The catastrophic Los Angeles wildfires have sparked widespread and generous relief efforts across the city, including a cluster of new donation centers, hundreds if not thousands of GoFundMe campaigns and a series of multi-million dollar donations from Hollywood’s top studios, streamers, companies and nonprofits and stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, Eva Longoria and Taylor Swift.
However, eyebrows are now being raised over the efforts of a specific individual — disgraced Grey’s Anatomy writer Elisabeth Finch — who announced on social media that she was collecting funds directly to her Venmo account. “This is just me. Boots on the ground. It was challenging enough getting dog food while evacuated and I was at a safe place. So this is for people who have virtually nothing and have pets with basic needs,” reads a post that was making the rounds on Facebook on Thursday, allegedly shared to Finch’s private account. Finch directed people to send donations directly to her via Venmo “to avoid GoFundMe fees” or via another banking service, Zelle.
Finch’s post was flagged by Jamie Denbo, a veteran actress, TV writer and co-executive producer for Grey’s Anatomy. She reshared it and slammed Finch while revealing some of her fraudulent past behavior that was detailed on the recent Peacock docuseries Anatomy of Lies. “This person is a SCAMMER and a LIAR,” Denbo posted on Facebook to her more than 4,500 friends on a public account, viewed by The Hollywood Reporter. “It is well documented in the Peacock series Anatomy of Lies. Unless you want to send her donations of 69 cents for her ‘cancer treatment’ (she doesn’t have cancer) or perhaps ‘in memory of her late brother’ (he’s alive) or any thing else she has lied about (everything). DO NOT DONATE to Elisabeth Finch!!!”
The post drew a number of comments from some Hollywood professionals, most of whom expressed disbelief (Examples: “NO WAY,” “the AUDACITY” and “WILD.”) while others offered levity. “Perhaps she has finally turned over a new leaf and she is donating directly to puppies in need,” wrote one friend.
THR reached out for comment to Finch and Denbo via Facebook and will update if or when they respond. Finch claimed she suffered from rare bone cancer chondrosarcoma, lost a kidney and underwent an abortion, and suffered from PTSD over close ties to the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, among other fabricated stories of trauma.
The entire Finch situation sent shockwaves through the Grey’s Anatomy family, devoted fanbase and beyond as it became one of the most jaw-dropping Hollywood scandals in recent memory. Finch had served as a top writer turned co-executive producer on Grey’s for eight seasons before she was ultimately exposed for a series of explosive lies. The revelations came via emails sent to Grey’s creator and boss Shonda Rhimes by Finch’s estranged wife, Jennifer Beyer, who claimed that Finch had fabricated many elements of her personal life, stories that had inspired countless plotlines.
Finch was then placed under investigation by Shondaland and Disney, and ultimately took an indefinite leave of absence from Grey’s in March 2022. High-profile writer Evgenia Peretz published a two-part investigation about Finch in Vanity Fair, for which Beyer helped expose Finch’s years of false claims. Peretz then teamed with David Schisgall to direct Anatomy of Lies for Peacock.
Since that time, Finch offered two public apologies; one in a late 2022 interview with Peter Kiefer for The Ankler, and another on her social media (now private), where she apologized to her family and friends on the day Anatomy of Lies was released. Beyer, on Facebook, rejected the latter by saying her ex-wife has “demonstrated no meaningful remorse for her actions toward either me or my children.”
Jackie Strause contributed to this report.