From this link: https://silverbirchpress.wordpress.com/2015/12/19/sun-122015-tongue-and-groove-literary-event-in-hollywood/
Stef Willen is a contributor to This American Life and a semi-regular contributor to McSweeney‘s Internet Tendency, where her award-winning column, Total Loss, also appears. She is currently turning Total Loss into a book slated to be published by Simon & Schuster in January 2017.
Hmmm. that's impressive sounding. But let's look closer :
1. Stef Willen is a contributor to this American Life.
The Truth of the matter:
She was on small segment in late 2009. That's easily confirmed online. But, harder to figure is that she was only on this small segment, as Ira Glass's favor to big donor Nick Kroll
(Nick and his family throw money at Ira in exchange for Ira agreeing to his demands - google NPR nick kroll for just some of those demands and also Ira Glass Tig Notaro NPR if you want to go deeper down that hole. )
Willen's small segment can be found here: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/385/transcript at the end of the transcript. Transcript posted below.
2. A semi regular contributor to Mcsweeney's?
In 2010, after Willen was willing to bear false witness repeatedly, and then willing to commit perjury in a criminal and civil cases, Nick Kroll used his connections at McSweeney's (John Hodgman, and Dave Hill being just two) read those small pieces to confirm - that this is not a writer that can go far on talent alone. The things that Willen invented or agreed to bear false witness to (it's not clear how much she instigated it vs. just agreed to be a part of it) caused three good people to go through hell on earth - 31 days of jail, vicious and life destroying smear campaigns, theft of years, money, peace of mind etc. Over time, though, and seeing how she pathologically lies in these bios, we've come to believe that she played a much bigger and more creepy part than we first suspected.
3. ...Where her award winning column also appears?
What awards has Willen actually won for her writing or this column? Well, before this column, Stef Willen did not have one writing credit to her name. In exchange
Nick Kroll, kept his promise to give the then 30 ,and credit free Willen something to use for a bio if she agreed to keep on bearing false witness in court and out of court.
Interestingly, this is the only link to be found, online,
LA Press Club Award Winners Announced | FishbowlNY
www.adweek.com/fishbowlny/la-press-club-winners.../141574
Jun 27, 2011 - The LA Press Club held its annual awards gala last night, where they ..... 2nd Place: Stef Willen, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, “I Think I ...
Adweek
that evidences this big big deal for an unknown writer and non member of any press- An unknown wannabe writer that by no stretch of the imagination wrote a piece anyone would even associate with the word, PRESS.
:you'd figure she'd publicize this but my theory is that if anyone paid any attention to this strange bit of theft, well that would not really be good. A real writer or a real member of the press might do some digging.
That is the Kroll way... fake it, hope no one knows it, and thinks you've legitimately made it. That's a novel way to get ahead, Willen.
You win the Spitzberg award! Stephanie Willen, you win for the most insanely sleazy and obvious liar in history award.
Willen then writes that her column was multi award winning?
Well, that has to be chalked up to her pathological lying problem. The same pathological impulses that make her lie about being spotted by an agent who got her to move to L.A, to pursue acting in many short films when she was only in one tiny and terrible film.
Ms. Willen's Bio a few years ago when a Nick Kroll scored her a role in a very bad movie wherein she played a mental case(poorly again) named EM whose real name was Amanda instead of Am as would be more appropriate.
http://emfilm.blogspot.com/2009/03/cast.html
While attending the University of Colorado, she obtained a more demanding role when her roommate asked her to be the lead in her senior thesis short film.
She was planning on going to Africa to study apes or dig for ancestral humans, but her film was seen by a talent manager in Los Angeles who encouraged her to pursue acting.
Stef moved to Denver and studied acting with Brian McCulley. Shortly thereafter, she was signed by an agent and moved to Los Angeles in 2003. There, she studied acting with Nina Kether Axelrod and improv at the Groundlings and ACME Comedy Theatre. She has since starred in many short films ...
Vs.
After taking one acting class in college, she moved to Los Angeles to be an actress.
next: how Stef Willen got caught lying in her starring role in Case 8CA10541 and how she bullshitted her way into a book deal.
from the above American life link
Act Four. Underling Gets An Underling.
Ira Glass
Act 4, Underling Gets An Underling. This is the story of somebody in a job that sounds like the kind of thing that would be, sort of, exciting. Stef Willen worked on a bunch of reality TV shows, but she was a production assistant, a PA, which is the lowest rung on the ladder. She did a lot of emptying trash cans.
Stef Willen
I remember running around town with the weirdest lists of stuff to get, like toilet paper with a specific pattern on it. I've had one boss, she would do things like ask me to hang curtains in her office. And I was like, "Oh, but your wall is made of concrete." And she was like, "Oh, you can do it." You know? Stuff like that. I would be given these bizarre tasks, and if you didn't do them right, there was always this sense of are you stupid?
Ira Glass
And so the way understand it is that towards the end you came up with a plan. Can I ask you to just describe the plan that you came up with?
Stef Willen
I just thought it would be hilarious if I came in the next day with an eager young person who was my production assistant.
Ira Glass
Oh. So you would be a PA and you would have your own PA.
Stef Willen
Exactly. Which is really unnecessary. It's a gopher with a gopher, so I don't know. I wanted to make a point. It'd just be like a little sweet revenge, you know?
Ira Glass
Right.
Stef Willen
I don't know.
Ira Glass
No. No. I understand. You'd be upsetting the natural order.
Stef Willen
Right. Totally. It's like, if you can get someone under you, it's simple math, but you are not at the bottom. I just knew that I was somehow taking control over what was happening in my life if I could put someone just right under me.
Ira Glass
So, OK. So you're a PA hiring a PA. How'd you go about it?
Stef Willen
I wrote up a Craigslist seeking a production assistant on a popular reality TV show. For the ability, I said must possess a medium work ethic, the ability to take out trash, and then sit for hours and work for free. And 21 people responded. 21 people. I was amazed.
I ended up going with this guy, I'll call him Adam. It was interesting, I hired him because I actually felt like he might be slightly delinquent. When we had our, quote, unquote, "interview," he never turned down his car radio. And it was that kind of thing. And I'm like, OK. Well, we're going to meet at the coffee shop and we're going to drive to set. "OK." I'm like, "Do you want to get out a pen and a paper and write this down?" "Oh, OK."
Ira Glass
Oh, wow. So he's really a real beginner. Like, he really was not necessarily ready for the responsibility of a--
Stef Willen
Of a phone conversation.
Ira Glass
Yeah. Or a job.
Stef Willen
Yeah. I met him at a coffee shop. And he was this nice looking young guy. And he was wearing this argyle sweater and this scarf and a beret. And I was like, "Oh, my gosh. What did I just do?"
Ira Glass
A beret?
Stef Willen
A beret. Yeah. He followed me in his car to set, and I was getting a little nervous because I actually hadn't planned anything past this point. The first person we see is the line producer, and she was frantic, as always. You know, "Come on. Come on. We've got a big day. We've got to get going." And I said, "Oh, well you'll be glad to know I have some help. This is Adam, and he is my production assistant for today." And she just sort of stopped and looked at me. And she goes, "Well, good. We need the extra help." And there was no Stef is a genius. Or, oh look what Steff did. It was, literally, like oh, thank you. Oh, we need the help. How did you get him to work for free?
Ira Glass
And so you did introduce him to your bosses?
Stef Willen
Yeah. I introduced him to everybody. I mean, I don't know why I thought that they would learn something from it, but I totally underestimated I guess, the joke, but also their need for workers. They were in production mode. They're not stopping to look at what I'm trying to say. They're like, OK. Well, we're 10 minutes behind. We can use Adam over here in hair and makeup.
Ira Glass
So you were hoping that they would get the lesson of, you see, this whole system you have is so arbitrary? And, we're not just cogs in a machine. Like, I could be a boss. And the lesson they took was not only are you all cogs in a machine, but you're such a cog, we can't even see that you're talking. Like you're not even an animal making noise here. Like, OK. Now, hand me that other animal over there.
Stef Willen
Yeah. Exactly. It's like, oh, two cogs for one. Awesome. We'll take this one, you know? I went from his boss to his sidekick to, I don't know, his buddy? I'd be like, oh, I got this trash can. So it would be really gross and disgusting, and I'm like, oh, I don't want to mess up his scarf. I made sure he ate first. Like, he got his lunch before me.
At one point, we were all sitting around the table. We'd been sitting staring at each other for about two hours, because they were filming, with nothing to do. And I looked over at Adam, and he had taken his beret off and it was on his knee. And he was, sort of, slouched down, and he was moving M&M's across his plate, one by one, with his index finger. And I think he said, "I have never not done anything for this long a time." And I was like, "Well, you know, it did say in my ad the ability to sit for hours." And he laughed.
But shortly after, I told him to go. I was like, "Well, you know, you did a great job today. Definitely send me your resume." He kept in touch, like, he would email, do you know so-and-so? Or just little questions, you know? And then, at one point, he stopped asking me questions. And I got this text from him at 8:26 AM, and it said, "I want you." Period. "I want your body." Period. "Right now." Period. And I was like, OK.
Ira Glass
What did that say to you?
Stef Willen
That he had not taken me seriously at all.
Ira Glass
So you got him into your life because nobody else took you seriously, and then even he doesn't take you seriously.
Stef Willen
Right. It just, sort of, made me laugh. I thought, OK. Well, he wants my body right now, which, 8:26 AM, that wasn't a good time for me.
Ira Glass
Stef Willen, she has quit her PA jobs. She starred in the independent film,M, which won last year's Seattle International Film Festival, and she's writing a book.
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