madam keeps raking in the awards
DECEMBER 6, 2024
The C21 International Drama Awards just dropped in London, and Madam wins *again* for Best Comedy Drama Series. This makes FIVE major international awards, alongside the Monte Carlo Golden Nymph Awards (Best Creation), the Berlin TV Festival (Best Comedy), the Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival (Best Pilot), and the Asian Academy Creative Awards (Best Comedy Programme).
Unreal, guys. I'm so incredibly proud of the team at Tavake, XYZ Films, and Fifth Season, not to mention the spectacular cast and crew - superstars all!
madam the series coming to australia, hong kong, and the philippines
DECEMBER 3, 2024
Television execs are noticing! Madam has now sold to Australia’s Nine Network, Hong Kong’s Now TV and Philippines’ Lionsgate Play, with more international deals in the works...here's the full story in Variety.
madam launches in australia!!
OCTOBER 17, 2024
The countdown is ON for the Australian book launch and tour for MADAM!! I will be chatting with the fabulous Rachel Griffiths on Tuesday October 29 at 6PM at Readings Emporium, Melbourne, and the next day, October 30 at 6:30PM, I get to sit down with the marvelous Sacha Horler at Better Read Than Dead in Sydney!
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SO EXCITED to meet readers, sign books, and talk about sexy sex work with these incredible women!
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BOOK IN SOON...TICKETS ARE GOING FAST!
madam wins best creation at the 2024 monte carlo television festival!
JUNE 18, 2024
What an incredible win for the whole cast and crew! Our star Rachel Griffiths, along with executive producers Halaifonua "Nua" Finau and Marci Wiseman all walked the blue carpet in fabulous Monte Carlo and brought home the Golden Nymph award for Meilleure Création for MADAM! We were shocked, we were thrilled, we were not surprised at all...because Madam is a groundbreaking show, and we can't wait for the world to share it! Here's the story in the New Zealand Herald.
the true story of madam
to be published by simon & schuster this october !
MAY 21, 2024
What's more exciting than having a fictional TV series made about my life as a madam? Being able to FINALLY tell the TRUE STORY.
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The thing about sex work is, you have to hide all the time. No matter how healthy and ethical you try to be, people still call you a dirty whore. Or, in my case, a pimp.
I emptied myself out with this memoir, working to demonstrate that sex work isn't one thing: it's not traumatized victims, or glamorous courtesans, or even some feminist idyll of sexual empowerment.
For me, it was scary, exciting, and sometimes, ethically confusing. Sex work is all those things and more. It's never been easy to pin down.
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MADAM is the only madam memoir to come from a deciminalized environment, so I can be entirely candid about my experiences without the risk of prosecution. It's also the only madam memoir in the smart phone era, so I include real communications with clients and escorts, giving readers an open, honest window onto the life of a real, working madam. (If you were a worker or a client at The Bach, don't worry—all identities have been cloaked and disguised.)
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It's coming soon, guys! October 2024! You can read more about MADAM here.
madam is nominated for best series at the monte carlo television festival!!
MAY 8, 2024
MADAM, the dark and hilarious ten-part TV series based on my life has been nominated for BEST SERIES at the prestigious Monte Carlo Television Festival!! I helped out as a consulting producer (which means basically I told them a bunch of dirty sexy stories), but this incredible recognition is all due to the brilliant cast and crew, along with the producers at Tavake, Four Knights, XYZ Films, and Fifth Season, who worked their asses off, and it shows!
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Somebody pinch me rachel griffiths is playing me on tv
SEPTEMBER 29, 2023
Rachel Griffiths, the brilliant Australian actress whom I have admired ever since she played the dark/brilliant/twisted character of Brenda on Six Feet Under, is officially playing me on MADAM, the TV show based on those crazy years when I ran an escort agency in Whangarei. I visited the set a few weeks ago, and let me tell you, having 100+ people working on telling your story for television is a wild cocktail of thrilling, humbling, and utterly surreal. The story is fictionalized and most of the details have been changed for television, but the core truths remain untouched: that sex work includes moments of wild comedy, human truth, and deep sadness, that sex work is one way marginalized people can make a decent living and provide for themselves and their loved ones, that decriminalization is the only way to provide a safe environment for sex workers that respects their dignity and human rights.
And the best part? I've read the scripts, and they're f-cking hilarious.
omigurrrd we got funded!
MAY 30, 2022
IT'S OFFICIAL: The New Zealand Film Commission and New Zealand On Air just awarded Tavake / Four Knights Film a *big bag of money* (I believe that's the correct cinematic expression) for MADAME MOM, pitched as:
"An all-American Mom finds herself divorced, unemployed and pregnant in small-town New Zealand and starts an ethical brothel to survive."
(My partner Patrice, who is French, was confused: "What is this 'all-American?' What does this mean? We do not say 'all French.' You are weird." Which, he's not wrong.)
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Anyway, from what I understand about TV so far, getting funded is a VERY BIG DEAL. (Yes that's also an official cinematic expression, contact me for more insider entertainment knowledge!)
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MADAME MOM gets optioned for television!
MARCH 30, 2022
Yep, you heard that right. The story of The Bach, my feminist escort agency in Whangarei, and what a wild ride I lived for those three years, has been optioned for TV and film by XYZ Films in the US and Tavake (DBA Four Knights Film) in New Zealand. It’s still early days yet, but if all goes well, you will soon see someone younger, prettier, and skinnier than me playing Antonia on TV!
In all seriousness, my head’s about to explode with excitement about this project. The pilot script, by Harry McNaughton and Shoshana McCallum, is dark, true, and HILARIOUS. And the production team at Four Knights, led by Tom Hern and Crystal Vaega, well they just GET IT. Not only do they understand all the really important details about New Zealand culture (it’s their home turf, after all!)—but they’re consulting with former ladies of The Bach on content. This means that this show may well be the first one on television to take into account sex workers’ ACTUAL VOICES—rather than parading a bunch of clichés and male fantasies, as so many of them do.
(And in case you were once a client of The Bach, and you’re currently breaking out in a cold sweat, DON'T WORRY: it’s fictionalised.)
You can read the full announcement on Deadline Hollywood.