Broadway favorite Vanessa Williams will be the subject of an upcoming limited TV series from producer Neil Meron for Sony Pictures Television, according to a report in Deadline.
The series will center on an early-career scandal for Williams that saw nude photographs of the then-reigning Miss America—the pageant's first-ever Black winner—published in Penthouse Magazine without Williams' consent. Williams was forced to resign the honor in the fallout. In the years since, the scandal and its media coverage have come under new and clearer-eyed scrutiny, with the pageant finally apologizing to Williams in 2015.
Meron—who with late producing partner Craig Zadan is responsible for much of modern theatrical screen projects, including the film adaptation of Chicago and TV musicals Annie, The Sound of Music Live, and Cinderella—will executive produce with Stephen Roseberry, Jon Carrasco, and Steve Glick of Encore Endeavor 1 and entertainment attorney Martin Singer.
Williams is involved with the project, though her exact role is unclear. The stage and screen star is a longtime client of Singer and Sterling Winters Company, the latter of which shares a parent company with Encore Endeavor 1.
Williams, who was primarily pursuing a career as a stage performer before being thrust into a global spotlight as Miss America, was most recently seen on Broadway in last season's POTUS, with earlier Broadway appearances including Kiss of the Spider Woman, Into the Woods (for which she received a Tony nomination), Sondheim On Sondheim, The Trip to Bountiful, and After Midnight. She's a three-time Emmy nominee for her work on Ugly Betty and also starred in Desperate Housewives.
