Real Victim of 'Wolf of Wall Street' Lands Book Deal

Even critics who applauded director Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street admitted the film paid little to no attention to those “bitten” by the titular wolf.

That prompted an impassioned op-ed by Christina McDowell, a woman whose life was impacted by the real wolf, Jordan Belfort. That piece in LA Weekly helped score a memoir deal for McDowell from a major book publisher, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The Simon & Schuster imprint is pitching it as “a classic father/daughter story and a cautionary, yet ultimately positive, tale of starting over” that shows the “consequences not just for one family, but for society as a whole.” McDowell’s story, the publisher says, is a “younger, more innocent, true-life version of Woody Allen’s recent hit film, Blue Jasmine.”

McDowell’s father, Tom Prousalis, got jail time for his connection to Belfort. Her op-ed name checked both Scorsese and star Leonardo DiCaprio for not giving Belfort’s victims their rightful close-up.

Did you think about the cultural message you’d be sending when you decided to make this film? You have successfully aligned yourself with an accomplished criminal, a guy who still hasn’t made full restitution to his victims, exacerbating our national obsession with wealth and status and glorifying greed and psychopathic behavior.