Diane Lane to Play Hillary Clinton in New NBC Miniseries
Diane Lane scored an Oscar nomination for being "Unfaithful"; now we'll see how she plays the other side of that coin.
The actress will star as former First Lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a new NBC miniseries, the network announced at Saturday's Television Critics Association tour. The four-hour miniseries, written and directed by Courtney Hunt ("Frozen River"), doesn't have an air date yet, and the key role of Hillary's husband Bill Clinton has yet to be cast. But the story will begin in 1998, right in the heart of the scandal surrounding President Clinton's extramarital liaison with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
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This isn't the first time a Hollywood actress has played Hillary. In fact, Julianne Moore, who won an Emmy last year for playing Sarah Palin in "Game Change," was slated to play Clinton in the 2010 HBO movie "The Special Relationship," but had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts; Hope Davis eventually played the role. And it wasn't exactly Hillary, but Emma Thompson played a long-suffering politician's wife opposite John Travolta in 1998's thinly veiled Clinton comedy "Primary Colors."
One possible hiccup with the miniseries: Hillary is still mulling a 2016 presidential bid of her own, so depending on when it airs, political opponents might accuse NBC of running a de facto campaign ad for her. But NBC entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt isn't worried: "She's not going to probably declare for another two years, so this could well have aired before that."
Check out all the stars coming out for this summer's Television Critics Association press tour: