Evangelical Christian leader Jerry Fallwell Junior and his wife Becki are at the centre of the affair scandal in documentary God Forbid.
God Forbid (169 mins) (M) Streaming on Disney+
Directed by Billy Corben
Imagine being the loving sister of a young man who’s been seduced by an older woman, who happens to be very famous, and because of her, he becomes embroiled in a legal mess over property investments with the woman and her husband, investments that are entangled with those of Donald Trump.
The young man then becomes so lost that he’s suicidal.
All the sister can do is observe and hope.
This troublesome story is the subject of documentary God Forbid: The Sex Scandal That Brought Down a Dynasty, directed Billy Corben.
It’s largely told from the point of view of the young man, Giancarlo Granda (Sam Myerson), with many insights provided by his sister Lilia, played by herself.
The famous older woman is Becki Falwell, played by herself in archival footage, with clever lip-synced voiceover.
She’s the wife of then Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr, the famous son of Moral Majority televangelist Jerry Falwell, both Trump supporters.
Becki was hanging out poolside at Miami’s Fontainebleu Hotel in March 2012 when she spied Giancarlo, then 20, working as a pool attendant.
Not knowing who she is, Giancarlo says yes when she invites him to her hotel room, likes it when she tells him he’s perfect. But perfect for what, exactly?
Was Giancarlo Becki Falwell’s victim?
What was Jerry Falwell Jr’s involvement in his wife’s affair?
There is strong evidence, only some of it seedily suggestive, that he was in Becki’s hotel room when Becki brought Giancarlo in, and kept bringing him into rooms wherever she was, including her children’s bedrooms, for seven years.
Why didn’t Giancarlo say no?
The Falwells and Giancarlo remained close until August 2020, when Reuters published a well-researched piece of investigative journalism about their relationship, personal and business.
Giancarlo was referred to as the pool boy.
After that publicity, there was little point in Jerry Falwell Jr trying to carry on saying he hadn’t been there, that it was his wife’s fault, and anyway, by then he’d fallen from grace and had nothing to lose.
LinkedIn describes Giancarlo, now 31, as a real estate professional, a Georgetown University graduate and the owner of Alton Hostel, LLC.
That was the hostel the Falwells had bought in partnership with him, but just before the Reuter’s publicity, sparking it, an old school friend of Giancarlo, Jesus Fernandez Jr, had sued the Falwells, claiming they had promised him a cut of the Alton Hostel deal, in return for property advice.
Release of intimate photographs was threatened. Donald Trump’s fixer Michael Cohen made Fernandez go away.
Power, privilege, profit, hypocrisy and corruption are shown to underpin so much that looks respectable in politics and inside institutions such as Liberty University.
The film is about the true nature of some of those who endorsed Donald Trump in 2016. Believable, well-researched, well put together and well worth seeing.
Highly recommended.
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The defect is common with bridges of its type right across the country.