I think he was duped AND he embellished. He was at one point under the impression she was real, he ran with that and made **** up like the night-long phone calls, and then continued with it after the reveal.
I didn't mean for this to become so long...my first foray into screenwriting
Te’o Movie (Quarterback Mountain?)
Act 1: Manti Te’o (Channing Tatum in Hawaiian face) is humiliated when the story breaks that his ‘girlfriend’ doesn’t actually exist. While watching coverage on tv his apartment is broken into, he has a bag put over his face, and he is thrown into a van. When he has the bag taken off his face he is in front of the Gay Illuminati (Perez Hilton, Anderson Cooper, Ellen DeGeneres, Larry Craig, and their leader Elton John). They tell him that there is a way out: he has to pretend to the world that he is gay and that he was forced into creating the girlfriend to avoid bullying. He won’t seem like such a scumbag and the gay community gets a gay Jackie Robinson.
Act 2: Next there is a comic montage of him learning how to ‘act gay’ from his appointed coach (Neil Patrick Harris). This includes a scene at a bar where he tries to order a beer and is given a finger shake and an apple martini instead, a scene where he tries on jean shorts and is instead given white skinny jeans, and a scene where he is slapped after checking out a girl who walks by. The scene is set to “Wake me up Before you Go Go”. After he is ready he gives an inspirational coming out of the closet speech and is embraced by the world.
Act 3: He is drafted to the Jets, where he becomes a fixture of the Chelsea social scene (despite having a suspicious long-distance boyfriend). Rex Ryan (Wayne Knight) hits on him repeatedly with comments like “great footwork out there today”. Starting Jets quarterback Tim Tebow (Ryan Gosling) comes to Te’o for advice on coming out of the closet. Te’o helps him accept himself, publically come out of the closet, and embrace his destiny as the true gay Jackie Robinson.
Act 4 (THE TWIST): It is revealed that the girlfriend was real after all: she just went into witness protection after being targeted by Hawaiian meth lords (headed by Danny Trejo) who ship their product into the United States in cans of diced pineapples (cue Rick Ross in soundtrack). After a week 17 football game (to get the Jets their first win of the season) and an ensuing shoot-out with the meth lords, Te’o rescues his girlfriend and faces a choice: come out as straight and potentially undo all of the good hes done for the gay community or continue living his secret life. After giving a “Tebow is the hero the gay community needs” speech the movie ends with a newsman reading that Tebow and Te’o are now in a committed relationship. Right before credits, you see that Te’o’s girlfriend, under an assumed identity, has been hired as the general manager of the Jets, where she will always be close by.
now I can't remember where I heard this (if I heard it) or am I making it up. I feel like i heard someone (maybe the AD) saying that in December Teo was thinking about getting back together, AFTER he found out she faked her death?? that's hilarious