Years later, a major hoax finally pays off

For a biography of Howard Hughes featuring intimate interviews with the legendary recluse, McGraw-Hill once paid a cool mil—before finding out the interviews were bogus. Now, 35 years later, the scam behind publishing’s unfinest hour powers a Miramax film called The Hoax, based on Clifford Irving’s book of the same name detailing his misdeeds. Irving didn’t make off like a bandit back in ’72, but he is now—allegedly bagging $400,000 for the film rights to his I-dunnit.