In a parody of celebrity profiles, the article described Coleman's role in an upcoming movie with
Woody Allen, her tempestuous relationship with
David Schwimmer (including a scandal involving nude photographs taken by
paparazzi), and her friendship with
Deepak Chopra. She is said to be 22 years old, and to be the "part Cherokee, part Czech" daughter of "pop-art photographer Max A.F. Coleman" and "actress Kay Garland, who played the spoiled daughter in
Mildred Pierce", both also fictitious. The Colemans were supposedly "a legendary family of circus performers and poets" who were "always broke and often drunk", and Allegra had "lived in five countries" before she was nine. Her father left his marriage and family in 1981 (he is said to have "disappeared into the downtown New York drag queen scene"), and her mother abandoned the family (to become a "Tibetan Buddhist nun") in 1985, leaving Allegra, then 11, in a small yellow stucco house in
Riverside, California to raise her siblings with assistance from relatives and friends. Coleman was married briefly at 17 to "Mike Mumy", the (fictitious) brother of actor
Billy Mumy; only five years later, Allegra has "no idea" where Mike Mumy may have gotten to. Within the context of the article, Coleman is already a successful actress, having appeared in the TV series
Melrose Place, and the films
Down Periscope,
Guarding Tess and
Cliffhanger, amongst others. Also within the context of the article, her life has been the subject of tabloid reportage and speculation for some time. She is consistently portrayed in the article as flighty, irresponsible, and sweetly vacuous (Salon called her "brainless perfection"), but with a look and personal quality of "simple, irresistible vulgarity" that made her magnetically compelling. By the end of the article, however, in a surrealistic turn, serious ambiguities are raised about Allegra's actual existence; she seems to have disappeared after a car crash and it is noted that "We would always have her, and the idea of her — this glorious, young, alive vision — which is all we want in the end, it turns out. Actual existence was a minor issue." The many deliberate (and easily spotted) inaccuracies, improbabilities and contradictions were meant to be indicative that the article was a satire of a typically breathless style of celebrity profile articles, and indeed
Salon magazine identified the article as a hoax immediately upon publication. The hoax was formally revealed by
Esquire editor
Edward Kosner in a press release to the news wire services. The article was photographed by photographer
Troy House, who knew Ali Larter from previous jobs and approached her about doing the parody. Larter, then 20, was two years younger than the fictitious Coleman. Several photos were manipulated to show "Coleman" interacting with Schwimmer, Chopra,
Quentin Tarantino, and
Pauly Shore. Sherrill later wrote a
satirical novel on Hollywood life that was essentially both an expansion and continuation of the original "Dream Girl" article, and featured Allegra Coleman as a prominent character. The novel,
My Last Movie Star, was published by
Random House in 2003. ==Reaction==