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Love is a Crime: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Vanity Fair & Cadence 13
It’s one of the wildest scandals in Hollywood history: In 1951, major Hollywood producer Walter Wanger (Jon Hamm) went to prison for shooting an agent who he suspected was having an affair with Joan Bennett (Zooey Deschanel), Wanger’s actress wife. When the dust settled, Wanger was accepted back into Hollywood’s inner circle with open arms, while a puritan panic virtually ended Bennett’s career in movies and her family would never be the same. How did Joan — the youngest member of one of America’s most famous acting families, and one of the key femme fatales of 1940s film noir — end up a real-life fallen woman, paying a public price for her husband’s crimes? In this limited podcast series, Joan and Walter’s granddaughter/filmmaker Vanessa Hope, and film historian/podcaster Karina Longworth (You Must Remember This), tell the untold story of the Bennett/Wanger romance and professional partnership — a film noir played out in real life.
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- Sep 25, 202647 min
New from Vanity Fair: Fair Game
On the first episode of Fair Game, Vanity Fair’s new interview show, Mark Guiducci sits down with actor, writer, and director Colman Domingo for a conversation about Colman’s career, sense of style, and philosophy on the world. They touch on Colman’s role as a peacemaker on the set of Euphoria, his performance as Joe Jackson in Michael, and his early work in a political children’s circus where he played a salamander on stilts. “I've had to build this career,” Domingo says. “There's no career that looks like mine. No one writes musicals and plays and directs and acts and sings and dances… I created this space for myself. But it's not because I wanted to, it's because I had to” Listen to and follow Fair Game from Vanity Fair on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
- Sep 21, 202659 min
Introducing: "The Journey," from In The Dark
“The Journey,” an audio investigation hosted by the New Yorker staff writer Ava Kofman, unravels the mystery of how Guojun Xuan and Silvia Zhang, a wealthy Los Angeles couple, obtained dozens of children through nearly as many surrogates—and exposes a scandal that threatens to undermine the entire surrogacy industry.In Episode 1, "Gifts," a woman in Texas agrees to carry a child for the couple. She thinks she’s helping a family in need. Then, she becomes a whistleblower.In the Dark is an acclaimed investigative-journalism podcast that launched in 2016. Its third season won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for audio.To keep listening to "The Journey," search for In the Dark wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
- Oct 19, 202150 min
Episode 10: The Woman in the Window
In one last noir twist, Joan marries for a fourth and final time to a man with a secret life. The last chapter of our story takes us from the Greenwich Village cross-dressing scene of the 1960s, to the set of Dario Argento’s giallo classic, Suspiria (Joan’s last film), to post-reunification Berlin, where Bennett’s legacy as a key face of film noir is solidified. What are the lasting reverberations of the violent act Walter Wanger committed in 1951 -- on Joan Bennett’s family, on film culture, politics and society? What, if anything, would be different today? Listen and subscribe at http://listen.vanityfair.com/loveisacrime or wherever you get your podcasts: http://listen.vanityfair.com/liac Apple Podcasts: http://listen.vanityfair.com/loveisacrime Spotify: http://listen.vanityfair.com/liac-spotify Stitcher: http://listen.vanityfair.com/liac-google For a transcript of this episode, please follow this link. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
- Oct 12, 202148 min
Episode 9: Dark Shadows
While the shooting seems to enhance Wanger’s reputation in Hollywood’s eyes, the media frenzy that follows enacts a sharp price on the lives of Joan Bennett (Zooey Deschanel) and her children. Joan is forced to make a living largely through grueling touring theater. By the mid-1950s, Joan is essentially blacklisted from Hollywood movies, but her acting career gets a final boost, when Joan is cast in the legendary daytime supernatural soap, Dark Shadows, and acquires a whole new generation of fans. Listen and subscribe at http://listen.vanityfair.com/loveisacrime or wherever you get your podcasts: http://listen.vanityfair.com/liac Apple Podcasts: http://listen.vanityfair.com/loveisacrime Spotify: http://listen.vanityfair.com/liac-spotify Stitcher: http://listen.vanityfair.com/liac-google For a transcript of this episode, please follow this link. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
- Oct 5, 202156 min
Episode 8: I Want to Live!
Walter Wanger (Jon Hamm) emerges from prison, and relaunches his career by producing several important films inspired by his experience, including the Oscar-winning I Want to Live!, and the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers. He sinks his newly re-acquired power into one final, major folly: Cleopatra. Working with Elizabeth Taylor as she and Richard Burton are in the midst of one of the 20th century’s biggest adultery scandals gives Walter a newfound understanding of what he went through with Joan. Also featuring Lili Anolik from the podcast Once Upon a Time in the Valley. Listen and subscribe at http://listen.vanityfair.com/loveisacrime or wherever you get your podcasts: http://listen.vanityfair.com/liac Apple Podcasts: http://listen.vanityfair.com/loveisacrime Spotify: http://listen.vanityfair.com/liac-spotify Stitcher: http://listen.vanityfair.com/liac-google For a transcript of this episode, please follow this link. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
- Sep 28, 202142 min
Episode 7: The Shooting
In December 1951, Walter Wanger (Jon Hamm) points his gun at Jennings Lang’s (Griffin Dunne) groin and fires -- and Joan Bennett’s (Zooey Deschanel) life and that of her family will never be the same. Though it’s her husband who commits a shocking act of violence, and it’s he who is actually sent to jail, Joan finds herself painted in the press as the perpetrator. As Hollywood and America rally around the gun-toting man, the adulterous woman is thrown to the wolves to fend for herself and her family. Also featuring Brian Comstock as Police Chief. Listen and subscribe at http://listen.vanityfair.com/loveisacrime or wherever you get your podcasts: http://listen.vanityfair.com/liac Apple Podcasts: http://listen.vanityfair.com/loveisacrime Spotify: http://listen.vanityfair.com/liac-spotify Stitcher: http://listen.vanityfair.com/liac-google For a transcript of this episode, please follow this link. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
- Sep 21, 202143 min
Episode 6: Man Hunt
In the years after World War II, the political climate abruptly shifts, and Walter Wanger’s (Jon Hamm) history of using movies to promote progressive causes makes him a target for persecution. Wanger’s personal and professional lives are thrown into chaos thanks to a conspiracy involving the FBI, the Bank of America and some of the same anti-communist organizations enforcing the Hollywood Blacklist. With Walter in crisis, Joan’s (Zooey Deschanel) career is revived thanks to her agent and lover Jennings Lang. Afraid of losing his wife, Walter contemplates desperate action. Also featuring Bobby Finger from the podcast Who Weekly as Eric Johnston, Nate DiMeo from The Memory Palace as Samuel Goldwyn, and John August from Scriptnotes as Dore Schary. Listen and subscribe at http://listen.vanityfair.com/loveisacrime or wherever you get your podcasts: http://listen.vanityfair.com/liac Apple Podcasts: http://listen.vanityfair.com/loveisacrime Spotify: http://listen.vanityfair.com/liac-spotify Stitcher: http://listen.vanityfair.com/liac-google For a transcript of this episode, please follow this link. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
- Sep 14, 202139 min
Episode 5: The Apartment
The third member of the Bennett/Wanger love triangle is Jennings Lang (Griffin Dunne), an agent at MCA, then the largest talent agency in the world. In 1951, Lang represents a threat to Walter Wanger’s marriage, but also to his livelihood. Jennings’ son and former colleagues discuss the affair, how the relationship inspired the Oscar-winning Billy Wilder classic The Apartment, and how Lang survived both Walter’s bullet and jokes about having his “balls shot off” to dominate the next incarnation of the studio system for the television age. Also featuring Noah Segan as Jay Kanter. Listen and subscribe at http://listen.vanityfair.com/loveisacrime or wherever you get your podcasts: http://listen.vanityfair.com/liac Apple Podcasts: http://listen.vanityfair.com/loveisacrime Spotify: http://listen.vanityfair.com/liac-spotify Stitcher: http://listen.vanityfair.com/liac-google For a transcript of this episode, please follow this link. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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About Love is a Crime
It’s one of the wildest scandals in Hollywood history: In 1951, major Hollywood producer Walter Wanger (Jon Hamm) went to prison for shooting an agent who he suspected was having an affair with Joan Bennett (Zooey Deschanel), Wanger’s actress wife. When the dust settled, Wanger was accepted back into Hollywood’s inner circle with open arms, while a puritan panic virtually ended Bennett’s career in movies and her family would never be the same. How did Joan — the youngest member of one of America’s most famous acting families, and one of the key femme fatales of 1940s film noir — end up a real-life fallen woman, paying a public price for her husband’s crimes? In this limited podcast series, Joan and Walter’s granddaughter/filmmaker Vanessa Hope, and film historian/podcaster Karina Longworth (You Must Remember This), tell the untold story of the Bennett/Wanger romance and professional partnership — a film noir played out in real life.
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