Kriti Mehrotra
As a documentary series living up to its title in every way conceivable, Ap ple TV+’s Chris Smith-directed ‘Hollywood Con Queen’ can only be described as equal parts gripping and haunting. That’s because it incorporates not just archival footage but also exclusive interviews with key figures to really shine a light upon Hargobind “Harvey” “Gavin” Punjabi Tahilramani as a career hoaxer. Amongst those to thus feature in this original was actually this Indonesian native’s once employee (not accomplice) Julian Lovick, whose experiences with him were frankly often creepy at best.
Who is Julian Lovick?
It was back around the mid-2010s when Julian came across Gavin for the first time while serving at a steakhouse by the name of Goodman in London, just to quickly get to know the latter. According to his own record in the show, this customer “was always a little bit problematic. We could never cook a steak correctly for him, and he’d go as far as putting it in his mouth, chewing it, spitting it out, putting it on a linen napkin, and handing it to you to say, ‘This isn’t correct, Julian.’ The strange thing was, you didn’t have to do anything to the bill for him — he was always happy to pay.”
Julian also swiftly learned Gavin was a rising Instagram food influencer running PureBytes, especially as he’d sometimes unabashedly photograph or videotape his meals in the restaurant. However, it was after the former quit following six years of active service that this alleged conman got a little personal and slid into his direct messages with the idea of hiring him for himself. He essentially wanted the food-beverage industry professional plus hobbyist photographer to be his cameraman, so they came to an agreement upon meeting face-to-face for some clarification.
Julian stated in the production, “I made it clear to him that I was fine with the photography side of things, but I was certainly not a trained or skilled videographer, but we can do our best. And he just said, ‘I don’t even care, just film me.'” That’s when the former began noticing his boss was almost always on his phone or claimed to be too tired because of being on his calls all night — though he never got to witness what it was about. In fact, whenever Gavin/Harvey needed to make an “important call” when they were together, he either went away or asked Julian to “disaappear.”
Then, everything took a turn for the worse once Gavin began to trust his cameraman and even brought him into his home to shoot a few cooking as well as outfit videos for his social media page. “Eventually, he started to push the boundaries a little bit in terms of squeezing my cheeks, or telling me I’m beautiful, or wanting to hug me,” Julian candidly expressed in the documentary series. “One day, he said to me, ‘I’d like you to photograph my outfit’… [before] proceeding to undress right in front of me, and he [cheekily] said to me, ‘Don’t worry, I’m not going to rape you.'”
Julian added that Gavin then went on to talk about how “Harvey Weinstein was one these people he revered. He said Harvey taught him all the ways of how to operate as a producer. ‘Harvey is a great guy, and these women are just vindictive. They’re liars, and the Me Too movement is a scam.’ [It was] kind of a scary thought to be trapped in a flat with someone that believed that. I thought to myself, ‘Little do you know this is the last day I’m putting up with this shit.'” And so, he never returned to work for Gavin again, meaning he also had no idea of the latter’s likely connection to the Hollywood Con Queen scam until his arrest for the same in late 2020.
Where is Julian Lovick Now?
From what we can tell, Julian prefers to lead his life well away from the spotlight, meaning we unfortunately do not know much regarding his personal or professional experiences these days. All we do know is that, according to the latest public information, he has since evolved into a sommelier who primarily works alongside renowned restaurants across his city of London, England. As for his personal life, this travel enthusiast appears to be a proud family man, and it’s also highly probable he has since continued to expand his skills as a hobbyist photographer for his own use.
