German Star Alexandra Neldel Joins Guttenberg Biopic

COLOGNE, Germany – One of Germany’s biggest television stars has joined a biopic about the fall of one of the country’s biggest political hopefuls.

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Alexandra Neldel, the star of Germany’s version of Ugly Betty and a huge small screen draw here, has signed on to play Stephanie Guttenberg, the wife of disgraced German politician Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, in a new biopic looking at Guttenberg’s sudden rise and even more rapid fall.

Guttenberg, the former German Defense Minister, was Germany’s most popular politician until a plagiarism scandal brought him down.  Last year, German newspapers revealed that Guttenberg had plagiarized much of his doctoral thesis. After initially denying the accusations, Guttenberg resigned from all political offices. Guttenberg’s wife Stephanie was also a prominent public figure in Germany and co-hosted a controversial reality TV show similar to NBC’s To Catch A Predator.

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Neldel’s work includes the hugely successful miniseries The Wandering Whore, which drew nearly 10 million viewers on its debut on German commercial network Sat.1. Now Sat.1 has commissioned a television biopic on Guttenberg’s rise and fall. Teamworx, whose credits include the Bafta-nominated The Sinking of the Laconia (2010), will produce.

Teamworx are still casting the actor who will play Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg but have cast veteran actress Katharina Thalbach in the role of Guttenberg’s longtime political supporter, German Chancellor Angela Merkel.