

Her literary gifts enabled her to write witty and piquant letters in the style of authors like Dorothy Parker and Noel Coward and celebrities like Marlene Dietrich. She found a surprising new vocation as a literary forger, after a couple of authentic letters from celebrities drew money from bookshop owners and collectors. She managed to hang on to her seedy Manhattan apartment and her beloved cat, but as bills began to mount, she had to seek another source of income. Her alcoholism and self-destructive personal behavior did not help. Lee Israel (McCarthy) was a biographer and journalist with a few moderately successful books to her credit, but she fell victim to every writer’s nightmare as the assignments began to dry up.

Halle Bailey, Melissa McCarthy on Becoming Iconic 'Little Mermaid' Characters and Logistics of Ursula's Tentacles
