Nancy Ziegenmeyer hardly seemed like the sort of woman to be the subject of a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper series, the author of a book and the subject of a made-for-television movie.
But then she was raped.Unfortunately, that didn't make Ziegenmeyer different from an enormous number of American women who've suffered similar attacks. But her later actions did.
After reading an editorial in the Des Moines Register that espoused the view that rape would remain a shadowy, embarrassing crime until the victims began to come forward, the Iowa native agreed to a series of interviews - and to the paper's using both her real name and her picture.
"The stigma is that one thinks one can't speak it, because if you speak it and say you were raped this dark cloud is above you. And you should be ashamed personally of the fact that you were once raped," Ziegenmeyer said. "As opposed to if you were robbed, or if you were this or if you were that."
The ensuing response, which was overwhelmingly positive, has led Ziegenmeyer into the role as an advocate for victims' rights. And into the role as the model for CBS's "Taking Back My Life: The Nancy Ziegenmeyer Story," which airs Sunday at 8 p.m. on Ch. 5.
Although there are flaws in the script - it loses something in the translation from Ziegenmeyer's book - Emmy-winning actress Patricia Wettig ("thirtysomething") pulls the movie through with an extraordinary performance. Wet-tig brings Ziegenmeyer to life as a real woman with real problems who, nonetheless, rises above them to help others.
Ziegenmeyer herself is extraordinarily honest, not even flinching at revealing her own problems. That's something the movie's producers noticed immediately.
"We met a woman who, right off the bat, said, `Well, I've got a past. I left my husband. I ran off with another man.' And then she started telling us about herself," said executive producer Larry Lyttle. "And what emerged . . . was a story about a woman who was less than perfect. Less than a television archetype."
Indeed. Ziegenmeyer is a woman with a past. As "Taking Back My Life" opens, she's divorcing her husband and running off with a boyfriend. Six weeks later she was back, begging forgiveness.
Although Nancy and her now ex-husband, Stephen, are living as man and wife, they are not married when she's raped just a matter of weeks later.
The point here is that rape is a crime of violence that no victim deserves, no matter what she's done in the past.
The rape itself is portrayed as a terrifying experience for Ziegen-meyer but is not exploitative or graphic. In later courtroom scenes, graphic language is used in testimony about the attack.
Although not fully explored in the telefilm, "Taking Back My Life" also relates the frustrations Ziegenmeyer felt with the judicial system - her surprise that the accused, but not the victim, has a lawyer, her impatience with endless delays, her feeling of being left out of "her" case.
This is not just another "woman-in-jeopardy" movie
"It's a story of one woman finding her voice, growing up and finding the courage to go on with a life after something very bad has happened to her," Ziegenmeyer said.THE TRUTH: Sometimes it's better not to read the book before you see the movie.
Such was the case with "Taking Back My Life."
Here was a true story full of conflict and drama and overcoming a terrible event. But that wasn't enough for Hollywood.
No, they had to throw in some fictional conflict to spice things up.
Obviously, a two-hour TV movie will have to condense the events in a book. Shift things around a bit. Create composite characters.
But after reading Ziegenmeyer's book, it's almost unbearable to see her husband, Stephen, portrayed as anything less than completely supportive.
The movie makes it appear that Stephen opposed his wife's efforts on behalf of other rape victims. That he disapproved of her radio and television appearances.
In fact, Ziegenmeyer wrote in her book that Steven was not only fully supportive but accompanied her to some of her appearances.
Ziegenmeyer herself put it this way: "Two months earlier I had divorced him and gone to another state and lived with another man for six weeks. I had decided that I wanted to come home. I wanted to be with Stephen. I came home. He never stopped loving me. He allowed me to move back into the house.
"I decided to take these classes. I was raped. We'd only been back together for, like, three weeks. I thought (the rape) was going to the straw that broke the camel's back. I had given the man every reason before to leave me, and I truly expected him to do it this time.
"But he didn't. He supported me and helped me find my way back."
If the fictional account had made the story better, that might be at least some justification for the change. But it didn't.
Sometimes it's just hard to understand what television writers and/or producers are thinking.COMING FORWARD: While Ziegenmeyer believes it's healthy for rape victims to come forward, she also believes the victims' names should be revealed only with their consent.
"In the original editorial (the Register) said that sunshine is the best disinfectant," she said. "I think we have to remember . . . that too much sunshine burns."
Ziegenmeyer lobbied on behalf of a victims' rights bill in Iowa that withholds victims' names, unless they agree to release them.