This is a great movie starring Richard Gere and Alfred Molina. They are both excellent in the movie.
Hoax is about Clifford Irving who stuns his publishers at McGraw-Hill when he tells them that he’s writing an authorized Howard Hughes autobiography.
Now that won’t be that shocking if Howard Hughes was not this eccentric, paranoid, recluse gazillionaire who had not been seen in public for over 10 years. (If you haven’t already, check out The Aviator starring Leonardo DiCaprio which was a film I enjoyed as well)
It was a brilliant idea and Clifford fooled everyone, including 60 minutes! But it was Howard Hughes who was even more brilliant Clifford. He used Clifford to write about how he had given a loan of $205K to President Nixon’s brother, among other contributions.
Howard Hughes used the situation to his advantage and created an opportunity for him to get out of his legal troubles.
While not certain, this fake book may have made the Nixon administration so paranoid that it eventually led to the Watergate scandal.
This movie just came out on DVD so do check it out. I really enjoyed it!