Doreen Mattingly's "A Feminist in the White House," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: A Feminist in the White House: Midge Costanza, the Carter Years, and America's Culture Wars by Doreen Mattingly.

The entry begins:

A Feminist in the White House details the political life of a real person, Margaret “Midge” Costanza, the first female assistant to a president. For the first 20 months of the Carter Administration (1977-81) she was Carter’s “window on America.” Midge was a feisty, funny, big-hearted, short (5’) Sicilian-American politician from upstate New York. Casting her is more an issue of capturing her likeness than of interpreting her character, so she would have to be played by an Italian-American actor who shares her fighting spirit and diminutive height. Janeane Garofalo is my first choice, given her progressive politics and acerbic wit (also she is just 5’1”). If we leave aside the height requirement, Marisa Tomei shares the Sicilian roots and is famously capable of talking tough and Edie Falco is a strong Democrat and a great actor. My friends assure me that the perfect person is...[read on]

Learn more about A Feminist in the White House at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: A Feminist in the White House.

My Book, The Movie: A Feminist in the White House.

--Marshal Zeringue