What Is Alec Baldwin's Connection To The Bad Vegan?

Sarma Melngailis recently came back into the public eye with Netflix's new docuseries, "Bad Vegan: Fame, Fraud, Fugitives." The series delves into the vegan restaurant owner's journey from wildly successful restauranteur to a fugitive on the run for draining $2 million from her business and cheating investors out of their money. The twist here is that Melngailis wasn't doing this all on her own — her husband, Anthony Strangis, had managed to con her into transferring money from her restaurant directly to him. The duo was eventually caught and charged with multiple felonies.

In a March 17 interview with Vanity Fair, Melngailis expanded on how Strangis was able to coerce her into sending him her money, pointing to gaslighting techniques as his main tool. He also convinced her that he would be able to make her and her dog, Leon, immortal as long as she performed a series of bizarre tests. She compared the experience to having been indoctrinated into a cult, saying it was "Like dissociation ... I can't remember so much stuff."

The Pure Food and Wine founder is currently trying to rebuild her life and get out from underneath the mounting debt that has accumulated. However, she does hope that others learn from her story. While the docuseries primarily gives Melngailis a voice to tell her entire story from start to finish, it also reveals interesting details about her connection to a number of famous celebrities, including Alec Baldwin.

In the new Netflix docuseries, "Bad Vegan: Fame, Fraud, Fugitives," vegan restaurateur Sarma Melngailis delved into her relationship with Alec Baldwin. The former Pure Food and Wine owner revealed that she and Baldwin met at her restaurant and went on to become friends. In the first episode, she stated, per the Daily Mail, "Sometimes when you meet somebody, and you feel like you already knew them, it kind of felt like that with him." 

It wasn't too long after they met that Baldwin met his wife, Hilaria, at the restaurant in 2011. And although Melngailis and Baldwin's relationship had been purely platonic, she regretted not pursuing something romantic while she had the chance. "I had never gone any further with Alec because I was in a relationship," she shared. "And then it was like a few months later, we split up anyway, and then Alec ends up with somebody."

The real kicker was that the "30 Rock" actor became Melngailis' connection to Anthony Strangis, according to Vanity Fair. Baldwin began engaging in Twitter banter with a user named @DiscipleOfTodd, who would turn out to be Strangis. When Melngailis started following him as well, the two hit things off. It also helped that Strangis was able to accurately guess why Melngailis named her dog Leon. In November 2011, she tweeted, "Mrs Fox be in love with Mr Fox. Can't be helped," and the rest is history.