TV writer and former friend of Grey’s Anatomy liar weighs in on Anatomy Of Lies
Peacock's Anatomy Of Lies is now available to stream, charting the tangled web of untruths weaved by former Grey's Anatomy writer/producer Elisabeth Finch. For years, Finch lied about having cancer (among other fictionalized traumas) before her lies were exposed by ex-wife Jennifer Beyer. Beyer, her children, and various ex-Grey's co-workers are among those interviewed for the three-part docuseries, but of course there's a wider net of those affected by Finch's lies, including a former colleague Carina Adly MacKenzie, who reacted to the doc on social media.
MacKenzie, the showrunner of the upcoming We Were Liars, worked in the same CW circles where Finch began her career. (Finch worked on The Vampire Diaries, and Mackenzie was a staff writer on the spin-off series The Originals). Mackenzie previously shared some of her experiences with Finch back in 2022; on Wednesday, she took to Twitter/X to reiterate that the victims of Finch's lies "were not stupid," as some viewers may have wrongly assumed. "We saw a visibly ill person. Her skin was green. Her teeth were deteriorating. She walked with a cane and was bald when I met her elderly parents—why would I, a normal person, think she was lying to her PARENTS??" Mackenzie wrote, detailing how Finch carefully drew in her friends in order to receive gifts and favors from celebrities.
-- then we'd get an email from a "friend" explaining Finch didn't want them to send this email, but here's her prognosis, listing her favorite treats in case we wanted to send something to her house. Asking if anyone could connect with her favorite celebrities for morale boosts.
— carina adly mackenzie (@cadlymack) October 16, 2024
"She performed this 'I refuse to be cancer girl' show to great effect—starting slow. Making us beg for information & ways to help. Literally TRAINING us all to wrap her in empathy and sympathy and PRIDE. We were so proud of her strength, we all felt so weak in comparison. So this idea that she told one oopsie lie and it just snowballed -- got out of her control, she couldn't stop it, she's so sorry, she wants to atone—NO. She was diabolical from the jump, and we were primed for empathy because EMPATHY IS REQUIRED in a writers' room," MacKenzie wrote. "The doc says 'she was brilliant.' No. We were not stupid—but she was NOT brilliant. She was a specific predator & we were a specific prey. A lion isn't a genius for catching a zebra. She was a lion let into the fucking zebra pen. Because her feet were already. in. the door."
MacKenzie also makes a point to note that Finch didn't "need" the lie to get a job, since she was already a successful writer on True Blood and The Vampire Diaries before the cancer lie began. "The idea that having a disability somehow fast-tracks you to a fancy job is false & harmful," she wrote. Instead, Finch used her fake condition to gain favor with higher-ups, create a false sense of authority, shirk responsibilities off to her colleagues, and write articles about her traumas in publications for money and acclaim. (In the doc, some ex-Grey's writers suggest that Finch was almost fired from the show but was kept on because of her cancer diagnosis.)
So if it's true that Grey's was specifically interested in her because of her "illness," then -- well, she sat on panels at TV festivals about disability representation in TV writing -- while actively stealing a job from someone that could actually speak to that lived experience.
— carina adly mackenzie (@cadlymack) October 16, 2024
Finch herself released a statement following the release of the docuseries, apologizing again and saying she became trapped in the "addiction of lies, betraying and traumatizing my closest friends, family, and colleagues." Even as she acknowledged that "I've given no one any reason to believe a word I say," she presented a different version of events than the one in the documentary, suggesting it was Beyer who proposed marriage. (Beyer claims the opposite.) Finch wrote that she continues to make amends with those she hurt, so long as they are willing. MacKenzie is decidedly not. She shared a screenshot of an email from Finch asking to reach out and wrote: "In conclusion, my empathy reserve has run dry, I’m fresh out, go fuck yourself."
In conclusion, my empathy reserve has run dry, I’m fresh out, go fuck yourself. pic.twitter.com/TkOwnntOcn
— carina adly mackenzie (@cadlymack) October 16, 2024