The Coulda Been King's Speech.

In the NY Times Sunday Book Review, Liesl Shillinger reviews a new bio of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, by Anne Sebba, who upends the whole chess board in her depiction of the Woman He Loved (He being Edward VIII).  Shillinger says the account leaves intact traditional notions of Simpson, that she was a "temptress, social climber, tactless boor, gold digger.  But she is granted another that, in light of this substantial new evidence, seems to make her a little more palatable:  helpless pawn."

In this version of Simpson's story, the powers surrounding the throne "regarded Edward VIII as unstable, irresponsible and dangerously well disposed to Nazi Germany," and so conspired to convince him that his marriage to Simpson would make him ineligible for the throne, when in fact "the basis of the constitutional threat was shaky."

Eward's obsession with the married Simpson was distinctly lopsided; Simpson's husband didn't mind the affair as both he and his wife "were eager to profit from the social boost it gave them.   Neither had expected the affair to take a serious turn, Sebba writes, but they were powerless to resist once the king made up his mind." 

Well, Streep already looks a bit like Simpson, but she's too old--unless the movie version will be an extended flashback with the couple doddering around the Continent in their dotage, a la Streep's recent Iron Lady with Dementia....So who should play Wallis Simpson in time for Harvey Weinstein  to rustle up the Coulda Been King (and Queen) Thank You Speeches from the 2014 Oscar podium?

Here's the link to the review:  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/books/review/that-woman-by-anne-sebba.html?pagewanted=1&ref=books