The Twisted Real-Life Story of Melissa McCarthy's Movie: How Author Lee Israel Turned to Crime

Metascore 85. Limited opening today.

https://people.com/movies/the-twisted-real-life-story-of-melissa-mccarthys-movie-how-author-lee-israel-turned-to-crime/

After being told that dealers would pay more money for letters with better content, she decided to embellish the existing correspondences to get a higher price. It worked!

Using antique typewriters she forged more than 400 letters over about a year and a half until she was nabbed by the FBI. She served six months of house arrest and five years of probation for her crime but never regretted mimicking icons such as Dorothy Parker and Noël Coward.

Israel, who died in 2015 at age 75, wrote in her 2008 memoir of her crime spree: “I still consider the letters to be my best work.”