Who hasn’t been photographed with Ghislaine Maxwell?
Should you care about who Ghislaine Maxwell is photographed with? Probably not, seeing as the socialite and confidante of Jeffrey Epstein is photographed with just about everybody.
But that doesn’t mean you won’t become enthralled, as thousands have, by an Instagram account dedicated to showing you every celebrity and powerful person photographed with Maxwell, who last week was arrested on sex trafficking charges.
The details of the Epstein saga so far have felt closer to soap opera than real life: well-connected, influential financier gets arrested on sex trafficking charges that have the potential to implicate some of the world’s richest and most powerful people, but dies before he is tried; the cause of death is determined as suicide but his lawyers allege foul play; meanwhile a longtime confidante of his (Maxwell) goes into hiding; and a member of British royalty – a prince no less! – becomes implicated after a woman claims she was trafficked by Epstein and forced into a sexual relationship with him (Prince Andrew) while she was underage. Finally, Maxwell is found hiding out at a New Hampshire retreat and arrested on sex-trafficking charges and two counts of perjury, for allegedly helping Epstein to procure and traffic underage girls.
Of course, every step of the way, people have watched, impatiently, searching for the next plot twist ahead of time. And seeing as much of this started with a photo – of Prince Andrew, Maxwell and his accuser Virginia Giuffre at Maxwell’s home – it makes sense that people are now eagerly trawling through an Instagram account like this, looking for clues.
“Ghislaine prepared to snitch on big names to save herself,” reads a screenshot of a tabloid headline in a recent story by the celebswithghislaine account, intensifying the drama. Pictures of Maxwell show her posing with a great number of Hollywood names, including Kevin Spacey and Harvey Weinstein, as well as the politically powerful: she is pictured at Chelsea Clinton’s wedding; with Melania and Donald Trump at a party; coming off a plane with Bill Clinton; and with Michael Bloomberg in another photo. She’s also photographed with Piers Morgan, Elon Musk, Naomi Campbell, Michael Caine – even Princess Diana. Just when you thought you couldn’t name anyone else, here is she is with the Disney character Pluto.
What should we make of this collection of celebrities? Who knows. Maxwell may have been courting the elites of this world; she may be the best photo-bomber of all time; or maybe, just maybe, it is proof that none of us are detectives, we’re all just very bored.