Lights, camera, strip...with sinister consequences.
New Discovery+ true crime docuseries Curse of the Chippendales pulls back the curtain at the sultry and salacious history behind famed male strip show, Chippendales. Founder Steve Banerjee created the dance revue initially as a stunt in 1979 Los Angeles, but soon the erotic nightclub gave way to the deaths of its original members—and a gruesome assassination led to a manhunt for a killer across two continents.
So, what was the dirty secret that creator Steve was hiding?
"It was just getting wilder and wilder, and I think a lot of it was just driven by coke," former Chippendales Creative Director Eric Gilbert explained in this exclusive sneak peek. "I really believe that cocaine pushed him to a point where he didn't give a f––k. The fun things about the job were evaporating. It became more of a Mr. Toad's Wild Ride in paranoia land with Steve Banerjee. So, I just faxed in my resignation and that was the end of it."
"There were increasingly more and more lawyers around that he was talking to, and both my professional and personal relationship with Steve became estranged and I was no longer involved," past Chippendales lawyer Bruce Nahin noted.
After Gilbert's eight-year stint that concluded in 1991, Read Scot took over as a dancer and director.
"I got a call from one of the producers and promoters of Adonis and they said, 'Hey, would you be interested in taking on a role in the show?' And I said, 'Yeah, I would love that, but I want to move to the next level, I want to be part of the show, I want to direct, I want to create,'" Scot explained. "He said, 'Well, you can do that.' So, we kind of agreed on becoming a partner of the show, Adonis.'"
But Banerjee's descent continued: "It made him paranoiac, it made him immoral, untrustworthy, if you can imagine," Scot agreed with Gilbert. "Very hyper and there were times when it took over."
There's no Magic Mike star charm here!
Banerjee was indicted on a murder-for-hire plot for killing Chippendales choreographer Nick De Noia in 1987. Banerjee plead guilty to lesser charges, and eventually hanged himself in his jail cell in 1994 before sentencing.
For the first time ever, the mystery of the Chippendales can be fully untangled, thanks to the new four-part series, Curse of the Chippendales, created by Oscar-winning and Emmy Award-winning Simon Chinn and Jonathan Chinn of Lightbox. Former dancers, original members, the club's lawyer and former associate producers, plus a retired FBI Special Agent on the case open up about what really happened as the Chippendales empire took over America.
"The Chippendales brand was a cultural touchstone—forever recognized, often emulated, and famously parodied," Lisa Holme, Discovery+ representative, said. "People expected tall tales of hot bodies from all corners of the world, not the true story of an FBI manhunt to catch a fugitive halfway around the globe."
Curse of the Chippendales is produced for Discovery+ by Lightbox, with Jesse Vile directing and Suzette Styler producing. Simon Chinn, Jonathan Chinn, Suzanne Lavery and Jeanie Vink serve as executive producers.
Curse of the Chippendales premieres Friday, Sept. 24 on Discovery+.