If you’ve never physically shrank at a Hollywood Reporter headline a la a slug getting doused in salt, allow me to change that for you:
To be clear, none of my reaction is Hillary Clinton’s fault. Partially, it’s just that any thought of the alternate timeline in which she’s president leaves a metallic taste in my mouth, probably a mix of longing, disgust and acid reflux. The forthcoming Hulu series will be an adaptation of Curtis Sittenfeld’s horny seventh novel of the same name, and the twist is that she never married Bill. Fine.
The issue is that the novel will be adapted by The Affair’s Sarah Treem, which is an ironic choice: In 2018, Ruth Wilson left her starring role on the show after Treem allegedly created a toxic work environment for the cast. Specifically, Wilson was asked to appear naked in scenes where nudity was unimportant to the plot; occasionally, those scenes struck Wilson as non-consensual. On top of that, extraneous crew were often on set during those shoots.
It would be one thing if Treem took Wilson’s complaints to heart, but based on the op-ed she wrote vigorously defending herself, dismissing Wilson’s concerns and suggesting the actor was being difficult, she did not. As she said at the time, “The idea that I would ever cultivate an unsafe environment or harass a woman on one of my shows is utterly ridiculous and lacks a grounding in reality.”
None of this bodes well for Rodham, the book version of which contains lots….and lots…of sex scenes. Given her defensiveness when it came to Wilson, it’s difficult to imagine working conditions will improve this time around.
According to THR, the series is currently in the development stage, and still needs a formal series order to move on. Maybe between now and then, someone will come to their senses and rethink this whole thing.