'Inventing Anna's Talia Mallay May Not Be Real, But Her Art Is
The new Netflix series Inventing Anna tells the story of Russian con woman Anna Delvey, a.k.a. Anna Sorokin, who swindled members of New York City's high society out of thousands of dollars by pretending to be a German heiress. The show is mostly true, "except for the parts that are totally made up," according to the trailer.
Anna Delvey is a real con artist, and most of the people she meets along the way are real, too—including Billy McFarland and Rachel DeLoache Williams. Many other characters are at least based on real people, like journalist Vivian Kent and lawyer Alan Reed. But what about the socialites Anna uses to climb to the top?
Talia Mallay (played by Marika Dominczyk) is an art collector who helps introduce Anna to her influential friends. Anna instantly charms her by analyzing a famous photo, and the two grow closer from there. So, is Talia a real person? Here's what to know:
Talia is fictional, but she's based on real socialites.
There is no real Talia Mallay, and she doesn't seem to be based on a specific person. Instead, she's probably a fictional version of the socialites that Anna befriended in New York City. Journalist Jessica Pressler's magazine article that the show is based on reveals Anna's adventures with the wealthy elite, and some of these did make it into Inventing Anna.
The Cindy Sherman photograph that Anna uses to impress Talia (and that Vivian later finds in Talia's mansion) does exist—it's called “Untitled Film Still #17,” and it was shot in 1978. It's a famous photograph that's part of a series showing artist Cindy Sherman posing as various women in movies. You can check out the whole collection here, if you're curious:
It's also likely that Anna hitched a ride on a yacht with some of her friends, like she does with Talia in the show. But Talia herself is scripted—or, if she really is based on someone, their name still hasn't been made public yet.
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