Thank God the Wake App in “Inventing Anna” Isn’t Real

Netflix’s “Inventing Anna” presents a barely fictionalized tackle the story of Anna Delvey, aka Anna Sorokin, the “pretend German heiress” who conned New York excessive society for years earlier than being uncovered. One of many oddest particulars in the entire story is Anna’s boyfriend, a would-be tech maven, growing an app known as Wake, which goals to seize and crowdsource information from folks’s goals. Was Wake an actual start-up, or is it one element that solely exists on this fictional world?

It is in all probability somewhat little bit of each. Within the unique “New York Journal” article that exposed Sorokin’s con, there is a transient point out of a boyfriend.

“The CEO met Anna by way of the boyfriend she was working round with for some time, a futurist on the TED-Talks circuit who’d been profiled in The New Yorker. For about two years, they’d been sort of like a staff, exhibiting up in locations frequented by the itinerant rich, residing out of fancy inns and internet hosting sceney dinners the place the Futurist talked up his app and Delvey spoke of the personal membership she wished to open as soon as she turned 25 and got here into her belief fund. Then it was 2016. The Futurist, whose app by no means materialized, moved to the Emirates, and Anna got here to New York on her personal.”

The article retains the id of “the Futurist” a secret, phrasing it extra like a gossip blind merchandise that retains his id hid, however drops hints for the in-the-know. It is clear that Chase Sikorski, the boyfriend character in “Inventing Anna,” is predicated on “the Futurist.” He is a tech man who’s relationship Anna and making an attempt to get seed cash for a futuristic app that by no means fairly pans out.

From the seems to be of issues, although, Chase and his Wake app are technically fictional creations. The vast majority of the large gamers in “Inventing Anna” are renamed from their real-life counterparts. For example, the aforementioned “New York Journal” article and its reporter, Jessica Pressler, are renamed to “Manhattan Journal” and Vivian, respectively. It seems that Chase and the Wake app have been handled equally, both attributable to a lack of understanding on the true individual’s id or to keep away from naming actual names the place they don’t seem to be already public data. Both approach, it is one more outlandish element in a narrative that looks like it was made for Hollywood.