I never thought the Oscar-nominated documentary “Exit Through the Gift Shop” was any more of a hoax or manipulation of truth than most nonfiction films, but I always figured there was something more to it than meets the eye regarding the history of its production and the identity and nature of its subject, Theirry Guetta.

Now, via Badass Digest, comes a possible clarification from artist Ron English (designer of the “Super Size Me” fat Ronald McDonald poster) as to what exactly was going on with the film, which was indeed initially Guetta’s and ended up overtaken and credited to the mysterious street artist Bansky. Unfortunately, it appears the two men may now be confirmed to not in fact be the same person.

According to English’s claims to a local reporter in Decatur, Illinois, Guetta was working closely with artist Shepard Fairey (designer of the Barack Obama “Hope” poster) on a collaborative documentary that after five years of shooting never went anywhere because Guetta jealously screwed the artist out of the deal. His plan was always to hold back Fairey’s fame by squandering this footage of him in his prime.

When Fairey filed a lawsuit against his backstabbing partner, Banksy stepped in to both save the project and possibly protect his identity from being revealed were the wrong person to get ahold of Thierry’s idle footage. As it turned out, to everyone’s surprise, Guetta’s footage was mostly shit anyway.

Aside from the lawsuit and Fairey’s involvement, these details don’t change a whole lot of what was already understood about “Exit,” and in fact Bansky’s takeover doesn’t necessarily even have that much to do with the business between Guetta and Fairey at all. Still, it’s interesting additional background material. Plus, English shares something that is of significance to how Guetta became involved with all these street artists to begin with:

The only glaring detail that they leave out that helps you understand the story is that Thierry is like a billionaire, a very wealthy guy. He doesn’t come off as wealthy. His family are some kind of merchants from France […] The artists all tolerated him because he hooked you up, when you went to LA, the first thing people told you is “You have to meet this guy Thierry because he’s got all the main spaces, all the best walls, and you can do something without getting arrested.”

Guetta sounds like your typical rich guy who wants to be famous, and Banksy helped him with that through the events we see in the second half of the film as well as by finishing the film itself. Meanwhile he got to experiment with and/or satirize the art world in the process.

Head over to the Decatur guy’s Posters and Prints Blog for more of his interview with English and the truth about “Exit Through the Gift Shop.”