Oprah Sells 'Sexually Charged' Show to HBO

The Hollywood trade newspaper Variety [1] reports that Oprah Winfrey has a surprising project in the works. Her Harpo Films has made a deal with HBO to team on "a sexually charged hourlong series pilot about a woman who leaves her seemingly perfect marriage and children in Santa Monica for the underbelly of L.A., where she indulges her secret fantasies and desires."

The adultery-and-child-abandonment plot is being written by Erin Cressida Wilson, best known for writing the 2002 indie film "Secretary," which starred James Spader and Maggie Gyllenhaal film in "the story of a boss-secretary relationship that veers into S&M."

Winfrey and Harpo Films president Kate Forte will be executive producers along with Wilson: 

"It is unsentimental and pretty shocking, and there is something complicated and destructive driving her," Forte said.

"It is literally a day at the pool, where she gets up, in sarong and flip-flops, and walks out of her life, leaving everyone behind so abruptly that her husband and kids initially think she's been kidnapped or murdered."

Harpo Films previously set at HBO "Ida Tarbell," a miniseries about the radical-left muckraker who labored to expose unfair business practices by John D. Rockefeller and his Standard Oil monopoly.

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