Ruth Wilson (His Dark Materials) will become a mob wife in WarnerMedia’s upcoming limited series Mob Queens, based on the life of Anna Genovese, the wife of crime boss Vito Genovese.
Anna Genovese was Vito’s second wife and when they divorced in the 1950s, she broke Costa Nostra law by detailing his illegal dealings in open court and implicated several mafia members in her testimony. She also ran several nightclubs, gay bars and drag bars in Manhattan during the 1930s and onward with much of the profits being siphoned to Vito’s criminal syndicate. It has been speculated her own sexuality toward women may have been used as blackmail by law enforcement to gain her testimony, something which was also used by the mafia to discredit her.
Mob Queens will “tell Genovese’s story, which also includes her as a fixture in the Village’s drag bar scene in the 1930s.” The series will be based on the Stitcher podcast of the same name from creators and hosts Michael Seligman and Jessica Bendinger which explored and chronicled Genovese’s life story.
Mob Queens is being developed by Lena Dunham (Girls) and Dennis Lehane (Boardwalk Empire) with the pair writing and executive producing with Dunham directing as well. Wilson will also serve as an executive producer through her company Lady Lazarus alongside Ryan Selzer.
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