✨The Accidental Billionaires (2010)

I first met Ben Mezrich when I produced and starred in , the film adaptation of his great bestseller . Ben has a gift for finding high-energy, strange-but-true tales and The Accidental Billionaires is no exception.

You may think you know the story of the Facebook phenomenon, but you haven’t heard the whole story and never like this. Recreating the unbelievable rise of the world's biggest social network—not to mention the planet's youngest billionaire, Mark Zuckerberg—Ben tells a captivating story of betrayal, vast amounts of cash, and two friends who revolutionized the way humans connect to one another—only to have an enormous falling out and never speak again.

Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg were two geeky, socially awkward Harvard undergrads who wanted nothing more than to be cool. While Eduardo chose the more straightforward path of trying to gain acceptance into one of the school's ultra-posh, semi-secret Final Clubs, Mark used his computer skills by hacking into Harvard's computers, pulling up all the pictures of every girl on campus to create a sort of "hot-or-not" site exclusive to Harvard. Though the prank nearly got Mark kicked out of college, he and Eduardo realized that they were on to something big. Thus, the initial concept of Facebook was born; what happened next, however, was right out of a Hollywood thriller.

The Accidental Billionaires is the perfect pairing of author and subject. It's pure summer fun—a juicy, fast-paced, unputdownable Mezrich tale that adds to his canon of lad lit. And Hollywood has come calling again: I'm currently working with Dana Brunetti, Scott Rudin, Mike Deluca, and Aaron Sorkin on the movie adaptation of The Accidental Billionaires. If the book is any indication, the film is going to be a must see.—(Kevin Spacey)

Mezrich forsakes the technical and business aspects surrounding the creation of Facebook and instead opts for juicier stories of "hot girls," all-night celebrity parties, and sex. Much to the chagrin of critics, even these lurid details were not enough to entertain them. They also criticized the author's forays into fiction: it's no secret that Mezrich plays fast and loose with the truth -- he says as much in an author's note -- but reviewers complained that his plot embellishments were laughable. Mezrich's inability to obtain an interview with Zuckerberg and his reliance on Zuckerberg's bitter ex-business partners for information necessitated some conjecture, but even with invented dialogue and imagined motives, Zuckerberg fails to come to life. Facebook addicts may rejoice, but all others should avoid Billionaires.