The Feature

While receiving a good-size paycheck, the actor behind a successful brand character enters a state of existential limbo. He is famous yet anonymous. His face is everywhere, yet his name is largely unknown. The job is pleasant. He is fortunate to have it. At the same time, for the rest of his life, he will be saddled with the character and treated in public, at conventions, on the street, in the grocery store, like a windup toy. Pull string, say tag line. More disconcerting is that when the campaign is over, chances are, no other brand will hire him. The overexposure can be nearly impossible to overcome. He will have successfully acted himself right out of acting.

In the spring of 2010, the George brothers were the target of Operation Oxy Alley. Local and federal cops raided their businesses, confiscated their opioids, and seized millions of dollars of assets, including safes full of cash stashed away in their mom’s attic, according to prosecutors. In August 2011 the Department of Justice unsealed a five-count indictment outlining a range of charges, from racketeering to possession with intent to distribute controlled substances, against 32 individuals, including 13 doctors and one wholesaler involved with the Georges’ clinics. From 2008 to 2010, according to the federal agents, the George twins were the largest illegal dispensers of oxycodone in the U.S.

Before the market crashed and home prices tumbled, before federal investigators showed up and hauled away the community records, before her property managers pled guilty for conspiring to rig neighborhood elections, and before her real estate lawyer allegedly tried to commit suicide by overdosing on drugs and setting fire to her home, Wanda Murray thought that buying a condominium in Las Vegas was a pretty good idea.