When I read the news that Fox planned to do a drama based on
Cathy Lanier, I had only one thought. Who?
Turns out that Lanier has made quite a splash in Washington, D.C., where she’s the new chief of police for the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia (MPDC). Lanier’s story certainly sounds like the stuff of television drama — she’s a 39-year-old single mother who dropped out of high school in ninth grade because she was pregnant. As any good protagonist would do, she pressed on, got her GED and eventually obtained a B.A. and M.A. from Johns Hopkins, earned an advanced degree from Naval Postgraduate School and attended the JFK School of Government at Harvard. She also graduated from the FBI Academy and the DEA Drug Unit Commanders Academy. Whew.
Lanier is MPDC’s first permanent female police chief, leading a 3,800-member department that is predominately black and male. Staying on the job hasn’t been easy, especially in the early ’90s when she joined the force. She endured “unrelenting harassment from male officers,” eventually filing a sexual harassment suit — which she won.
So far, according to The Washington Post, Lanier hasn’t been contacted about the project. But that hasn’t stopped speculation about who should be cast as the chief. The Post suggested The Departed’s Vera Farmiga.
Or a woman I’d love to see in a lead role, Laura Dern.
DCist, noting the physical similarities, recommends Carmela Soprano
Edie Falco.
Perhaps the part of Lanier could mark the return of Laura Innes to television.
Or a crush I haven’t seen in awhile, Jayne Brook.
Who do you see in this role? Any AfterEllen.com readers from D.C.? What do you think of a drama based on Cathy Lanier? Would this be a better series or TV movie?
