Lilly Ledbetter's story to be made into a movie
A movie is in the works about Lilly Ledbetter, the former Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant supervisor who inspired the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, her lawyer told Alabama Live. It has not been cast yet, but it is being produced and directed by Rachel Feldman, whose directing credits include TV episodes of Picket Fences and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.
Feldman “understands how it is to be a woman and be discriminated against, and after talking to her, Lilly Ledbetter decided she would be the perfect person to push this forward and make it into a movie,” said Jon Goldbarb, Ledbetter’s attorney.
Ledbetter held the supervisor position with Goodyear from 1979 to 1998, and during that time she earned significantly less than her male colleagues. She later sued, and won a $3.8 million verdict. It was ultimately overturned—which the U.S Supreme Court upheld in 2007—because she missed the filing deadline. In a dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg urged Congress to change the law, and they did, amending the Civil Rights Act so the statute of limitations for pay discrimination suits resets with each new paycheck affected by a discriminatory act.
