- Share this article on Facebook
- Share this article on Twitter
- Share this article on Flipboard
- Share this article on Email
- Show additional share options
- Share this article on Linkedin
- Share this article on Pinit
- Share this article on Reddit
- Share this article on Tumblr
- Share this article on Whatsapp
- Share this article on Print
- Share this article on Comment
Christina McDowell, whose father Tom Prousalis went to prison for his involvement with Wolf of Wall Street swindler Jordan Belfort, is penning a memoir, publisher Gallery Books announced.
The Simon & Schuster imprint is pitching it as “a classic father/daughter story and a cautionary, yet ultimately positive, tale of starting over” that shows the “consequences not just for one family, but for society as a whole.” McDowell’s story, the publisher says, is a “younger, more innocent, true-life version of Woody Allen‘s recent hit film, Blue Jasmine.”
The book will be based on on an open letter she wrote in December 2013, criticizing the hit Leonardo DiCaprio-Martin Scorsese film for glorifying Belfort’s crimes. She slammed both the star and director by name and asked people not to see the movie:
“Yet you’re glorifying it — you who call yourselves liberals. You were honored for career excellence and for your cultural influence by the Kennedy Center, Marty. You drive a Honda hybrid, Leo. Did you think about the cultural message you’d be sending when you decided to make this film? You have successfully aligned yourself with an accomplished criminal, a guy who still hasn’t made full restitution to his victims, exacerbating our national obsession with wealth and status and glorifying greed and psychopathic behavior. And don’t even get me started on the incomprehensible way in which your film degrades women, the misogynistic, ass-backwards message you endorse to younger generations of men.”
In the letter, McDowell, who was in high school at the time, detailed how her father had lied to her and how his conviction had personally left her more than $100,000 in debt.
The memoir is scheduled for spring 2015 publication.
The book is the first acquisition for Gallery’s new executive editor Alison Callahan. McDowell was represented by Peter McGuigan at Foundry Literary + Media.
Related Stories
Related Stories
THR Newsletters
Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day