NEED TO KNOW
Aubrey Plaza will play Heidi Fleiss, otherwise known as the Hollywood madam, in an upcoming movie.
According to Variety, the Emmy-nominated actress, 41, will star in The Heidi Fleiss Story and serve as producer through her company Evil Hag. It marks Plaza’s first major project since the death of her husband Jeff Baena, who died in January at age 47.
Fleiss ran an upscale prostitution ring in Los Angeles and was arrested on multiple charges, including pandering, eventually being convicted and serving prison time on federal charges of tax evasion. Leah Rachel, creator of Netflix’s Chambers, will make her directorial debut with the biopic, co-writing it alongside Rachel Sennott and Travis Jackson, per Variety.
“Their take on the tabloid sensation follows Fleiss before trial, scrambling around Los Angeles trying to blackmail and leverage various connections to get the case dropped, with the help of an aspiring young writer named Jaclyn,” Variety reports.
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Plaza had a busy year of screen work in 2024, with starring roles in My Old Ass, Megalopolis, Agatha All Along and more. After appearing in Ethan Coen’s Honey Don’t! (in theaters Aug. 22), she’ll produce and appear in Susan Sarandon film The Accompanist and TV adaptation Olga Dies Dreaming, and voice characters in The Ark and the Aardvark and Animal Friends.
Following Baena’s death by suicide, the Parks and Recreation actress and her late husband’s family shared a statement with PEOPLE. “This is an unimaginable tragedy. We are deeply grateful to everyone who has offered support. Please respect our privacy during this time,” it read.
Plaza — who had been separated from Baena since September 2024 — paid tribute to him on the SNL50: The Anniversary Special in February by wearing a tie-dye shirt, an apparent nod to their 2021 wedding. She reemerged in May at the Cannes Film Festival to promote the premiere of Honey Don’t!
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Fleiss’ life last hit the screen in 2004 TV movie Call Me: The Rise and Fall of Heidi Fleiss with Jamie-Lynn Sigler in the title role. Per Variety, the new Heidi Fleiss Story will begin filming in Los Angeles in the coming months.
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 or go to 988lifeline.org.
