Several reporters, including me, made it a policy not to quote her.

January 21, 2020 2:22 PM

Faith Hope Consolo was a commercial real estate trailblazer in New York City, specializing in flagship retail stores. But shortly after her obituary was published in 2018, its writer "received a message through LinkedIn, the kind that every journalist dreads"... She Was a Star of New York Real Estate, but Her Life Story Was a Lie [NYT, but I promise it's worth it]
posted by Mchelly (24 comments total)

This looks like it's the same article sans paywall.
posted by specialagentwebb at 2:46 PM on January 21, 2020 [5 favorites]

The article specialagentwebb posted seems to be most of the NYT article. The NYT article ends with them surreptitiously burying her ashes in a cemetery with her late romantic partner because it was a jewish-only cemetery so she could not be buried there.
posted by GoblinHoney at 2:48 PM on January 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

The non-paywalled link is missing about a third of the article.
posted by Mchelly at 2:53 PM on January 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

Oh yuck. That's what I get for half-assed googling. The article is interesting enough that I may just suck it up and do the free account thing.
posted by specialagentwebb at 3:00 PM on January 21, 2020

What a fabulous fabulist; I'm surprised she kept her birth name, given that she was re-inventing her past in the next borough over.

(Psychology Today's gloss)
posted by Iris Gambol at 3:05 PM on January 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

The NYT article ends with them surreptitiously burying her ashes in a cemetery with her late romantic partner because it was a jewish-only cemetery so she could not be buried there.

Yeah, and this was presented as follows: "Fittingly, in the end, her friends chose to bend the rules." As if it were a charming caper and not a violation of the religious laws the community lives by. Good article overall, but that's a very sour note.
posted by escabeche at 3:25 PM on January 21, 2020 [22 favorites]

Obit writers are warily eyeing their Jay Luchs files right about now.
posted by 99_ at 3:49 PM on January 21, 2020

“Faith believed she would not be able to succeed in the world of men if she didn’t have a tough-looking cover up, so she covered up who she really was.”

A Jane Gatsby for our time.
posted by chavenet at 3:59 PM on January 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

It looks like this non-paywalled archive of the article has the whole story.
posted by belladonna at 4:16 PM on January 21, 2020 [7 favorites]

Like she would ever be involved in ticky-tack deals like Million Dollar Listing’s, much less advertise them!
posted by praemunire at 5:05 PM on January 21, 2020

I'm pathetically grateful that they didn't mention her weight.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 6:01 PM on January 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

Her weight is indeed mentioned (more or less)

"the zaftig Ms. Consolo leaned her elbow on the bar"
posted by jonathanhughes at 6:12 PM on January 21, 2020 [6 favorites]

So, the whole bombshell here is that she kept upper class twits comfortable by reassuring them that she too was an upper class twit? We're supposed to be shocked at this revelation, monocles popping out onto our mahogany desks?

She's a woman that kicked ass in the shark-infested waters of New York real estate, that's documented fact. The colorful backstory only impresses me more.
posted by CaseyB at 6:17 PM on January 21, 2020 [29 favorites]

America is the land of self-invention.
posted by panglos at 6:26 PM on January 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

Indeed. Reminds me of who cares?
posted by mono blanco at 7:42 PM on January 21, 2020

Hmm. This is leading me to consider wholesale making shit up as a possible strategy for dealing with male-dominated environments.
posted by medusa at 8:12 PM on January 21, 2020 [16 favorites]

She sounds awesome.
posted by kittensofthenight at 9:42 PM on January 21, 2020

Pastebinned the article for those who want/need to avoid paywall issues.
posted by theartandsound at 10:40 PM on January 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

A successful but not famous retail real estate broker made some edits, decades ago, to the story of her early life and also shaved off a few years. Big deal. This is a non story
posted by knoyers at 11:53 PM on January 21, 2020 [9 favorites]

Isn't a main point being, the idea that to succeed, one's self had to be "whitewashed"?
posted by mightshould at 4:45 AM on January 22, 2020

Wait, what? You’re telling me that a real-estate agent LIED?

FOR MONEY?!

SHOCKED, SHOCKED, I TELL YOU!!!
posted by pompomtom at 5:03 AM on January 22, 2020 [6 favorites]

So, there was a real Don Draper, and she was a woman?
posted by Chitownfats at 5:11 AM on January 22, 2020 [4 favorites]

What I liked about it wasn't that she covered up her past (I agree that that's a nonissue), but how much she chose to lie about, and how many people who were really close to her not only didn't know, but didn't even suspect any of it. To me this was a page-turner because of the journalist's discoveries, told in a way that made you like Consolo more rather than less.
posted by Mchelly at 6:30 AM on January 22, 2020 [5 favorites]

On one hand, do what you have to do to get to the top. On the other hand, celebrating this is also why we have that other more famous New York real estate mogul in the news every day?
posted by romanb at 7:45 AM on January 22, 2020 [3 favorites]