Home Podcasts Love is a Crime
Love is a Crime

Love is a Crime

Vanity Fair & Cadence 13 12 Episodes Sep 25, 2026

Love is a Crime is a limited-run podcast about a notorious Hollywood scandal from 1951, when producer Walter Wanger shot an agent he suspected was having an affair with his wife, actress Joan Bennett. Wanger served prison time but was later welcomed back into Hollywood, while Bennett faced a puritanical backlash that effectively ended her movie career. Narrated by their granddaughter Vanessa Hope and film historian Karina Longworth, the series tells the untold story of the Bennett/Wanger romance and partnership, a real-life film noir that devastated their family.

Episodes

New from Vanity Fair: Fair Game
New from Vanity Fair: Fair Game Sep 25, 2026 2850 On the first episode of Fair Game, Vanity Fair’s new interview show, Mark Guiducci sits down with actor, writer, and director Colman Domingo for a conversation about Colman’s career, sense of style, and philosophy on the world. They touch on Colman’s role as a peacemaker on the set of Euphoria, his performance as Joe Jackson in Michael, and his early work in a political children’s circus where he
Introducing: "The Journey," from In The Dark
Introducing: "The Journey," from In The Dark Sep 21, 2026 3559 “The Journey,” an audio investigation hosted by the New Yorker staff writer Ava Kofman, unravels the mystery of how Guojun Xuan and Silvia Zhang, a wealthy Los Angeles couple, obtained dozens of children through nearly as many surrogates—and exposes a scandal that threatens to undermine the entire surrogacy industry.In Episode 1, "Gifts," a woman in Texas agrees to carry a child for the couple. Sh
Episode 10: The Woman in the Window
Episode 10: The Woman in the Window Oct 19, 2021 3028 In one last noir twist, Joan marries for a fourth and final time to a man with a secret life. The last chapter of our story takes us from the Greenwich Village cross-dressing scene of the 1960s, to the set of Dario Argento’s giallo classic, Suspiria (Joan’s last film), to post-reunification Berlin, where Bennett’s legacy as a key face of film noir is solidified. What are the lasting reverberations
Episode 9: Dark Shadows
Episode 9: Dark Shadows Oct 12, 2021 2933 While the shooting seems to enhance Wanger’s reputation in Hollywood’s eyes, the media frenzy that follows enacts a sharp price on the lives of Joan Bennett (Zooey Deschanel) and her children. Joan is forced to make a living largely through grueling touring theater. By the mid-1950s, Joan is essentially blacklisted from Hollywood movies, but her acting career gets a final boost, when Joan is cast
Episode 8: I Want to Live!
Episode 8: I Want to Live! Oct 5, 2021 3376 Walter Wanger (Jon Hamm) emerges from prison, and relaunches his career by producing several important films inspired by his experience, including the Oscar-winning I Want to Live!, and the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers. He sinks his newly re-acquired power into one final, major folly: Cleopatra. Working with Elizabeth Taylor as she and Richard Burton are in the midst of one of the 20th
Episode 7: The Shooting
Episode 7: The Shooting Sep 28, 2021 2534 In December 1951, Walter Wanger (Jon Hamm) points his gun at Jennings Lang’s (Griffin Dunne) groin and fires -- and Joan Bennett’s (Zooey Deschanel) life and that of her family will never be the same. Though it’s her husband who commits a shocking act of violence, and it’s he who is actually sent to jail, Joan finds herself painted in the press as the perpetrator. As Hollywood and America rally ar
Episode 6: Man Hunt
Episode 6: Man Hunt Sep 21, 2021 2599 In the years after World War II, the political climate abruptly shifts, and Walter Wanger’s (Jon Hamm) history of using movies to promote progressive causes makes him a target for persecution. Wanger’s personal and professional lives are thrown into chaos thanks to a conspiracy involving the FBI, the Bank of America and some of the same anti-communist organizations enforcing the Hollywood Blacklis
Episode 5: The Apartment
Episode 5: The Apartment Sep 14, 2021 2389 The third member of the Bennett/Wanger love triangle is Jennings Lang (Griffin Dunne), an agent at MCA, then the largest talent agency in the world. In 1951, Lang represents a threat to Walter Wanger’s marriage, but also to his livelihood. Jennings’ son and former colleagues discuss the affair, how the relationship inspired the Oscar-winning Billy Wilder classic The Apartment, and how Lang survive
Episode 4: The Reckless Moment
Episode 4: The Reckless Moment Sep 7, 2021 2751 Walter Wanger (Jon Hamm) bets everything on a different Joan -- Joan of Arc, starring Ingrid Bergman -- and comes up short, as the actress playing the saint sparks an international sex scandal. With Walter’s fame and fortune seemingly running out, he becomes consumed with trying to make three adultery-themed films, which ironically draws his attentions away from his own family and marriage – causi
Episode 3: Scarlet Street
Episode 3: Scarlet Street Aug 31, 2021 3052 Collaborating with mad genius Fritz Lang, Joan (Zooey Deschanel) and Walter (Jon Hamm) hit the peak of both their careers and their marriage. After the success of the ultimate S&M noir Scarlet Street, Joan continues to play femme fatales on-screen, while cultivating an image as the perfect housewife and mom off-screen. But, with one misbegotten psychosexual noir, the partnership with Fritz Lang fa
Episode 2: The Man I Married
Episode 2: The Man I Married Aug 24, 2021 3098 Walter Wanger (Jon Hamm) transforms Joan Bennett’s (Zooey Deschanel) acting career by giving her a makeover. Now a raven-haired woman of mystery, Joan does her part during WWII by appearing in more anti-Nazi films than any other major American actress, while also authoring a book aimed at women that combines diet tips with calls for political engagement. Her new look is perfect for a new identity
Episode 1: Private Worlds
Episode 1: Private Worlds Aug 17, 2021 3848 Already a divorced mom while still in her teens, Joan Bennett (Zooey Deschanel) becomes a movie actress out of financial necessity, but she struggles to define herself as a star. Her life takes a turn when she falls in love with Walter Wanger (Jon Hamm)--an independent producer and champion of progressive politics who wants to change Hollywood from within. Also featuring, Griffin Dunne as Jennings

Recommended