
Maybe a lot of us are like this – not just thespians, not just women.

Maybe in her mind, she was starring in her own personal 'love behind bars' movie of the weekĪ director once told me that he’d given up dating actresses, because they seemed to need their real lives to be as dramatic as their roles. That’s the point: sometimes people do know, but it doesn’t matter – the intensity still beats boring old real life. Certainly, even as she and Shkreli kissed and talked prenups during prison visits, she seemed aware that he was a master manipulator. Smythe denounces the public reaction as sexist, saying she knew her own mind.

A “little crush” is one thing, but she froze her eggs for this guy. Still, Smythe’s downward emotional spiral makes you wince. If you wanted to be brutal, it’s less Romeo and Juliet, more Hannibal and Clarice. Photograph: comes across as a perfect storm of Shkreli’s narcissism and Smythe’s obsession.
