Finally. The alleged mastermind of the Bling Ring is at last speaking out about a wild crime spree that saw seven teens and young adults burglarize the homes of celebrities from Paris Hilton to Lindsay Lohan and Orlando Bloom over a decade ago.
Rachel Lee comes clean in The Ringleader: The Case of the Bling Ring, which is set to debut Sunday, October 1 on HBO and streaming on Max. The film is directed by Erin Lee Carr, who has explored true crime cases in I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth V. Michelle Carter and At The Heart of Gold: Inside The USA Gymnastics Scandal. We have your first look at The Ringleader: The Case of the Bling Ring in the trailer above.
HBO Documentary Films
“In the mid-2000s, dozens of celebrity homes are burglarized and the crime ring behind it all is surprisingly unsophisticated – teenagers from Calabasas,” notes a description of the film. “At the center of the controversy is 19-year-old Rachel Lee. According to her co-defendants, she led the burglaries at the homes of Paris Hilton, Orlando Bloom, and Lindsay Lohan. Lee remained silent while the media and her former friends branded her the ringleader of a series of crimes that captured the culture’s fascination.”
The synopsis continues, “Over 10 years later and following a prison sentence, Lee speaks for the first time intimately about her childhood and her role in the crime spree and outlines the culture of celebrity worship that prevailed in the early 2000s, when socialites and Hollywood stars flaunted their wealth and designer lifestyles on social media and popular reality shows… The Ringleader: The Case of the Bling Ring sheds light on a culture that led troubled teenagers from a well to do California neighborhood who nevertheless felt like outsiders, to covet, and believe they deserved, the lifestyles of the rich and famous.”
In the trailer, Lee observes, “Most people, if they saw me on the street, they’d be like, ‘Oh, she’s just a normal person.’ But there’s always anxiety – what if they realize who I am and what I did with the Bling Ring?” She adds, “I didn’t like my world. Going into a celebrity home and trying on their stuff, I was able to live in their world.”
In addition to Lee, the documentary features journalists Allen Salkin and Amy Kaufman, Deputy District Attorneys for L.A. County Christine Kee and Sarika Kim, burglary victim Eden Shizzle and Rachel’s father David Lee.
HBO Documentary Films presents a Story Syndicate Production in association with Carr Lot Productions The Ringleader: The Case of the Bling Ring. Directed by Erin Lee Carr; producers are Erin Lee Carr and Dani Sloane; executive producers include Sandi Tan, Dan Cogan, Liz Garbus, Jon Bardin, and Kate Barry. For HBO, executive producers are Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller, and Sara Rodriguez.
Watch the trailer for The Ringleader: The Case of the Bling Ring above.
