In the early 70s, Howard Hughes was an extremely famous, wierd and reclusive millionaire, and Clifford Irving was a novelist who was no longer the best and the brightest.

So Irving decided to pretend that Hughes had authorized him to write Hughes' authorized biography. And almost got away with it, and with a million dollar advance...

I vaguely remember this happening when I was a young otter, although it was almost immediately eclipsed by the Watergate breakin...but this was talked about for a while afterwards, and then Irving wrote a book about the experience, which the movie is based on.

Mr. Otter and I both liked this movie a lot. Not only does it have the fascination of watching a train wreck, with people doing very stupid things you KNOW they're going ot regret later, but Irving is played very well by Richard Gere (I'm liking him better as he gets older, he was GREAT in Chicago) and his buddy was played by Alfred Molina, who is also a lot of fun to watch in almost any role.

Intelligently written, well filmed, full of suspense and good acting and good dialogue, this one is a winner.