Fancy Macelli

Fancy Macelli aka Franchesca Macelli, (real name April Johns, alias April Lee Johns, April Matson-Johns, April Lee-Anna Jones), born January 12, 1975 in Dayton Beach, Florida. She is the creator of The Good Wives Network, a failed venture that bills itself as a "a brand new streaming channel for women by women".[1] Fancy is a serial entrepreneur with a history across a variety of bizarre industries, managing to start numerous projects concurrently, while completing none. As of 2024, She bills herself as "the leading expert on the Gypsy Rose Blanchard Case". [2] Most notably, she is known for claiming to be in production of a series called By Proxy, which was meant to be a series on the case created with Gypsy's family and loved ones. [3] She is the subject of the subreddit r/fancythegoodwifesnark [4]

Early Life

Fancy's fantastical and traumatic upbringing is the source of most her content. At a very young age she expressed her interest in the entertainment industry when at five she walked up to the television, pointed at the screen and said to her mom, "I can do that. No No No! I want to do that." Fancy began acting in local community theater and school productions. In third grade she was cast in the starring rule of Lulu Bear in The Teddy Bears' Christmas. One year later Fancy and her family moved to Riverside, CA.[5] On a Soundkick page created in 2008, Fancy describes her upbringing "I grew up as an only child to a single parent. My mother was a juvenile diabetic and struggled with it all her life. She always wanted me to pursue my dreams but her health never let me." [6]

Military Service

• Fancy has stated that she was in the Army, however, we have not seen much to substantiate this. Also, she has never referenced using the VA for healthcare, further giving thought to that her service may be fraudulent.
  
  

Introduction to Stardom

Music

• April Johns: Damsel in Distress
  

Described as "Country mixed with a little rock and a little rhythm and blues... Each day I try and honor her memory with my singing. I have three beautiful girls who we try and raise to have the song in the heart and the music at their fingertips. My sound is country mixed with a little rhythm and blues." She has a full album. [7]

• Her OurStage Account [8]
  
• Her Twitter - [9]
  

Music Videos

• Family Photo [10]
  
• Standin' in the Rain [11]
  

Background Actress

1995 - 1996: Boy Meets World

• On a self created IMDB page,[12] Fancy lists an impressive resume, beginning when she was given a position as a "background regular" on the TV series for 10 episodes. There are no photos of her from this production. [13]

2002: Movie Debut

• Also from a self created profile on Stage32, Fancy states she appears in two films:

National Lampoon's Van Wilder

• No credit is listed for her except there she has added herself in IMDB as party girl, uncredited.

Orange County

• Another walk on role as where she credits herself as student, uncredited.

2004: Minor Breakthrough

• Fancy adds her role as reporter, uncredited to the blockbuster Spiderman 2. After this, she exited the industry, married, and had children.

2011: Return to the Stage

• She appeared the stage production of A Dark and Stormy Night, playing Mary Shaw as the Kentucky Public Theatre. [14]

Fan Fiction

• In 2009, April started a Sookie Stackhouse fan fiction site "All Things Sookie Stackhouse", but it appears not to have any content. [15]
  

Event Planning

E-Unite Events: Fancy Invents Life Streaming

• In 2011, Fancy created a website for her fledgling business, a gift basket webstore. [16] From the site "Hello and welcome. This is the home of a very new and unique idea, the E-Vent. Click on the E-Shower page for detailed information. In addition to this we offer event planning services, custom made gift baskets, specialty home, nursery, and garden decor; and other various fun crafty gifts. We specialize in creating a just for you experience. We carry several name brand luxury products." The site was an early e-com webstore, featuring a PayPal check out. However, there was no evidence that products were ever listed for sale. A second screenshot of the site taken in 10/2011 also shows that it is an incomplete project. [17]

• Eventective, a directory site for party planners, lists her offerings as "We are a team of coordinators, designers, consultants, and assistants committed to creating your day with elegance and style, where you too are a guest, able to enjoy every detail without stress. We bring organization, creativity, integrity, elegance, passion, and innovation to the wedding or special event of your dreams."[18]

• 'The Knot' also has a listing. [19]

• In 2012, she got her first awful review on Yelp. [20]

Fancy Events

• In 2014, Fancy was forced to rebrand, as she had already been accused of theft and deception by clients. She created a new website. [21]

• She joined LinkedIn, billing herself as a "master coordinator and CEO". [22]

• It was noted on Yelp [23] that she had taken to using the wedding parties open bar.

  

• Foursquare also was aware of her scams.[24]

• Also of note: She was accused of swindling a free $800 event rental fee for her daughter's birthday party from a venue in exchange for photos. The review was damning, and this would be the first in a long line of business dealings that she did not hold up her end of the agreement.[25]

• In addition to wedding planning, she wanted to expand into children's parties, and she created a side concept of Fancy Bash [26]

• However, in May, she received two equally suspicious reviews.[27].

• In 2015, a Yelp profile for the business gives a different account. [28] Most notably, this was the first internet mention of greatly overstating what her business actually was, as at this time she was still billing herself as being a creative team, when in actuality, it was just her meeting with people in the mall food court. This would be an early sign of a pattern of behavior that would be a reoccurring theme in her life.

• 2016 proved to escalate the disasters in this business. [29]

• On Feb 15, 2024, a reddit user saw our subreddit /fancythegoodwifesnark and stopped by to provide context on the theft[30]

Reinvention

Return to the Camera

• In November 2015, Fancy joined the networking site Stage 32, stating "I am an actress and filmmaker. I have been on stage since I was a very young child. I did some time while a young adult in Hollywood but left to raise my family for 20 years. I am currently writing & starring in my own web series, Coping. The series is based on my own life story as a single mother with bipolar disorder who deals with the loss of her own mom." [31]

Theatre Student

• She also created a website for herself at that time, stating "She is pursuing a B.A. at Western Kentucky University in Theatre with a Minor in Film. She has had success in getting supporting and lead roles at school and in the local community theater." [32]

Taylor Swift

• She creates a resume at this time, stating that she has appeared in the Taylor Swift video for Ours, however there is no mention of her on the IMDB for the production, which was shot in December 2011. [33]

Coping

• In 2016, a screen play for the series Coping was posted, and an IMDB entry was created. She is listed as the star. [34]

• She began a IndieGoGo campaign to fund the series. $50 out of the requested $10k was funded. [35]

• However, in 2017 she expands on her claim, now stating that she has a production company, working on a series. [36]

Mrs. Grinch

• In this same year, she played Mrs. Grinch in a production of Maggie the Pirate, also at the Public Theatre of Kentucky. [37] More photos are located on her website.[38]

SINs

Pre Production

• In 2016, an IMDB entry was created for SINs. She is listed as the star.[39]

• An Account on Slated is created for Franchesca Macelli. "A Slated Score is an analysis of each member's credited work history used to estimate project team strength. Scores are out of 100, adjusted for inflation, depreciate over time, and factor in the following criteria". She is given a ranking of 3/100." [40]

• On August 9, 2016, Rick Hurst[41] and Nathan Parsons [42]are reported to have signed onto the project. [43]

• On September 9, 2016 - SINS is shut down for having a SAG/AFTRA violation.[44]

Multi Level Marketing

IamButterflyBound

• On November 21, 2018, Fancy joined YouTube as a "Mompreneur, Online Marketing Strategist, PCOS Warrior Depression Survivor", offering "Content Marketing Schedule to Increase Productivity and Save Time!" [45]

• Fancy tried to start a website "IamButterflyBound.com", but could not manage. The wayback machine shows no updates. [46]

• She started a linked in, just to focus on Multi level marketing. [47]

• On November 28, She started the IamButterFlyBound Podcast [48] but quit shortly after.

• She joined Pinterest at this time, offering motivational content. [49]

I Am Butterfly Bound Badass Boss Babe Group

• Yes, a fucking MLM! Fancy was affiliated with Modere [50]

True Crime Content Era

Mad Ginger Entertainment

• On August 8, 2018 - Fancy starts the website "Mad Ginger Entertainment". It was removed after April 23, 2023. 16 shots are available in the Wayback Machine. [51]
  

• A Facebook account is created. [52]

• A Tee Republic store is opened, selling merch. [53]

• Membership to the "True Crime Wives Member Club" is offered, at $50 per year. [54]

• Surviving Bundy– "Kathy Rubin is only 1 of 3 survivors of Ted Bundy but her life does not end there. In this auto-biographical dramatic feature we tell her harrowing story of not allowing herself to be Bundys victim but rather a victor over what he tried to take from her." - There are no mentions of this project anywhere ever again. [55]

• Todd Matthews- A new podcast called "Gone Cold with the Good Wives and Todd Matthews" is listed, but there are no mentions of this project anywhere ever again.[56]

The Good Wives' Network: Streaming Channel

• In 2023, Fancy takes to Stage32 to announced she has purchased a streaming platform. [57]

Termination by Gypsy Rose Blanchard

Stop The Cycle Of Abuse Program

Questionable Fundraising

• There are a large number of events listed, all with 0 attendees, yet the link is still there for donations. [58]
  

• Despite being inactive, there is still a link to purchase Rada cookware to benefit this cause. [59]

Patreon

Original Content

• On September 13, 2019 a Patreon account was created under GoodWivesNet. The first post states "Welcome to By Proxy & The Good Wives Guide To True Crime. We are so glad you are here. Your support means the world to our team. This team is dedicated to changing the face of true crime. We want to bring humanistic, truthful and not overly sensationalized stories to the world of true crime.We will provide inside information on each case we work on. Including court documents, private interviews with members of the case and witnesses etc, expert testimonies, crime scene photos and exclusive content. All in a no drama environment. We will have live discussions, forum type discussions and help educate you on various elements of each case as well as specific community platforms we will be working to highlight. Also if you join at a high level because you like the merchandise perks you can always lower your contribution in your next month. There are two levels that get early access to our exclusive content but beyond that we just want to create a safe space for all our followers to support us and interact."
  

• On September 19, 2019 the Patreon was used to publish emails between Dawn DiSilvia and Nick Godejohn. It was later learned that Fancy had hired Dawn to contact Nick, and create a story by engaging in questionable emails with him in prison.
  

Return to Updating

• The Patreon was largely ignored for a long time, and on January 18, 2024 Fancy made a new post stating "We have just returned to Patreon, as we weren't producing new content for a bit".

On February 25, 2024, she published a letter she claims was written to her from Krisy Blanchard, the step mother of Gypsy Rose Blanchard.

Instagram

Prior to her move to dedicate her platform to content singularly focused on Gypsy Rose, Fancy had attempted to gain mommy blogger / influencer status by posting lifestyle content. However, this did not catch on. She made a questionable post on November 20, 2023 offering a claim of joining the Temu "Influencer" team.
[60] On December 13, 2023 she posted an ad for the Veda app to block unwanted calls, posting a monetized link in her bio.[61] On December 20th, 2023, she offered a monetized link in her bio and sought out those to bring in to "affiliate links" for a Christian clothing brand.[62]
Fancy later added a Linktree for links to her monetized content and affiliate links.

TikTok

• On December 27, 2023 Fancy created the account "GoodWivesNet" on Tiktok, creating content focusing on the release of Gypsy Rose.
  
• On January 15th, 2023 there was supposed to be a "one night only" event with Fancy and Colleen giving their commentary on Gypsy. This was later expanded two two nights. From there, this then became a daily livestream.
  
  
• During this time, Fancy often promoted her Patreon account, which she began returning to updates on January 18, 2024. She frequently makes claims that copies of Gypsy Rose's medical records will be available there, however, as of February 15, 2024 they do not appear.
  

Reddit

• On February 5, 2024 the r/fancythegoodwifesnark subreddit was created.[63] She had been mentioned frequently on r/GRBsceptics and they were known to delete any post giving negative commentary about Fancy and her campaign to expose Gypsy Rose. It was noted that Fancy's presence was growing at this time, as she was gaining traction for her continual claims that only she was holding copies of Gypsy Rose's medical records.