Is Hillary Clinton turning to TV production to boost her net worth?
After running against Donald Trump in 2016, a lot of people wondered: what’s next for Hillary Clinton? Well, it seems as though she has a couple things in store for the coming year. Is she taking an unexpected venture into TV production? And what will that do for her net worth? Here’s everything we know so far.
Their new project
Hillary Clinton and her daughter Chelsea acquired a new TV show via their production company, HiddenLight Productions. The show will be based on Gayle Tzemach Lemmon’s The Daughters of Kobani: A Story of Rebellion, Courage, and Justice.
The novel, which is slated to be published on February 16th by Penguin Press, tells the story of the all-female Kurdish militia who fought – and won – against ISIS in Northern Syria. Lemmon’s book is based on interviews and on-the-ground reporting, and promises to be both riveting & revealing.
Why this adaptation?
When asked why The Daughters of Kobani, in particular, caught her eye, Hillary Clinton told The Hollywood Reporter: “The Daughters of Kobani is an extraordinary account of brave, defiant women fighting for justice and equality. We created HiddenLight to celebrate heroes – sung and unsung alike – whose courage is too often overlooked, and we could not be more thrilled to bring this inspiring story to viewers around the world.”
Lemmon added she believes HiddenLight will be the perfect home for her novel. “No one has fought harder than Sec. Clinton to lift the voices of women around the world and to shine a light on the lives of women fighting each day for their futures.”
She added that Clinton is “a true trailblazer, and there is no better partner to bring The Daughters of Kobani and this story of the women who broke ISIS to the screen than HiddenLight”.
Who is author Gayle Tzemach Lemmon?
Gayle Tzemach Lemmon is a celebrated author who has earned two New York Times best-seller titles with The Dressmaker of Khair Khana (2011) and Ashley’s War (2015).
Lemmon was raised in Greenbelt, Maryland, and, after earning her BA in journalism from the University of Missouri, worked in the ABC News Political Unit. There, she covered politics and policy issues.
Lemmon’s journalism was first brought into the spotlight when she authored Tina Brown’s Newsweek cover on Hillary Clinton’s attempt to include more women in U.S. foreign policy. After that, Lemmon wrote about entrepreneurs in Afghanistan, child marriage, and women in the military.
In 2013, Lemmon wrote about how the military did not pay death benefits to soldiers who were killed in action during the government shutdown. This exposeé caught the eye of the Pentagon and White House, causing Fisher House to pay the benefits until the shutdown ended.
Currently, she serves as an adjunct senior fellow for the Council on Foreign Relations. She has also been published by the World Bank, Harvard Business School, The Financial Times, the Harvard Business Review, CNN, and others.
HiddenLight Productions
HiddenLight Productions was created in December by Hillary & Chelsea Clinton alongside Sam Branson. The intention of the company was to create documentary, unscripted, and scripted content that discusses social issues.
HiddenLight’s first project is a docuseries based on Hilary & Chelsea Clinton’s 2019 book: The Book of Gusty Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience. The book presents vignettes of brave, powerful women, including Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Mary Ritter Beard, Harriet Tubman, Edith Windsor, and Malala Yousafzai. The production ultimately landed at Apple.
The production company is overseen by CEO Johnny Webb and executive chair Roman Khanna. They are also teaming up in the future with Steven Spielberg for a women’s voting anthology.
