New York Magazine - USA (2021-02-01)

40 newyork| february1–14, 2021

T

o a group of mothers at P.S. 3, where Lily
had been a student since 2013, Gladstone was just
another member of their tight-knit community.
“She was very vivacious,” one says. They would
drop their kids off and hang out on a bench nearby,
smoking, drinking coffee, and chitchatting—“See
you at bench” was their catchphrase. Gladstone’s
ongoing custody battle would often dominate the
conversation. She described her ex as a deadbeat
who had little contact with their daughter.
Many knew that the pair constantly stayed
in different rentals, even hotels, which made her kid perennially
late. Gladstone was often asking if Lily, whose backpack always
held sleepover necessities, could stay at her classmates’homes,
several parents told me. She would show up hours late for a
drink or social event, saying she had been on a deadline, though
they never actually understood clearly what she did for work.
Online, Gladstone’s film credits are extremely sparse, mostly
for being a “greensman,” someone who tends to flora. She
would say she was location scouting, one person who knew her
remembers, but was never able to name the film. “I have a
pretty good bullshit detector,” says Jocelyn Anker, the PTA

president, who knew Gladstone from when she served as class

parent. “I would probe her because I’m a producer, and she

would kind of always backpedal and not really give me very

specific answers.”

Their unstructured lifestyle was sort of odd, but most of the

parents just figured, That’s New York. Gladstone, a few of them

said, was clearly devoted to her daughter. The pair projected a

kind of us-against-the-world closeness.

But at least one mother at P.S. 3, who asked to remain anon-

ymous, realized there was something darker and more bizarre

going on when Gladstone and Lily stayed with her in Brooklyn

in 2015. Though she knew Gladstone only casually, she recog-

nized the “single-mom call,” said the woman, who was also

divorced. The stay was only supposed to be for a few days while

their apartment was being painted, but it turned into well over

a week: The mother says Gladstone sat on her patio chain-

smoking, drinking wine, and talking on the phone for hours.

Even though their kids were in school together, Gladstone kept

Lily home most days. At one point, the host threw a birthday

party for her son, and Gladstone walked in wearing the woman’s

clothes. The final straw, the woman said, was when she found

a folded-up $20 bill in a room Gladstone had recently been in;

it had white powder inside. She took

a photo of the object and immedi-

ately told Gladstone she needed to

leave. When she did, Gladstone took

several items with her, including

the woman’s jeans and aleather

jacket. “I got her out of my life as

quickly as possible,” the parent says.

“I’m not the kind of person to go

around blabbing about it.I didn’t

realize it was a detriment to the

whole community.”

gladstone met her ex, Jens

Klein, in San Francisco in 2007. A

German filmmaker and special-ef-

fects producer, he had recently moved

to the U.S. to work for a production

company. She was 31, working as a

waitress and as a receptionist at a

company that made jukeboxes for

bars, though Klein says she was call-

ing herself a marketing specialist.

Gladstone described her upbringing

to him as charmed but derailed by

tragedy. Her father was a wealthy

businessman, and Gladstone’s Face-

book profile says she was a boarder at

the tony Kent School in Connecticut.

She told Klein that her parents di-

vorced and lost their money. Court

records show that, years later, her fa-

ther was sued by Kent for $29,000 in

unpaid tuition. In 1992, when she was

still in high school, Gladstone’s older

brother committed suicide.

“She was charming,” Klein says of

their getting together. “It was summer

in San Francisco.” Klein claims Glad-

stone asked, a few weeks into their

romance, if he would cover her rent; he

declined. When Gladstone called to say

she was pregnant, he moved with her

THE INVASION OF 129 BARROW STREET

An 860-square-foot battle ground.

June 28, 2019:

The Secret

Sandwich Ambush

March 2020:

Cleaning-Spray Blitz

July2019:

TVTug-of-War

July 2019:

Bathroom

Blockade

Living Room

Heidi’s

Room

Kate’s

Room

Kitchen

Bath

June 2019:

The Great Leg-

Sitting Offensive