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Auckland businesswoman Diane Foreman wants to vet the script of a new play based on Nicky Hager's book about Don Brash's emails and faxes.
Auckland writer Dean Parker has adapted Hager's book The Hollow Men into a drama which will be produced in Wellington in September - with the assistance of a $38,000 taxpayer-funded subsidy from Creative New Zealand.
He has been approached by Mrs Foreman's lawyers seeking a copy of the completed script and warning that anything depicted about her had to be true. They effectively said she could seek an injunction to stop the play if it goes beyond what is in her emails to imagined conversations.
Parker said yesterday he would not hand over a script. "She can buy a ticket like anyone else." But he did say the play was based on the book and he understood that Rima Te Wiata had been cast to play Mrs Foreman.
Dr Brash resigned as National leader just before the book was published in November last year and not long after Labour taunts in the House about Mrs Foreman led to a confrontation in caucus about his private life.
Dr Brash later admitted his marriage of 17 years was in trouble and took time off his parliamentary duties to help to save it. Emails from Mrs Foreman feature in the book, but were publicised long before it was published.
They were leaked shortly before the September 2005 election and detailed advice to Dr Brash in 2003 to help his challenge for the National Party leadership.
