For nearly a century the Cipriani family has served celebrities, royalty, and cultural icons. Since opening their first restaurant in Venice in 1931, they’ve helped shape fine dining and invent dishes that became global classics. But as the Cipriani empire expanded, so did the scandals – including union busting, tax evasion, and alleged mob connections. Turns out the Cipriani recipe for success included a lot more than just glitz, glamor, and champagne.

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Calvin Darden Jr. was a smooth-talking hustler with a gift for forging documents, name-dropping celebrities, and jumping from one shady scheme to the next before anyone knew what hit them. His rise reveals deeper issues inside early-2000s Wall Street, where firms – eager to cash in on Black celebrities, athletes and entertainers – were desperate for “insiders” who could open doors. So when Calvin showed up bragging about his star-studded Rolodex, no one bothered to check the facts. By the time they realized his entire pitch was built on lies…Calvin was already gone.

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In the early 1970s, struggling author Clifford Irving tries to escape obscurity by writing a tell-all biography of the famously unreachable Howard Hughes. The catch? Clifford has never spoken to Howard and doesn’t have access to him. He proceeds anyway, betting that Howard’s reclusive nature will keep him from coming forward and debunking the book. But it turns out that even eccentric billionaires have their limits. As Clifford’s scheme unravels, he proves that sometimes fact really is stranger than fiction.

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