Papadopouloses to go Hollywood
Docuseries focusing on couple hopes to capitalize on their personal drama
WASHINGTON — When former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos stepped out of a federal prison in Wisconsin this month after serving two weeks for lying to the FBI, he was greeted by his wife, Simona Mangiante Papadopoulos — and a documentary series crew.
It was perhaps inevitable: Now that he has completed his role in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, George Papadopoulos is looking to Hollywood.
A docuseries about the couple is being produced by a Los Angeles-based company that hopes to capitalize on the personal drama surrounding the 31-year-old energy consultant and his Italian wife.
“The story to me is this young couple who falls in love and days later find themselves in the middle of this international scandal,” said executive producer Stephanie Frederic of FGW Productions.
Frederic said the series will examine Papadopoulos’ account of his interactions with the Trump campaign and the FBI, including his recent claims that he was set up by Western intelligence officials opposed to Donald Trump’s election as president.
But, she insisted, the series is not intended to be political.
“I have friends who are angry at me for doing this series,” Frederic said. “I’m not doing this for politics. A good story is a good story. I think they’re a good story.”
The company, whose past credits include A&E’s 2017 six-part docuseries, “Who Killed Tupac?” and the 2016 PBS documentary “Eyes on the Prize: Then and Now,” does not have a distributor for the still-unnamed project.
Frederic said the series will not be a reality show, in which story lines are often scripted, but rather a docuseries following the two as they grapple with their postMueller life. The couple are not being paid to appear in the series but will receive payment for providing photos and other mementos, she said.
Papadopoulos said he and his wife decided to participate in the docuseries because they wanted “a true image of ourselves to be presented for the first time since I was embroiled in the Russia investigation.”
He said the project will follow the couple’s day-today activities, reveal new details about the investigation and focus on his current ambition: running for Congress.
Simona Papadopoulos is planning on pursuing acting and modeling, he said.
The two met in the spring of 2017 through LinkedIn. Both had worked for a London-based think tank run by Maltese professor Joseph Mifsud.
That’s the professor who told George Papadopoulos in 2016 that the Russians had dirt on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the form of thousands of emails, according to court papers.
Papadopoulos’ account of that claim to Australian diplomats in a bar in London in May 2016 helped trigger an FBI counterintelligence investigation into Trump’s campaign.
The couple began a whirlwind romance and were dating by the time Papadopoulos was arrested in July 2017. They married this March, while Papadopoulos awaited sentencing after pleading guilty to lying to the FBI about key details involving his conversations with Mifsud and Russians he met through the professor.
Frederic said the series will address skepticism about their quick romance and questions about Simona Papadopoulos’ background.
The project, still in its early phases, is financed by investors of FGW Productions, Frederic said. She declined to name them but noted none are Russian.
Frederic, a former television anchor who has worked with BET and A&E’s “Biography,” said the crew has already captured moments of high drama — no surprise to anyone who follows the couple on Twitter and tracks their frequent clashes with his parents and online critics.
The cameras were rolling last month as Simona Papadopoulos accompanied her husband as he reported to a federal prison camp in Wisconsin. The young couple argued on the way, Frederic said, adding: “It’s the biggest fight I’ve ever seen on television.”
Simona Papadopoulos said producers told the couple the show is not intended to show them in a good or bad light. “We want people to judge us for who we are,” she said.
“It’s a human story that gives people better understanding of the pressure a federal investigation can cause to a newly married couple,” she added.
She said she and her husband are hoping for a fresh start now that he has completed his prison term. They’ve moved to Los Angeles, where she has been looking for acting gigs, and the couple have been hanging out with new friend Tom Arnold.
Camera crews are set to follow the two until at least February.