Anna Sorokin, a Russian con artist who posed as a German heiress while scamming New York’s elite out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, has appeared at a fashion show with a bejewelled ankle tag.
Sorokin, 33, falsely built a reputation as a wealthy German heiress named Anna Delvey over a number of years while conning hotels, banks and friends into bankrolling her lavish lifestyle.
She was arrested in 2017 and found guilty of eight charges including grand larceny in April 2019 and sentenced for four to 12 years.
Sorokin, whose family moved from Russia to Germany in 2007, has worn the ankle tag since October 2022 when she started her house arrest amid a deportation case.
Attending the Untitled&Co runway show during New York Fashion Week on Wednesday, Sorokin posed for photographs with the black bejewelled tag on her right leg.
She also wore a miniskirt and a tiara at the event.
On Wednesday, it was announced she would be a contestant in the next season of Dancing With The Stars, which premiers on 17 September on ABC and Disney+.
The show appears to be leaning into the ankle bracelet, with an image released of Sorokin in a glittering dress clearly showing the tag on her leg.
While Sorokin was released from prison in February 2021, immigration authorities claim she overstayed her visa and must be returned to her native Germany.
Advertisement
She was in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody for more than a year before a judge cleared the way for her to switch to home confinement in October 2022 while she fights the deportation case.
Sorokin’s scheme to pose as a wealthy German heiress became the focus of the 2022 Netflix hit show Inventing Anna, starring Julia Garner as the con artist.
Sorokin’s spokesperson Juda Engelmayer confirmed on Tuesday that she could travel within 70 miles (112km) of her home base and anywhere in the five boroughs of New York City under previous house arrest conditions, but could not comment on any changes to those rules.
While under house arrest, Sorokin had to abide by the immigration judge’s condition that she does not use social media, but she started a podcast The Anna Delvey Show that featured guests such as comedian Whitney Cummings and technology journalist Taylor Lorenz who travelled to her apartment in New York to record.
“So many people became famous for bad things and were able to kind of segue it into something different,” she said in a June 2023 interview with the Associated Press.
Adele has bid a tearful farewell to her Las Vegas residency show, as the Someone Like You star admitted she doesn’t know when she’ll perform again next.
The British singer-songwriter, 36, launched Weekends with Adele at Caesars Palace in November 2022 and performed her 100th show there on Saturday.
Her mammoth run of sell-out shows at the venue, which seats around 4,000 people, has been a success but has taken its toll.
John David Washington says he felt like he had to conceal his desire to act because of the external expectations of him being the child of Denzel and Pauletta Washington.
He tells Sky News it took some time for him to pursue an acting career, choosing football instead to assert his “independence” and create his own “identity” separate from his famous family.
“I’ve been wanting to do this my whole life… but I was hiding it,” he said.
“I had to conceal that passion based on my relationship to the world and more specifically, my folks being in the industry, so I chose ball.
“I loved ball, but I was sort of hiding my love for the arts under a helmet – literally an American football helmet – and so when I wanted to become an actor, when I decided to pursue it, that was a big shock to some people.”
The 40-year-old actor says when he decided to pursue an acting career, he kept the decision quiet.
“Some people didn’t know I was even pursuing it professionally until I got a job,” he said.
More on Netflix
Related Topics:
Since switching to acting, John David has starred in a number of notable roles including the protagonist in Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, Ron Stallworth in BlacKkKlansman and Joshua in The Creator.
He also led the stage revival of the 2022 Tony-nominated play The Piano Lesson on Broadway alongside Samuel L Jackson.
Advertisement
“He [Jackson] originated the role [I play] in 1987 at Yale with Lloyd Richards and August Wilson,” John David said.
“So it was of great importance for us to learn from both he and Michael Potts about August Wilson. It was a great blessing for me, I think, for all of us to have him present on set.”
The Piano Lesson is the third August Wilson play to be adapted for the screen by Denzel Washington’s production company Mundy Lane Entertainment.
It is part of a pledge made by the Gladiator II actor to make all 10 of the playwright’s works into films.
The Netflixproject is directed by another Washington family member, Malcolm, and stars most of the cast from the Broadway revival.
Set in 1936 Pittsburgh in the aftermath of the Great Depression, the film centres on a family heirloom, a piano, that is etched with the carvings of their family history made by their enslaved ancestor.
Malcolm says he started reading the play for the first time during the pandemic and immediately wanted to be involved in the film adaptation.
“I think with this movie, reclamation of story and identity is so central to the theme and it’s something that’s central to my life where I both acknowledge the fertile ground that I was raised on and who I am today.
“That’s what Wining Boy [played by Michael Potts] really is trying to do, he’s trying to build on that legacy, so that’s a story that really resonated with me.”
The filmmaker added: “I take all the gifts that my ancestors laid in front of me, and I’m trying to build something for the next generation to pass down – all of their gifts, plus mine to the next generation and let them build on it.”
Malcolm says his goal was to put family at the forefront of the production. By dedicating his feature debut to “Mama”, he is acknowledging the dedication and sacrifices that mothers make for the growth of their families.
“There’s so much pointing to my mother in particular, who inspired this adaptation so much. I see so much of her life in Berniece’s character [played by Danielle Deadwyler] – and that became a guiding light for me in this adaptation,” he said.
“As we made this thing and started reconnecting with our ancestors, my mum became like a kind of representative of them.
“She’s the matriarch of our family. She tells me about my grandparents and great-grandparents and the line that I come from, and I see them in her.
“And when the movie ends, I want people to kind of have that moment of reflection for their own lives. So in dedicating it to her, I was trying to dedicate it to all mums everywhere.”
Blockbuster Wicked has landed the largest opening weekend of 2024 at Vue International.
The film, starring Oscar-nominated actress Cynthia Erivo and Grammy-winning pop star Ariana Grande as Elphaba and Glinda, surpassed both Gladiator II and Paddington In Peru.
It has also had the largest opening weekend for a stage musical adaptation in the cinema chain’s history.
A boss for Vue International said it had seen a “sea of pink and green” over the weekend.
Released on Friday, Wicked is up 60% on Les Miserables’ opening weekend in 2012 and three times larger than the 2022 film adaptation of Matilda.
Founder and chief executive of Vue International Tim Richards said: “Vue has seen a sea of pink and green over the opening weekend of Wicked, which has shown continued high demand for the big screen experience.
“We saw record-breaking pre-sales for Wicked, followed by a chart-topping opening weekend – the biggest for 2024.”
More on Cinema
Related Topics:
The film is the first of two parts, with the second expected in November next year.
Wicked and Gladiator II – known together as Glicked – have reportedly failed to beat out Barbenheimer, Barbie and Oppenheimer, in its own opening weekend last summer.