Katherine Heigl Escapes Polygamy

By Katey Rich: 2008-06-11 17:22:33

The polygamist religious group Fundamentalist Church of the Latter Day Saints has been in the news a whole lot lately, after a raid on the group’s Texas compound resulted in women and children being taken away, only to be returned case. Now there’s a movie in the works about a similar case from a different location of the church, and the person to tackle this serious, heartbreaking issue is… Katherine Heigl? She plans to produce and star in an adaptation of Escape, the memoir by Carolyn Jessop about her life with and eventual escape from the FLDS compound in Utah.

The Variety article says Jessop’s book chronicles her marriage to a 50-year-old man at the age of 18, as well as her testimony against the group’s leader, Warren Jeffs, who is currently serving time in jail for arranging marriages for underage girls. It sounds like a fascinating story, and a timely one too, but is Katherine Heigl really the person to play this part? She may have drama chops I don’t know much about—I’m not sure Grey’s Anatomy counts-- but this seems an awfully big leap for someone who has so recently established herself as any kind of film actress.

Then again, I’m always complaining about there not being enough good roles for women, and Carolyn Jessop sounds like an amazing role model, even if she’ll spend much of the movie as a victim of the various men in her life. And Grey’s Anatomy fans are probably already sharpening their knives and preparing to tell me how Heigl is the greatest actress of our generation. So, OK Heigl! Show us what you can do!

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CRV
June 19, 2008 at 01:24

I don't think she's a media hound at all. At least she isn't a rich celebrity publishing a biography to make more obscene amounts of money. She was living in a trailer and supporting seven kids. The world of polygamy has been a mystery for a long time and I found it very interesting to read about.

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Nicholas
June 18, 2008 at 03:28

Carolyn Jessop seems like a media hound to me. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of the FLDS organization- at all. It just seems weird to cash in on your misery.

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Jan
June 14, 2008 at 03:28

Carolyn Jessop's story is at once amazing and horrifying. I find it abhorrent that young girls in their mid teens are being married off to men two and three times their age; that the FLDS culture (at least the one Carolyn grew up in) beats their children and women, quite literally, into submission; that they take young boys and men who have known no other culture except the FLDS and dumps them on the side of the road like stray dogs to get rid of them, expressly so that the ratio of males to females is such that the older men can have multiple wives.

I bought the unabridged audio book version of "Escape" and was totally mesmerized by it. Just when you think Carolyn's conditions couldn't get any worse, they always did. It was only for the love of her children, in not wanting them to go through the misery, emotional and physical abuse that she had, that she gathered the courage to escape from what she calls a living hell. She tells her story so that the reader can gain an insight into the culture.

I highly suggest this book to everyone and give it two thumbs up.

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RS
June 12, 2008 at 02:23

Carolyn Jessop, whose book spiked a couple of days BEFORE the raid on the FLDS YFZ ranch (figure that one out) is also trying to steal the Trust Fund of the FLDS church. Now Katherine Heigl wants to play the Great Escapee? Carolyn Jessop's own 18 year old daughter returned to the church which shows that women do make choices and it certainly isn't living with escapee mom.

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