According to sex goddess and outrage enthusiast Andrea Peyser, of course. How can Andrea make her story stand out from all the boring, tragic, "woman recounts harrowing story of worrying for her daughter's life" testimony coverage in the boring papers? By calling victim Sandra Boss "the dumbest woman alive."

Repeatedly smiling inappropriately and speaking in an annoyingly flat, lock-jawed voice, Boss primly took the witness stand at the kidnapping trial of her ex-husband, who was known as Clark Rockefeller. A guy who never had a driver's license, Social Security number or visible means of support.
[...]
The marriage continued for 12 years. Not 12 weeks. Or 12 minutes — which is the average time you would expect a Harvard Business School grad to be fooled by this character. That is, if she really wanted to know.

Yes, well, Andrea, in order for one to be a successful con man, it helps to be able to convince people of the con for more than twelve minutes. Otherwise you are just a "liar."

So! Who is the real villain here? The man who simply used charm and pathological cunning to trick literally everyone he encountered in his life for thirty years into believing that he was someone rich and important, who then assaulted a social worker in order to throw his crying daughter into a limo and steal her to Baltimore, and whose lawyers are currently attempting the insanity defense? Or the woman who responded, in your characterization, "weirdly," when told her daughter had been recovered safely? That's right. That stupid bitch is basically the worst human being in the world.

Caption for this photo: "here he is creeping out some ladies at cosmo's bachelor party in the fall. i have no idea how he got in. i had met him at a michael phelps-hosted event at bowlmor a couple weeks before that, and he said he worked for diesel. i knew this information would come in handy someday!" Yes it did, tipster, thank you! Now for a new sighting:

He was at the Tribeca All Access Party attended by such film luminaries as Robert DeNiro, Sanaa Lathan, and Viola Davis on Friday. He was standing at the bar right next to me and was drunk as a skunk and abusively demanding faster service from the female bartender! It is really pathetic that these type of lowlifes are allowed into parties and especially allowed to get loud and obnoxious. When I said something to security about him, they didn't do anything and I felt that they really needed to be fired. But later when I was leaving I saw him being searched by the NYPD! So something must have gone down with him that night.

That seems to be his usual thing:

I went to a charity bowling game & wine sale maybe a month ago, and he was circulating, totally drunk, shirt unbuttoned to there, white linen jacket (despite the cold weather). When I recognized him, I told the friends I was with, who were all entertained by his Gawker-publicized saga. Out of curiosity, I asked the door ladies who he'd checked in as, and he'd somehow gotten on the guestlist as an ICM agent.

For my own amusement, I introduced myself and engaged him in conversation. He actually introduced himself as Priyantha, not the agent he'd arrived as, and then tried to tell me about all his fabulous stays at the Hotel du Cap (doubt it). For the rest of the night, because I'd been momentarily kind, he'd try to insert himself into every conversation I was in, every group, and he'd speak to people as if he & I were old friends. Creepy and sad.

Priyantha: if you'd like to speak out with your side of your story, email us.

A tipster tells us Priyantha is still using the fake movie heavyweight hustle to score big time!

With everyone worried about where in the world the Hipster Grifter could be, we are forgetting about our beloved con-man from days of yore. I was The Beautiful Promise charity auction last night at the Westside Loft. While my friend and I were giggling at the idea of signing Heather Mills name up for a bid on a Stella McCartney bag, this tiny sweaty hand with a wine glass reached in between the two of us to cheers.

Before I could figure out what was happening I heard the word "enchate" (it sounded more like he said "Ashanti") and my hand was traveling up towards his thinly pursed lips. I immediately recognized him as Priyantha Silva in an ascot and was frozen with amazement. He began to drunkenly talk to us about how he was a big time movie producer and was leaving this event to attend 3 tribeca film festival parties. We were invited and sadly had to decline. He said to me "I saw you outside and I just knew you would be coming to this event, there was something about you that told me you belonged here". Maybe it was due to the fact that I was standing outside the door to the event for 20 min waiting for my friend that he cunningly figured it all out.

He then launched into a whole monologue about "film and fashion are very similar, fashion is like film and film is like fashion. You can't have a movie without fashion....blah blah blah" at that point we were able to excuse ourselves and get away. About an hour after our attack he was seen trying to hit on my friend's mother explaning how he had just won 3 Oscars (we think he's trying to ride the Slum Dog wave) she rejected his advances and he lurched away never to be seen again for the rest of the night.

If you encounter this man, don't just allow yourself to be seduced by his magic; email us, first.

From his childhood days in Germany, Chris/Clark was always intrigued by high society and the finer things. Prone to big dreams and imaginings, at seventeen-years-old he fled his family for the New World. The sleepy town of Meriden, Connecticut, to be exact, where he stayed with a family he'd met on a train in Europe some time earlier. From there he proceeded to a run a thirty year con, changing names several times and going from the toasted It Boy of San Marino, to fake USC film buff, Wall Street big wig, fake art collector, pretend Rockefeller, church owner, celebrated demagogue of Beacon Hill Brahmin high society, and, finally, a man named Chip Smith, arrested by a swarm of armed authorities on a Baltimore street. He's been kind of a terrible person who, you know, maybe murdered a young couple back in California, but compelling facts like these just keep us glued:

• He floated around the country for 30 years without one single piece of official documentation.
• Learned his rich boy drawl from none other than Thurston Howell III, the Gilligan's Island millionaire character.
• When in California as Christopher Chichester, XIII Bt, he made up a Chichester family crest: "a heron, its wings spread, with an eel in its beak."
• Said he was the descendant of a former viceroy of India. And people believed him!
• Was given his own public access television show, Inside San Marino.
• Lived with a drunk old lady named Didi Sohus. Later, probably, killed her son and daughter-in-law, buried them in the backyard. When asked why the whole yard was dug up, he said he was having plumbing problems. He kept Didi from worrying by posing, on the phone, as a State Department official and telling her that the kids were working for the government and were on a secret mission overseas. This case was later on Unsolved Mysteries, and Christopher Chichester was mentioned by name and a photograph was aired. He avoided it by fleeing back East.
• When in Greenwich, and reinvented as Christopher Crowe, had the initials CCC embroidered on everything he wore.
• Used David Berkowitz's (the "Son of Sam" killer) social security number when applying for a job.
• Managed to get two high-profile Wall Street jobs with absolutely no experience or credentials.
• When that went bust, reinvented himself again as Clark Rockefeller. Fooled much of New York society, dazzling them with his rococo stories about secluded mansions and regal dinners, jingling his "key to Rockefeller Center," and dazzling collectors and connoisseurs with his impressive works of art (which later turned out to all be fakes).
• "At the end of many a meal of beef ribs and succotash at the armory, Rockefeller would exclaim, 'Isn’t this grand!,' and if it was an extra-grand evening, he would add, 'It’s a peach-melba night!' Quigley recalls, 'And then he would order peach melba, and here we were, two grown men, sitting there eating parfaits.'"
• Played the didgeridoo.
• Rumored to speak five to seven languages.
• Sent text messages like: “In a submarine. Crowded. Strange. Thought of you a minute ago.” and “Sipping strange tropical drinks on Nantucket now. Would love to see you. This coming week perhaps go to Central Park and kiss. Sound good?”
• At five years old, his daughter Snooks drew the entire Periodic Table of Elements on a Boston sidewalk in chalk.

Srsly, just read the whole article. It's fascinating. And we were just saying that there are no good hoaxes anymore.

The Man in the Rockefeller Suit [VF]

Speaking in Italian on Thursday with a translator at his side, Mr. Follieri stood in front of Judge Koeltl and reflected on his misdeeds.

“I didn’t start off with the intention of deceiving anyone,” he said. “I started off with good intentions to run an honorable business and make everyone proud of me.” He added: “I have dishonored my family name and the church I love. I will never be able to wash away that stain and I will have to live with it for the rest of my life.”

Mr. Follieri will most likely be deported to Italy after he finishes his prison sentence.

The Pope is just as easy to get a photo-op with as John McCain, apparently. [NYT; pic via NYP]

Reports the Daily News:

According to friends, he still wonders whether Hathaway, 25, helped put him behind bars. “He was in Europe, working on a deal,” says a source. “He didn’t have to come back to New York. He knew he was being investigated. But she kept calling him, saying they needed to resolve their future. A few days after his return, he was arrested.”

Perhaps these are the same friends who recently tried to lure Hathaway back to Follieri's place to "come get her dog," lest something terrible happen to it. Hathaway is tough to reach — apparently, after dumping him, she shut down all the numbers Follieri had access to.

Everyone will probably learn whether Hathaway intentionally lured Follieri into a trap soon enough: FBI agents have supposedly seized her secret diaries. Which means (hopefully) they could turn into evidence, and thus public records.

And, eventually, into a movie script. No doubt.

[Daily News]

Follieri's story is different, really, because while the other rich actress- and model-dating horndogs find themselves in hot water for whoring and partying, Follieri's facing jail time for pretending to be the most pious motherfucker in New York. He boasted of imaginary connections to the Catholic Church to scam money from investors that he needed to keep up his lifestyle of being a the perfect wealthy, charitable Catholic.

As the Church faced fallout from the child abuse scandal, Follieri stepped up to help them unload their real estate properties and convert them into morally agreeable businesses. He hired the nephew of of the Vatican's secretary of state and went around claiming to be a "representative for the Vatican." But Follieri's only real connection to the church was a guy who could arrange to get him a tour of the garden every now and then. But the scam worked! Thanks, as always, to how easily duped the self-righteous rich can be.

While his love life with Anne was flourishing, in 2005 Raffaello found his most high-profile partners for the Follieri Group yet. That year, he became friends with Doug Band, a young aide to former President Bill Clinton. Doug, who was often seen cavorting with Raffaello in Manhattan restaurants like Nobu and Cipriani, served as a matchmaker. He introduced Raffaello to a Canadian real estate developer named Michael Cooper, a meeting for which Raffaello paid $400,000. More importantly, Doug introduced him to Bill Clinton and his close personal friends, including supermarket magnate and billionaire Ron Burkle. In April 2005, Ron formed a joint venture with Raffaello, called Follieri/Yucaipa Investments, to develop unused Catholic properties. Ron pledged $105 million to help his new business partner in this pursuit. One year later, Raffaello made his own significant donation, pledging $1 million to the Clinton Global Initiative, a charity founded by the former president. This move gave Raffaello a chance to spend more time with one of the most influential men in the world, and he seized the opportunity to vacation with Clinton in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. In a picture taken at that time, Raffaello has his arm draped around Bill Clinton on one side and Anne Hathaway on the other. Everyone is smiling for the camera. ­Raffaello seemed to have it all: fame, success, money, friendship, the perfect girl.

Doug Band! You may remember him as Bill Clinton's guy Friday, who has a terrible habit of introducing the former president to complete scumbags and then also failing to keep Bill's own behavior in check.

By 2007, Burkle was suing Follieri for misappropriation of that million dollars. Because Follieri used it to pay for his penthouse and his lavish lifestyle, which he needed to keep up appearances as a successful friend of the Vatican. It really all would've been easier if he'd actually just made connections at the Vatican and managed real estate for them for real, right? But the one time they tried to do this, with a church in Philadelphia, it burned down and they sold it for no profit.

But once the Burkle suit was settled and the jet company sued him and the NYPD arrested him for bouncing a check and the PR company sued him and his foundation's only employee quit AND it became apparent that Andrew Cuomo was going to indict him, you would think actress Anne Hathaway would've given up on him? Or that he would've given up on his scam? Not so much.

So yes, it was an audacious and impressive lie that he lived, but it looks for all the world like he actually bought into it himself.

• A complete history of Raffaello Follieri.
• 
  
• Raffaello is arrested by the feds.
• 
  
• Highlights of the criminal case against Follieri.
• 
  
• The Follieri Crime Family: Dad was a crook, too!
• 
  
• The Follieri Foundation is still collecting donations.
• 
  
• Poor Anne Hathaway almost bought a house with the guy.
• 
  
• Hathaway's InStyle interview: They are so in love! Oops, poor timing.
• 
  
• New York Mag: Why was Raffaello so weird in court yesterday, allegedly? A codeine prescription. Oh, sure.

A rough translation from an Italian news story from last September:

The father Pasquale is already under trial, accused of having illegally appropriated almost a half a billion lire when he was the judicial administrator of a private company in a tourist development. The trial finished in April 2005 with the Pasquale being sentenced to three years in prison and blocked forever from serving in public office.

The father and son team of Catholic property sharks caught the attention of the media, and the younger Follieri's world began to unravel. Today's charges may be the first step towards following his father into prison.

The main beneficiary of this whole mess: former Gawker writer Josh Stein, who has a big story coming up in Page Six Magazine about Follieri. He's been working on it for a while, and he couldn't have timed it better.

Raffaello Follieri, who was awaiting an appearance in Manhattan federal court, is accused of falsely telling an investor that the Vatican had appointed him to manage its financial affairs.

He allegedly claimed that as a result of his Vatican connections, he and others could obtain properties of the Catholic church in the United States at a substantial discount to fair market value. [...]

Hathaway's publicist, Stephen Huvane, has previously stressed that "The Devil Wears Prada" star is not part of any probes and is no longer a board member of the Follieri Foundation.

Details of Follieri's song-and-dance are still sketchy; some suggest he dazzled investors with a well-rehearsed spiel involving a prime coastal property he could unload for a steal, all due to what he referred to in hush-tones as the "Father Larabee's Petting Zoo of Molesty Horrors" incident. It now remains to be seen if Hathaway reputation can survive the Sins of the Oily and Crooked Ex-Boyfriend, and if she herself can survive any stray lightning bolts sent down to smite God-swindling confidence men.

• Anne Hathaway's ex-boyfriend Follieri arrested [AP/MSNBC]

Through out his career, Morrissey ripped off many of the dying captains of industry, the asphyxiating intelligentsia and the last-gasp socialites as they went gentle into that good night. For example, some rich lady named Elisabeth von Knapitsch, a retired ladies apparel exec, was worth $15 million and dying when she called in Morrissey and his two compadres (one a priest, the other a Yalie) to help draft her will. "Under the will, Mr. Morrissey received most of Ms. von Knapitsch's $15 million estate, including her six-room apartment on Park Avenue. Mr. Forsythe, who had served as her lawyer, was co-executor of the estate." Later, Morrissey "helped" economist Sam Schurr draft his dying wishes. They included, weirdly and probably NOT AT ALL, that Morrissey received Schurr's Manhattan apartment and art collection. He also swindled Richard T. York, an art gallery owner; William Draper "Dean of American Portraiture"; Jose Juarez Garza, legendary New York art dealer to the likes of Babe Paley and Anne Getty; and Jay Lovestone, once head of the American Communist Party.

What was his secret, other than a lack of morals? Well! It's simple!

Mr. Morrissey has earned a reputation for helping take care of elderly people, some of whom he had known for decades, without billing them for his work. And he has provided gifts like smoked hams and turkeys during the holidays, or cashmere robes. In return, a number of these people have left him bequests in their wills or chosen him as a fiduciary of their estates.

Many Clients of Astor Lawyer Left Him Bequests in Their Wills [NYT]