The Glamorous Lie Selected To Screen At Three Upcoming Film Festivals

Feature-Length Documentary Chronicles One Woman's Triumph Over One Man's Lie: Saturday, October 13, 4:00PM, James Bridges Theater, UCLA, Westwood, CA Sunday, October 14, Noon, Davidson Valenti Theatre, Hollywood, CA Thursday, November 8 and Tuesday, November 13, Oaxaca, MX End Quote

Las Vegas, NV-AZ (1888PressRelease) October 10, 2012 - It was a story that would make for a fantastic fictional drama: high-placed boyfriend caught cheating; scorned girlfriend seeks very public acknowledgement. Billboards throughout the country showing a very literal picture of couple, with the message "you are my soul mate forever" posted larger than life over the streets of New York, Atlanta and Silicon Valley. But this was no fictional drama: it was, and it is, real.

The break-up of YaVaughnie Wilkins and Charles E. Phillips, Jr., onetime Oracle Corporation executive and former member of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, played out in newspaper and television outlets around the world, but it was always played out as a story of the wrath of a woman scorned and the height to which she had gone to call out her cheating boyfriend. The story was a media gold mine and fodder for comedians who saw only humor in one woman's heartache. But that was only part of the story.

Little was known about the Wilkins, the woman behind the billboards, and less still about how far one man would go to cover up the truth about their relationship. Now, a feature documentary, THE GLAMOROUS LIE, tells Wilkins' full account of the years leading up to and during the relationship, and the tumultuous aftermath of it.

Now, following its world premiere screening at the Harlem International Film Festival last month-where it won the Audience Award-the film is an official selection of three upcoming festivals in the US and Mexico.

• The 2012 Bel Air Film Festival. The screening is Saturday, Oct 13 at 4:00PM at UCLA's James Bridges Theater on the UCLA campus off Sunset and Hilgard, Los Angeles, CA 90095. To purchase tickets please visit: http://www.belairfilmfestival.com/box-office/tickets.

• The LA Femme Film Festival. Screening is Sunday, October 14 at NOON Davidson Valentini Theatre 1125 N. McCadden Place Hollywood CA 90038 For more information and to purchase tickets please visit: http://www.lafemme.org/tickets

• The Third Annual Oaxaca Film Festival. Screenings are Thursday, November 8 and Tuesday, November 13 in the colonial city of Oaxaca, Mexico. For more information and to purchase tickets please visit: http://www.oaxacafilmfest.com

The new festival screenings cap a tumultuous week where Phillips' legal team used aggressive legal tactics to prevent the screening of the film at Vegas CineFest in Las Vegas. Phillips' lawyers sent "cease and desist" letters to the Festival and theater threatening legal action should they screen the film.

Citing case law, which has protected the First Amendment rights of documentarians, attorneys for THE GLAMOROUS LIE sought to assure the Vegas CineFest their right to show the film would be preserved and supported. Despite these assurances and the fact the film made its World Premiere at the Harlem International Film Festival on September 20-Wilkins even proposed posting a bond to cover possible legal expenses incurred by the Festival-Las Vegas acceded to Phillips' pressure and cancelled the screening. On the other hand, Phillips' lawyers didn't follow up and sue the Harlem organizers and THE GLAMOROUS LIE went on to win the audience award there.

Further explaining the legal situation, Wilkins says, "Phillips' legal threats claim that THE GLAMOROUS 'is full of lies,' yet Phillips has done nothing in the past year since he allegedly bought my footage from the director, Mark Alamares-whom I have since sued-and I have since learned that Phillips is paying Alamares' legal defense against me. Moreover, Phillips' legal counsel quotes a false claim by Alamares that THE GLAMOROUS LIE is nothing more than an extortion ploy against Phillips. I want to state for the record that I have never taken my documentary to Phillips in any way, shape or form, for any purpose. He and his legal team know they can't intimidate me so they have resorted to threatening everyone associated with me, including the film festivals and theaters who, before receiving the threatening cease and desist letters, enthusiastically accepted THE GLAMOROUS LIE as an 'Official Selection' screening.

"I want to make clear that 21 Yellow Tulips owns Chain of Title i.e. Copyright, to THE GLAMOROUS LIE, and I stand by every word spoken in this documentary, or I would not have volunteered to indemnify, defend and post bonds for legal fees on behalf of the festivals and theaters threatened for screening it. This is totally and completely a ploy by Phillips to prevent the world from seeing my memoir. If THE GLAMOROUS LIE were filled with 'lies,' 'defamation,' 'disparagement,' 'extortion,' and so forth, his lawyers would have already sued me personally. He hasn't. And he won't. I am not afraid of people finding out who the 'real' YaVaughnie Wilkins is; I've put it on screen for all to see. Phillips cannot say the same. We are looking forward to this week's screenings and stand ready to blunt Phillips' attempts to quash them."

THE GLAMOROUS LIE both sets up the drama of the relationship with Phillips and follows Wilkins many months after the infamous billboard incident as she tries to move on with her life, starting her home products business ReJuvenescence and other businesses while she continues to struggle with her troubled past. (www.getrejuvenescence.com )

This yearlong observation by filmmaker Mark Alamares, a.k.a. Mark Zhen, reveals an unexpected and dramatic turn as Wilkins tries to recover after the breakup.

"I agreed to executive produce The Glamorous Lie because I wanted to tell my story in my own way. Media interviews alone would not have done my story justice," Wilkins explains. "Immediately after the billboards went up, I began receiving media email inquires. At first, it was funny. I mean, I was just a private citizen, so who would care, right? But, three hours after the first billboard went up in Times Square, a question was posted to Gawker: 'Hey, is that the Charles Phillips that runs Oracle?' All hell broke loose."

As the drama was unfolding in her life, aspiring filmmaker Mark Alamares was installing a home entertainment and security system in Wilkins' house. After several weeks, privy to the billboard program, the breakup, Wilkins' business startup and the "normal" family chaos of her life, he said, "No one would believe everything you're going through. Have you ever thought of doing a reality television show or documenting your day-to-day life? I'm serious," he said. "You have a very interesting life."

Initially, Wilkins demurred. But after Alamares showed her his work, she agreed to executive produce it and THE GLAMOROUS LIE began to take shape. Wanting this project to be neither a smear campaign against Phillips nor a propaganda piece about her, she granted Alamares and the film crew unfettered access to her family, friends, and business associates, and trusted him with details about her life that she had not shared with anyone other than Phillips.

Taping her as she tries to restart her life in Santa Monica, California, the film shows Wilkins as she deals with constant surveillance by private investigators standing guard outside her house to shocking phone calls with her ex-boyfriend to facing her haunted past. Through her own words and commentary from mutual friends and family, the picture of Wilkins and her eight and a half year, seemingly monogamous relationship with Phillips is firmly established.

And while the documentary has wrapped, the story continues to unfold. Wilkins, family members, friends, business associates and even casual past acquaintances remain victims of ongoing surveillance and intimidation. Alamares absconded with the film's raw footage, which is now in the hands of Phillips and has spawned a pair of legal complaints. And while Wilkins has moved on with her life, it seems, another chapter of "The Glamorous Lie" may be yet be written. This film will remain a work-in-progress until after its festival screenings.

THE GLAMOROUS LIE tells how one woman has overcome adversity and seemingly insurmountable obstacles to emerge from both the shadows of notoriety and years of struggle to find happiness and success as she steps into the future.

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