Rose Leiman Goldemberg, the playwright and Emmy-nominated TV writer who was behind the telefilms The Burning Bed , starring Farrah Fawcett , and Stone Pillow , starring Lucille Ball , died Monday in Cape May, New Jersey, a publicist announced. She was 97. The Staten Island native also penned Letters Home , a 1980 play about famed poet Sylvia Plath that has been translated and produced all over the world and was filmed for television in 1986.
Her telefilm résumé included 1976’s The Land of Hope ; 1980’s Mother and Daughter: The Loving War , starring Tuesday Weld and Frances Sternhagen ; 1982’s Born Beautiful , starring Erin Gray and Polly Bergen; 1985’s Florence Nightingale , starring Jaclyn Smith, and The Booth , starring Teri Garr ; and 1989’s Dark Holiday , starring Lee Remick. Goldemberg adapted The Burning Bed , which aired in October 1984 on NBC, from the 1980 book written by battered housewife Francine Hughes, who wound up on trial for the murder of her abusive ex-husband, “Mickey” Hughes. Named the No.
7 TV drama of all time by critic Matt Zoller Seitz, The Burning Bed sparked public discussion about women’s abuse. And as Francine, former Charlie’s Angels star Fawcett demonstrated that she could be a serious drama actress. The telefilm earned Goldemberg two Emmy nominations (she also served as co-producer) and won the WGA award for best dramatic adaptation.
In the 1985 CBS telefilm Stone Pillow , Ball shed her comedic roots to star as an elderly h.