In 1971 Clifford Irving achieved one of the heights of American journalism, telling whoppers of gargantuan proportions to delude publishers McGraw Hill into paying him $1,000,000 as an advance payment for an authorised biography of Howard Hughes the ultra-reclusive, immensely powerful, superstar billionaire, complete with a series of unprecedented interviews, his most intimate memories and controversial secrets. "The Hoax" is a very nicely done dramatisation of the journalist's fantastically audacious fabrication, absorbing, witty, tense and with a great performance by Richard Gere in the central role as the conman and fantasist.