Scandals are newsworthy in most circles today. From fake news stories to fabricated books, this is one of the quickest ways to fame and fortune in a world that loves gossip. This biopic tells the story of one of the most shameful scams.
In 1971, McGraw-Hill announced it had acquired for one million dollars the rights to publish Howard Hughes' memoirs from Clifford Irving (Richard Gere), which he claimed were based on interviews he had conducted with Hughes. This would be have been the publishing coup of the century. At the time Hughes was the richest, most powerful man in the world, but reclusive. It seemed everyone wanted to know more about this mysterious and secretive man.
Irving just came off a successful run from his previous book entitled Fake, which was about the inner world of art forging, but he was fresh out of ideas for a new book. It came to him that with the help of his friend Dick Suskind (Alfred Molina) and his wife Edith Irving (Marcia Gay Harden) that he could write a book on Howard Hughes. Irving produced false documents that fooled the publisher's so-called handwriting experts. He satisfied everyone by insisting that he had conducted extensive intimate interviews with Hughes, until Noah Deitrich (Eli Wallach), Hughes' former right-hand man, submitted his real manuscript. Of course, when Irving's "memoir" was less factual, McGraw-Hill hit the roof. Meanwhile, Edith Irving was at a Swiss bank trying to cash a one million dollar check. To make matters worse, Howard Hughes came out of seclusion to denounce Irving as a fraud. As you can imagine, everything hit the fan. People went to jail, restitution was made, and McGraw-Hill was left with egg on their face.
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