'Drunk Girl' video reportedly a hoax

Predatory men thought they were acting in a student film, the Smoking Gun reports

Dylan Stableford
By November 13, 2014 5:17 PM Yahoo News
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    The hidden-camera video that purportedly showed men in Hollywood trying to take advantage of a comely young actress pretending to be drunk was staged, the Smoking Gun reports.

    In the four-minute video, "Drunk Girl in Public (Social Experiment)," the woman, played by 24-year-old Jennifer Box, is approached by a series of predatory men as she stumbles around Hollywood Boulevard in high heels and sips from a bottle covered by a brown paper bag.

    "So you like to party?" one of the men asks. "If you want to hang out, we can go back to my spot. ... I just want to help you."

    But like Box, the men were approached on the street by Stephen Zhang, the video's 20-year-old creator, to be part of a student film, according to the Smoking Gun:

    According to two sources familiar with the clip’s production, the men in the video were approached on the street to take part in a “comedic, hidden camera” video. One source, who said he declined an invitation to be in the video, told TSG that he was told the production was a “student video.”


    After the video was posted, one of its seemingly creepy male stars informed friends on Facebook that he thought he was doing "a favor for some camera crew," TSG reports. “Guess this is what I get for being agreeable to [someone's] project.”

    When another male participant complained on Facebook that he was duped, Seth Leach, one of Zhang's assistants, fired off a Facebook message.

    “The important thing to consider, is that this video is going to get you well known and have a future with us and our company," Leach wrote. “We are going to be huge and you are apart of it. Just go with it dude, you are in our team now and we will take care of you."

    "Drunk Girl in Public" comes on the heels of the viral "Hollaback!" video, showing a woman being bombarded with catcalls as she walked around the streets of New York City, which has been viewed more than 35 million times on YouTube. But unlike Zhang's video — which has been viewed more than 7 million times — the "Hollaback!" video is real.
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