[imagesource: Peter Kramer/Apple TV]

Rich influencers and young entrepreneurs are rising quickly and falling even quicker as the line between being a money-mad con artist and a genius changemaker becomes increasingly grey.

In this “wild west” business landscape, founders of con/cult-like companies, like Adam Neumann, the infamous CEO of WeWork, are not so surprising anymore.

But we still love to marvel at their stories and the extreme lengths they were willing to go to for power and glamour.

That’s why we’re looking forward to the release of Apple TV+’s WeCrashed – the miniseries starring Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway as the ballsy couple who tried to change the culture of the office.

There are already loads of stories documenting how WeWork went from being one of the most highly valued start-ups of all time (worth $47 billion at one point) to a cultish workspace barely hanging on, but this latest effort has some pretty big name actors in place.

Per the press release, the series is inspired by actual events and centres on the couple’s love story with Leto as Neumann and Hathaway as his wife Rebekah, who was also the chief brand and impact officer of the spiralling company.

The eight-episode series will debut on Apple TV+ on March 18, with the teaser and full-length trailer offering a sneak peek at the glorious action to come:

For a reminder about what turned WeWork into WeCrashed, here’s Tatler:

Cracks soon began to show, however, not only in the business model [aiming to tranform redundant office spaces into places with perks], but the questionable company culture (said to be almost cult-like), and the behaviour of CEO Neumann himself, described by the Guardian in 2019 as ‘the tall, long-haired, barefoot, meat-banning, weed-smoking, tequila-drinking, Kabbalah-studying, experimental school-opening Paltrow-cousin-in-law and founder’.

The Guardian also cited ‘alleged self-dealing and self-enrichment by Neumann’, along with rumours that ‘private jet trips may have involved some incidental transportation of marijuana across international borders, his wife may have fired employees for their bad vibes, and the company may have ended a meeting announcing layoffs with a performance by a member of Run-DMC.

We covered those alarming jet trips in July last year.

Anyway, Neumann has long since resigned as CEO .

For other real-life ‘fall from grace’ tales, there’s ‘fake heiress’ Anna Sorokin in Inventing Anna, zany Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, and the “Vegan Bernie Madoff” restaurateur.

[source:tatler]