Beware, cheaters! The Ashley Madison cheating scandal is heading to the TV screen. A week after Ashley Madison, a website designed to help married men and women find their next affair, was targeted by a secretive group called The Impact Team and possibly ruined over 30 million users' lives (including several reality stars and over 100 ESPN employees), Hollywood is officially announcing how it plans to cash in on the scandal.
OutEast Entertainment partners Steven Marrs and Courtney Hazlett reportedly already started working on ideas for a fictionalized series based on the notorious cheating website, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Jennifer Kennedy and Ian MacDonald will write the project's script, which is ironically titled "Thank You Ashley Madison." As for why Hollywood decided to jump on this latest scandal, Hazlett believes "anytime 30 million people are doing anything, it becomes worthy of a real discussion."
"We are in the early stages of developing a scripted series inspired by the site, which, given the events from the past week, make the themes explored more timely," Marblemedia co-CEO Matt Hornburg told THR.
Although the adultery website was founded by a man named Noel Biderman in 2001, the show would focus instead on a mother who "launches the business to help support her family." Hazlett said having a male at the center of the story was "stereotypical."
"There are a lot of TV shows doing a great job of presenting marriage story lines in new ways, but what we're posting here is, what if there is a third lane to ruin and what if you were honest about it?" said Hazlett. "What if you didn't need a hack to have this conversation? Maybe this is where your life just is, and no shows on television are offering that."
The Ashley Madison scandal doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon, which is bad news for disgraced former "19 Kids and Counting" star Josh Duggar, Christian YouTube star Sam Rader and Josh Taekman, the husband of "The Real Housewives of New York City" star Kristen Taekman. All three men have confessed to signing onto the website, but Duggar is the only one who admitted to cheating on his wife using the site.
