Ashley Madison, the dating website for cheaters that was notoriously hacked recently, revealing the names and personal information of many of its more than 30 million users, is being developed into a TV show. The scripted project could be hitting the small screen soon.
Ashley Madison has been on a lot of people's minds lately. Among them are certainly the more than 30 million users of the site whose names and personal details were revealed when hackers posted the information online. Among the users who have already been outed as Ashley Madison subscribers and caught up in the scandal are Josh Duggar of the TLC series 19 Kids And Counting, which had already been canceled due to revelations and allegations that Duggar molested his sisters, along with the husbands of both Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi of MTV fame, and of Bravo's Real Housewives Of New York star Kristen Taekman.
With all these TV stars caught up in the hacking revelations, it seems that an actual TV show about Ashley Madison couldn't be far behind, and, according to a new report, it's not. The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Steven Marrs and Courtney Hazlett, partners in OutEast Entertainment, are pitching a new scripted project based on the notorious website. The show is tentatively titled Thank You Ashley Madison and is being written by Jennifer Kennedy (Justified) and Ian MacDonald for Marblemedia, based in Toronto.
Hazlett says the show will break new ground. "There are a lot of TV shows doing a great job of presenting marriage storylines in new ways," she explains, "but what we're positing here is, what if there is a third lane to run in and what if you were honest about it?" She says that while the hacking may ultimately be addressed in the show, the theme runs deeper. "What if you didn't need a hack to have this conversation? Maybe this is where your life just is, and no shows on television are offering that."
The show may be based on the infamous website, but the producers have opted for their fictional version of the site, which was actually launched by Noel Biderman in 2001, to be started by a female who does so as a means to support her family.
