Allegra Coleman: the ‘next big thing’ actor who didn’t exist but still launched a career
Celebrity culture is truly bizarre.
If you want to be an actor, be prepared for your whole life to be torn apart and laid out for nosey readers – your break-ups, most embarrassing moments, legal issues, and fertility struggles all sensationalised by tabloids. It’s rough.
I often wonder why anyone would want to be famous; where’s the privacy? Yet, millions of people are trying to make it in Hollywood, hoping to become ‘the next big thing’ to take the industry by storm. The desire to be adored by countless worshipping fans, interviewed about your hard work, and showered in awards motivates many, but in 1996, budding actors had to watch someone who didn’t even exist beat them to the post.
Esquire Magazine introduced the world to Allegra Coleman, a gorgeous blonde dubbed “Hollywood’s next dream girl”.
Who wouldn’t want a front cover like that?
The spread detailed Coleman’s life as one of the industry’s most in-demand new stars, her on-off relationship with Friends star David Schwimmer, and even featured admiring comments from Deepak Chopra. It seemed like everyone was suddenly obsessed with Coleman, even though she had seemingly come out of nowhere.
And that’s because she had. She wasn’t actually real. The magazine had invented Coleman as somewhat of a social experiment that satirised celebrity culture, presenting readers with a vapid star. Yet, due to the imaginary connections she supposedly had – Woody Allen was apparently desperate to have her in his new movie – it wasn’t long before ‘Coleman’ was being contacted to star in countless upcoming projects.
The article presented a dream-like image of Coleman driving her Porsche, “She is speeding. The road is winding. The top is down. Her thin white shoulders are shaking. Her hands on the steering wheel are vibrating. The enormous blue sky is overhead, and there are men, middle-aged men, in the cars around her, and it’s weird, but suddenly everybody is a man, and everybody is stuck in traffic.”
Described as being above human, Coleman sounds like some deity who can speed through traffic without a care in the world, admired by everyone who passes her.
But this was just a creative writing exercise for Martha Sherrill, who forged the life of the actor for the article by using the face of up-and-coming model and actor Ali Larter. It was convincing enough, even though she purposefully used humorous sentences that depicted Coleman as a shallow and rather dumb celebrity. “I am having thoughts. Really getting into thinking,” the ‘actor’ was quoted as saying.
In a way, Sherrill’s experiment really did work, because it wasn’t long before Larter began landing acting roles as herself, and she soon appeared in movies like the Final Destination franchise and Legally Blonde. Clearly, the article was enough to kickstart a career, just not Coleman’s.
Larter used the fame she gained from the hoax for her own good, and Sherrill succeeded in proving that people will fawn over anyone they read about in a magazine – they don’t even have to be real.
