It’s the morning after the Super Flower Blood Moon, Sarah needs to pack for the Depp-Heard trial in Virginia, and Nancy’s in a hotel bed in Austin, but first!

More on Grey’s Anatomy writer/fabulist Elisabeth Finch (in scrubs, above), who faked cancer (and a kidney transplant, and the suicide of her brother, and and and …) because “she loved the attention so much.” Sarah wonders why we’re so fascinated by female con artists, especially ones who go down in flames, and if we’re the suckers who are being taken in — or the ones being exposed.

We bounce over to the Depp-Heard trial, where Sarah wonders — not for the first time — what if Amber is telling the truth? We’ve found two women who think so.

The Joan Didion line Sarah couldn’t recall: “Writers are always selling someone out.” (Not all writers!) (Well.) But Nancy’s friend has a killer line of his own: “Online is the poison women were waiting for.” Thots?

Nancy plans on taking you on a tour of Chinatown NYC for Smoke ‘Em’s first true crime book-dealie (date TBA) on The Snakehead. Sarah’s last-minute movie club choice? Apocalypse Now, and who knows? Maybe she’ll go to Vietnam.

About those dick pics…

Plus: An offer for cookies and poundcake from Nancy’s hot little hands! Be the tenth paid subscriber after this episode launches and they will be sent to you.

Episode notes:

Super Flower Blood Moon eclipse from around the world (video)

“Scene Stealer: The True Lies of Elisabeth Finch,” Part One and Part Two, by Evgenia Peretz (Vanity Fair)

Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy is a bad, bad thing

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, by John Carreyrou

“No Exit Plan: The Lies and Follies of Laura Albert a.k.a. JT Leroy,” by Nancy Rommelmann (LA Weekly)

“Dirty John” podcast

“Who Is Anna March?” by Melissa Chadburn and Caroline Kellogg (LA Times)

“Status: A brush with a compulsive liar,” Sarah Hepola on Anna March (Sarahhepola.com)

Cheryl Strayed is basically an awesome person

“Impostor Syndrome Prevalence in Professional Women and How to Overcome It” (Kathy Caprino, Forbes)

Who is Lucrezia Borgia, and why does Nancy keep mentioning her? (Wikipedia)

“Madeline Albright: There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other,” by Tom McCarthy (The Guardian)

Mortdecai, official trailer (2015)

“Why do so many people seem to hate James Franco?” (Quora)

“Goop generated disbelief when it promoted a ‘luxury diaper.’ It was a PR stunt,” by Saba Hamedy) NBC News)

“Amber Heard tells graphic account of alleged sexual assault by Johnny Depp: ‘I was scared,” by Naledi Ushe (USA Today)

Correction to podcast: Bottle in question was not broken, as Sarah claimed, though Heard does say she was bleeding. The management apologizes for this error.

Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle (Wikipedia)

“Johnny Depp and Amber Heard ran up a $160,000 bill with a wine merchant…” by Ashley Collman and Jacob Shamsian (The Insider)

Public Enemies, official trailer (2009)

John Dillinger (FBI.gov)

To Live and Die in L.A., directed by William Friedkin, official trailer (1985)

“Flipping the Script: The Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde,” by Sarah Hepola (Texas Highways)

Bryan Burrough, author of Days of Rage and Public Enemies, among other books

“Meet the Weather Underground’s Bomb Guru,” by Bryan Burrough (Vanity Fair)

“San Francisco School Board Recall!” by Nancy Rommelmann (Substack)

“Everything you need to know about Julia Fox,” by Eni Subair (French Vogue)

“Julia Fox speaks out in defense of Amber Heard” (reddit)

“Why do people blindly support Johnny Depp? I’ll tell you why,” by Charlotte Proudman (Independent)

“Depp v Heard bonus episode 3: Dr. Charlotte Proudman” (YouTube)

Outro song: “Wish the Worst,” Old 97s

Gratuitous photo of Marion Cotillard because Sarah says she reminds her of Nancy (who would very much like the dress in the pic please)

Tenth paid subscription gets cookies and poundcake sent by Nancy and go!

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com/subscribe

The Heights Church

A Faith Like Abraham // Pray Big // Dr. Gary Singleton

Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts