The streaming service Hulu has declined the opportunity to create Rodham, a TV series based on the 2020 Curtis Sittenfeld novel and adapted for the screen by Sarah Treem. But 20th Century Television will continue to shop the project which stars Claire Danes and Dakota Fanning playing Clinton at different ages.
Actress Edie Falco portrayed Clinton in Impeachment: An American Crime Story for FX Network, which aired in 2019. But Rodham would approach the subject of Hillary Clinton from an entirely different perspective.
Variety:
“Rodham” — published in May 2020, and a New York Times bestseller — imagined an alternative universe in which Hillary Rodham Clinton met and dated Bill Clinton at Yale Law School, but never married him. Instead of the life Clinton has actually led, in “Rodham,” she goes on to thrive as a Northwestern University professor, and launches an eventual presidential run in 2016. Real-world events — such as rape accusations against Bill Clinton, and Donald Trump as a significant figure in politics — also play out in Sittenfeld’s novel, but in vastly altered ways.
Hillary Clinton would have been an obscure professor — perhaps at Northwestern but more likely at Bryn Mawr or Wellesley — and never sniffed national power if she had never married Bill Clinton. It’s not to say that Hillary couldn’t have succeeded in her life without Bill. But like most leftists and feminists, Sittenfeld fails to see the symbiotic relationship between Bill and Hillary — the couple — that made them an unbeatable and winning combination.
In short, they were more powerful together than they ever would have been separate.
The beauty of Alternative History in Rodham, is that Hillary actually wins the 2016 election. Also, 9/11 never happened and McCain won the 2000 and 2004 elections. You can create all kinds of fantasies to justify your take on alternate history. That’s why it’s so popular on the left.
As for showrunner Treem, we can expect a lot of gratuitous nudity and sex if her work on The Affair is any indication.
Primetimer:
A Hollywood Reporter article last December accused Treem of creating a hostile work environment with sex scenes on The Affair that led to Ruth Wilson’s exit. Treem’s Affair past is important because she’s adapting Curtis Sittenfeld novel Rodham, which imagines what would’ve happened if Hillary Rodham never married Bill Clinton and contains numerous sex scenes. “Specifically, Wilson was asked to appear naked in scenes where nudity was unimportant to the plot; occasionally, those scenes struck Wilson as non-consensual,” says Lauren Evans. “On top of that, extraneous crew were often on set during those shoots.
We should pray that she takes it easy on including those soft porn scenes. Has she seen Hillary lately? Sheesh.
Source: PJ Media
