener wanting more and ready to go right on to the next one right away.