Replies

On CBS in May: Terri TV movie

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43617

Network to rush biopic to little screen for sweeps

April 2, 2005

CBS is rushing a Terri Schiavo TV movie into production so that it can air the biopic during the May ratings sweeps.

There is no word on whether the network has secured the cooperation of either the Schindler family, Terri's parents and siblings, or Michael Schiavo, her estranged husband.

There are reports Michael Schiavo is entertaining offers of book, movie and TV deals for Terri's story. Industry sources say Schiavo is likely to be offered up to $2 million for a book deal and up to $2 million for a movie or TV deal.

CBS' Terri story reportedly will feature "Felicity" star Keri Russell to star as America’s tragic heroine and Dean Cain of "Lois and Clark" as the husband who relentlessly seeks an end to her life.

Terri Schiavo was the brain-injured Florida woman at the center of an intense euthanasia battle played out on an international stage. She died Thursday 9 a.m. Eastern time after 13 days of court-ordered starvation.

The news came shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected yet another appeal by her parents, Robert and Mary Schindler.

The Schindlers had pleaded with son-in-law Michael Schiavo to allow them to be with their daughter in her final hours, but according to family spokesmen, they were not present when she died.

The decision by the Supreme Court not to intervene was the sixth since 2000. The emergency request argued the federal courts did not consider whether there was enough "clear and convincing" evidence that Terri Schiavo had expressed a wish not to live in her current condition. The trial court in Pinellas County, Fla., determined she was in a persistent vegetative state. The Schindlers countered that assessment with statements from neurologists who claimed she was in a "minimally conscious state," able to respond to stimuli.

Terri Schiavo's life-sustaining feeding tube was removed by court order March 18 after a decade of bitter legal wrangling between Michael Schiavo and the Schindlers, who insisted their daughter had a strong will to live.

Her body was taken to the Pinellas County medical examiner's officer for an autopsy. It then will be cremated and interred in Pennsylvania, according to Michael Schiavo's wishes.