Noel Biderman - S 2015
AP ImagesNoel Biderman‘s affair with Hollywood is over.
The former Ashley Madison CEO has left a TV project based on his hacked adultery website. “All of the other development for the series is moving forward according to our original plans, but at this point, Noel (Biderman) won’t be involved,” Mark Bishop, co-CEO and executive producer at Marblemedia, told The Hollywood Reporter about the decision to kick Biderman to the curb.
The owner of the embattled infidelity website, Avid Life Media, has also parted ways with Biderman. The company on Monday also denied it will shut down after a devastating hack and claimed it continues to add users.
“Recent media reports predicting the imminent demise of Ashley Madison are greatly exaggerated,” Avid Life Media said in a statement. “Despite having our business and customers attacked, we are growing,” it added.
Meanwhile, Toronto-based Marblemedia has teamed up with Los Angeles-based OutEast Entertainment and partners Steven Marrs and Courtney Hazlett to produce the in-development drama, tentatively titled Thank You Ashley Madison, and written by Jennifer Kennedy (Justified) and Ian MacDonald.
Biderman last year told THR that the scripted drama inspired by Ashley Madison users would feature a character modeled on himself. “Here we are, this corporation run by a married guy with a family who himself has all these challenges in marriage and is helping millions of people have affairs,” he said.
But now Biderman is considered too toxic even for a scripted drama about no-strings-attached sex. That’s after Biderman last week exited Avid Life Media after the hack and releases of emails exposed the identity of website account holders and sensitive corporate data.
Marblemedia and OutEast continue development on the TV project, which will see a fictionalized infidelity website led by a good mother who launches the company to help support her family. Meanwhile, Avid Life Media, which replaces Biderman as an executive producer on the TV project while the former CEO consults, also took issue on Monday with media reports indicating the site was filled with fake female accounts.
The company in its statement said a reporter made “incorrect assumptions” about leaked data about account holders. “This reporter concluded that the number of active female members on Ashley Madison could be calculated based on those assumptions. That conclusion was wrong,” Avid Life Media said, adding it had signed up 87,596 women users in the last week.
