A Utah theater director was dismissed for lying substantially on his CV, but was compensated $175,000 after claiming to suffer from a disease that compels him to lie.
Christopher Massimine was fired for lying extensively about resume, only to be paid out $175,000 after he claimed to suffer from a compulsive lying disorder
Christopher Massimine resigned from the University of Utah’s Pioneer Theater Company in 2021 after the institution questioned him with multiple fabrications on his résumé, including a fabricated humanitarian award he claimed to have earned.
Dr. Jordan W. Merrill, a local psychiatrist, stated that Massimine engaged in ‘benign lying’ as a coping mechanism for ‘his internal fragility’ shortly after he was removed from office.
According to his and his wife’s testimony, Massimine’s deceit extended far beyond résumé errors and involved a lifetime of untruths and plain fabrications, including claims he had climbed Mount Everest, was a chair at MENSA International, and even had an affair with Kourtney Kardashian.
Pioneer Theater Company at the University of Utah where Massimine worked
Massimine and the University of Utah reached a settlement recognizing that neither had done any misconduct in his dismissal, which resulted in a six-figure settlement payment to Massimine.
Christopher Massimine was dismissed for lying substantially on his résumé, but he was compensated $175,000 after claiming to have a disease of compulsive lying.
Massimine worked with the University of Utah’s Pioneer Theater Company.
Massimine joined the University of Utah’s Pioneer Theater Company in 2019 following a strong start in theater.
By the time he was 29 years old, he had become the executive director of the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene in New York City, where he had staged a successful performance of Fiddler on the Roof.
The University of Utah hired him after being pleased by his various accomplishments, which he said included two Tony nominations.
Massimine, however, grew rapidly disillusioned with the job at the school.
Christopher Massimine and his wife Maggie. The two have dealt with his lying throughout their marriage
He told The New York Times, “The individuals who were supposed to be listening to me were not listening to me.”
In reaction to his frustrations, he fabricated an elaborate fiction claiming he had received the Humanitarian of the Year Award from the National Performing Arts Action Association.
Massimine enthusiastically shared the news with his wife, despite the fact that both the prize and the organization were wholly fabricated.
He told the Times, “I felt like this was a pretty huge deception, and I want to make sure everyone is on board so that it seems like a genuine thing.”
Massimine’s many lies included one to his wife that he’d had an affair with Kourtney Kardashian
Maggie and Christopher Massimine, his wife. Throughout their marriage, they have faced with his dishonesty.
Christopher Massimine, while serving as the CEO of the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, was an avid supporter of the theater.
Maggie, the wife of Massimine, was dubious since she had coped with her husband’s lying for years. When he returned from a trip to Washington with an award medal and photographs of himself standing on the White House platform, she hesitantly acknowledged that the prize was genuine.
She told the Times, “I was thinking, OK, I suppose he really did get this prize.” Like, he returned and received an award.
Massimine claimed that he had served as a consultant for soul legend Aretha Franklin
The prize also raised the attention of his coworkers, one of whom became certain it was a forgery. Director of marketing for the Pioneer Theater Company, Kirsten Park, stated that an internet search for the company and the award yielded no results.
Park stated, “I fully believed it to be a fraud,” but finally opted not to share her concerns that Massine’s university-funded trip to Washington was completely fabricated.
“Perhaps the only thing worse than lying is falsely accusing someone of lying,” she continued.
Park became suspicious of Massimine because to his prior conduct, which included claiming to have been a keynote speaker at a United Nations convention and describing a lavish career to reporters whenever he saw them at work.
One of Massimine’s several falsehoods to his wife was that he had an affair with Kourtney Kardashian.
Massimine said that he had acted as a consultant for Aretha Franklin, an icon of soul music.
Massimine had also posted a number of articles online that made fantastical claims about his career: Massimine was vice chair of MENSA; he produced The Legend of Zelda and Resident Evil video games; he was a consultant for Aretha Franklin; he owned a diamond company; and he created the Dos Equis Most Interesting Man in the World ad campaign by himself.
He then disclosed that he had purchased the stories.
Shortly after the award story, Massimine’s supervisors informed him that his colleagues had filed a complaint against him for absence and poor management.
They also notified him that a local FOX affiliate reporter was drafting a lengthy piece on his fabrications.
In reaction, Massimine resigned and entered a mental facility to cope with the resulting psychological collapse and to investigate the pathological lying that had led him there.
A list of Massimine’s alleged accomplishments from an essay he hired someone to write about him.
Massimine said to the Times that he began lying at a young age as a type of “protection mechanism” against his fears.
He remarked, “I basically pulled the gun and prayed for the best.”
His lying became well-known among his peers, who viewed it as the innocuous behavior of a child actor prone to theatrical acts.
But upon marrying Maggie, the weight of years of falsehoods, including the fabrication that he had an affair with Kourtney Kardashian, began to strain his union. Prior to his misadventure in Utah, their relationship reached a breaking point and they split for a few months, then reunited and were left ‘simply puzzling out reality from fantasy.’
In October of 2019 – the same year he would manufacture the humanitarian award – Massimine traveled to Cambodia, but emailed his wife a photo of himself in Mount Everest’s base camp with individuals he claimed to be Sherpas.
He sent Maggie an email stating, “I’m in Tibet.” Please don’t be angry. He then revealed that he had smuggled himself into China with the help of Buddhist monks, and that despite the days necessary to adapt to Everest, he had reached Everest Camp 2 at an altitude of 21,300 feet. Why is he sharing this when it might get him killed? was my initial thinking. Maggie revealed to the Times. The weirder his posts became, the more I thought, This can’t be true. Nothing here is genuine.
The subsequent investigation into her husband’s Facebook and email accounts found several forgeries, such as false accounts and connections with bogus persons.
Who is this individual? She remarked to the Times, “Who did I marry?”
After leaving the University of Utah, Massimine’s lying was identified as a mental disorder.
Massimine and the University of Utah finally settled the matter for $175,000, with both parties acknowledging that neither had done any violation.
After Massimine resigned from the University of Utah, he consulted with Dr. Merrill, who classified his lying as a mental condition.
Dr. Merrill stated that victims like Massimine are only attempting to cope: “It is not an attempt to take something from you.” I do not know if they are aware of what they are doing. It is repeatedly emphasized that this is the only way to manage the world. According to The Salt Lake Tribune, Massimine stated in his resignation letter that he was leaving “to address challenges in my personal and professional life originating from an undiagnosed and at times poorly managed mental health illness.”
Massimine and University finally settled the matter for $175,000, with both parties acknowledging that neither had done any violation.
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