Rovier Carrington thought his cases against MTV and Paramount executives should have been the biggest of the #MeToo era. Instead, they raised unsettling questions about victimhood

One unseasonably warm afternoon in February 2023, in a very brown New York City courtroom, Rovier Carrington did the inconceivable: he admitted to a lie. On that day, the aspiring screenwriter told a federal judge that he had altered evidence to support his legal claim of being systematically raped and blacklisted by a bevy of Hollywood powerbrokers.

His 11th-hour capitulation came as a shock.