Strewth, Ruth! That makes THREE Emily Maitlises... if you include the original
ONE of the first rules of journalism is to report the story – not become a part of it.
But that is easier said than done for Emily Maitlis, whose notorious 2019 interview with Prince Andrew has led to her being portrayed by not one but two actresses in dramas about the scoop.
The latest star to be pictured playing the then Newsnight presenter is Luther actress Ruth Wilson. Our image shows her sporting knee-high boots, a short skirt and a blonde bob wig in a scene for Amazon’s show, tipped to be titled A Very Royal Exchange.
It follows images earlier this year of X-Files star Gillian Anderson, 55, dressed in running gear as Maitlis for a Netflix movie of the interview.
Maitlis, 53, famously quizzed the Duke of York on Newsnight about his friendship with paedophile sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
During their car crash exchange, he denied having sex with one of
Epstein’s alleged teenage victims, Virginia Giuffre, then aged 17. He said on one of the days he was claimed to have met her he had been with Princess Beatrice at the Pizza Express in Woking. He also defended staying over at Epstein’s New York home in 2010 after the multi-millionaire had been convicted of sex offences.
The fallout from the interview led to the Duke stepping back from public life and he was stripped of his military affiliations and Royal patronages by Queen Elizabeth.
It’s understood Ms Wilson, 41, will star opposite Michael
Sheen, who will play Andrew in the Amazon drama.
Filming for the Netflix movie began in February. It is based on the book Scoops written by producer Sam McAlister, who secured the Andrew interview for the BBC and was known as ‘booker extraordinaire’ by former colleagues.
Rufus Sewell will star as the Duke of York and Billie Piper as Ms McAlister.
Maitlis, who earned £325,000 a year at the BBC, was last year accused of being ‘unfair’ on Ms McAlister, who is thought to have been paid less than one-tenth of that sum. The dispute stems from an interview Maitlis and Newsnight’s former editor Esme Wren gave Radio Times in 2020, in which they took credit for the scoop.
Ms McAlister was not mentioned once, despite forging a solid bond with Prince Andrew’s aide Amanda Thirsk and meeting her at Buckingham Palace to secure the interview.
‘Stripped of his Royal patronages by the Queen’