Friday, October 30, 2009

Catch Me If You Can

With release of Yolande Beckles' latest movie imminent and hotly tipped for this year's best film Oscar, a Hollywood insider has sent us a preview copy of the filmtrack CD, although we are still waiting for a full-size copy of the accompanying film poster. For those unfamiliar with the story, it features an investigator who tracks down and eventually catches Frank (Bashy) Abagnale Jr., a con artist who successfully impersonated a management development executive, a dance teacher, an educational trainer, a diversity consultant, a marketing and PR officer and a TV broadcaster, cashing more than $100 million in fraudulent checks in various countries.
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Is this the new face of Yolande BecklesThe plotline in more detail:

It's Bromley in Kent in the 1960s. School leaver Frank Abagnale Jr. idolises his mother, who's in trouble with Inland Revenue. When his parents separate, Frank takes up a fast-track management post at Sainsbury's, vowing to set the family on a more sound financial footing. Eventually he is forced to leave after being accused of financial misdeeds.

He sets up a dance company and an education/training company, but both fail leaving massive debts. Despite this mishap, Frank is able to purchase a detached house in Chislehurst and drive a top-of-the-range Mercedes car. He moves in with the CEO of a marketing and communications firm, but after financial misconduct is forced out onto the street.

Frank ends up living rent-free in a refuge hostel in Streatham, after masquerading as the victim of domestic violence at the hands of his partner in Tulse Hill. It's his first successful acting role, earning him the nickname 'Bashy' and leading on to several further acts of violence and subterfuge. In 1996 Frank relocates to Northamptonshire where he is alleged to have assaulted his new partner by stabbing her with the point of a winklepicker shoe, leaving her with a severe head injury. Fearing arrest, he flees back to London where he finds a new partner called Colleen, but several years later he faces charges of her assault and attempted poisoning. A trial is arranged at Bromley Crown Court, but during a break in proceedings, Frank manages to stand on the shoulder of his barrister and escape through a lavatory window, leaving the barrister behind with egg on his face and substantial unpaid bills.

Frank runs away to Hackney with just £25 in the bank, but following an interview on GMTV he is talent-spotted by Riete Oordinary, a film producer who offers him a TV series on BBC2. "Sometimes people say his behaviour is inappropriate, but that's just his Caribbean background", explains Oordinary, wiping the lipstick from his face. "He likes to hug and kiss people."

Abagnale is able to make a comfortable living by obtaining money from various individuals including the sad and pathetic Woody Alan, who hands over thousands of pounds in council taxes to the fraudster. Despite generous donations from Woody Alan and numerous Hackney parents, Frank's lavish life-style soon results in his company Global Grabbers facing collapse, but with help from his mother Gloria, Frank is able to establish an offshore banking corporation called Global Grabbers Education (Offshore) Ltd., siphoning funds from the collapsed business and leaving a bunch of angry creditors penniless.

Things are looking good for Frank, until the creditors start closing in. Determined to escape the angry mob and at the same time to revive his flagging acting career, Frank has his head shaved, dons a Ben Sherman shirt, gathers up his children and heads off to Hollywood. Where a private detective tracks him down and brings him to justice. And that's where we came in...

3 comments:

  1. If you look carefully, you'll see it isn't a real Ben Sherman shirt but a counterfeit one, available in street markets everywhere. Typical of Yolande Beckles to cheat even with her clothes.

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  2. I guess I'd better point out that this was a spoof post, lightening the mood amongst a bunch of very serious posts, just in case anyone didn't realise. For the serious history of Yolande Beckles click on "The Story So Far..." - the first of the entries in "The Beckles Watch Posts" in the sidebar.

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  3. Birthday Girl......November 07, 2009 10:01 AM

    Yolande did you think about all those kids you stole money from when you splashed out on your daughters 16th Birthday this week?...Lets hope when it comes to your Birthday next month somebody gives you a nice piece of jewelry in the shape of some silvery Handcuffs......Imagine spending your 47th Birthday in a Prison Cell now that won't cost you a dime!

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