Heidi Fleiss Snubs Aubrey Plaza Biopic: “No One Can Do What I Did”
Jaden Patel checking in with the kind of silver-screen regret you might expect from someone who rebuilt her life around bird rescues.
Let’s all take a moment to pretend we’re surprised: former Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss has publicly declared she won’t watch the upcoming biopic starring Aubrey Plaza. In a Wednesday chat with TMZ, Fleiss, best known for orchestrating an upscale 1990s escort ring, said she respects Plaza’s chops but insists “no one can do what I did” and that she considers her own past to be firmly closed.
Variety dropped the casting news that Plaza, 41, will lead and produce The Heidi Fleiss Story through her company Evil Hag. According to the trade, the film, directed by Leah Rachel in her feature debut and co-written by Rachel Sennott and Travis Jackson, traces Fleiss’s pre-trial scramble through Los Angeles as she allegedly tries to leverage connections and intimidate witnesses alongside an aspiring writer named Jaclyn.
Fleiss told TMZ she’s seen Plaza’s work in The White Lotus Season 2 and thinks she’s talented, but refused to collaborate or even peek at trailers. “The past is dead to me,” Fleiss said. TMZ also confirmed she’s not attached in any official capacity. Variety noted this will be Plaza’s first major on-screen role since her husband Jeff Baena died by suicide in January, adding a layer of personal gravity to the production.
The story picks up where Fleiss’s real life did when she was arrested in 1993 for pandering and tax evasion. After being dubbed the “Hollywood Madam,” she served 20 months of a seven-year sentence following a high-profile sting that involved celebrities like Charlie Sheen. She later inspired a 2004 TV movie, Call Me: The Rise and Fall of Heidi Fleiss, starring Jamie-Lynn Sigler.
In a December interview with People Magazine, Fleiss revealed she now lives on a ranch in Pahrump, Nevada, where she focuses on rescuing caged birds. “I lived a life of adventure and excitement, but out of my whole life, the most beautiful thing I ever experienced was watching these birds go from solitary confinement to freedom,” she said. It’s a far cry from Los Angeles courtrooms and tabloid headlines, but it seems she has found her version of redemption.
Production on The Heidi Fleiss Story is set to begin later this year in Los Angeles. Plaza’s team promises to unpack the legal and moral roller coaster that defined Fleiss’s rise and fall. If Fleiss won’t watch, the rest of us will at least have popcorn ready to see how Plaza tackles such a notorious role.
Well, there you have it. Tune in next time for more courtroom capers and celebrity plot twists.
Sources: Celebrity Storm and TMZ, Variety, People Magazine, New York Post
Attribution: Creative Commons Licensed
