*An upcoming limited series from producer Lisa Saltzman will focus on former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos, who used her powerful position to fund a lavish lifestyle.
As Variety reports, the series titled “Chasing Imelda” is based on journalist Katherine Ellison’s biography, “Imelda: Steel Butterfly of the Philippines.” As a strategist and writer, Ellison investigated Imelda’s corruption along with her husband Ferdinand Marcos, which won her the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 1986.
Imelda and Ferdinand Marcos briefly went into exile in the United States after falling from power in 1986. In recent years, the family has made a political comeback. The current Philippine president is Marcos’ son, Bongbong Marcos.
Per Variety, the series “centers around young reporter Kerry Kelper, who while working at the paper in the early 1980s helped uncover millions of dollars in secret U.S. real estate purchases by Imelda Marcos,” the outlet writes.
“Imelda Marcos has fascinated Americans for decades,” Saltzman said in a statement to Variety.
“The new David Byrne show on Broadway is just the latest indication of that. She’s known to many as the Philippines First Lady with hundreds of pairs of shoes, our limited series will show that she was surprisingly also a shrewdly calculating politician who many experts believe was the real and deadly power behind the Marcos dictatorship,” Saltzman added.
“Imelda is a polarizing figure in history, many consider her a symbol of corruption and excess, others view her as a political survivor and advocate for the arts. She considers herself a role model,” Saltzman said.
“I became obsessed with Imelda Marcos after learning how she had seduced a parade of US presidents, diplomats, journalists and celebrities while she was working behind the scenes to grab power over the Philippines,” Ellison added, according to Variety.
“Gloria Steinem once referred to Marilyn Monroe as a ‘female impersonator’ — a quote that has always stuck with me in relation to Imelda. She was beautiful, charming, and towards the end of her reign, many dismissed her as kooky — but all the while she was more scheming and murderous than any First Lady in history,” Ellison said.
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