Melissa McCarthy as Lee Israel

Melissa McCarthy has landed the role of Lee Israel - based on a real person - in the upcoming film  “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” based on Israel's 2008 memoir.

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According to The Wrap, "Israel was a successful biographer during her heyday in the ’70s and ’80s, writing tomes on cosmetics empress Estée Lauder and actress Tallulah Bankhead. Her career stagnated in the years following, with a resurgence in the ’90s after unearthing never-seen letters from icons like Dorothy Parker and Noël Coward.Except they weren’t from Parker or Coward. Israel forged them all." 
The Wrap also confirms that Marielle Heller (“The Diary of a Teenage Girl”) directed from a script by Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty.

 Julianne Moore was previously attached, so it's nice to see McCarthy step into a role that was not specifically written for a plus size character.

-- Yael Tygiel
Twitter @yaeltygiel
​Instagram @thefatgirlshow