Lifetime is bringing viewers new movies based on real-life crimes in 2023. The network’s upcoming “Ripped From the Headlines” lineup includes films based on the life of a controversial religious leader, a California mom who staged her own kidnapping, and a novelist who plotted to murder her husband.
‘How to Murder Your Husband: The Nancy Brophy Story’ airs Jan. 14
She wrote about romance, she wrote about storytelling and she wrote about mystery — and nearly seven years after she wrote an essay titled "How to Murder Your Husband," 68-year-old Nancy Crampton Brophy allegedly did just that. https://t.co/BordWzdrlm
— WDTN (@WDTN) September 12, 2018Sometimes, truth really is stranger than fiction. That’s certainly the case with Nancy Crampton-Brophy, a romance author who murdered her husband in 2018. The twist? Several years before killing Daniel Brophy, she wrote an essay titled “How to Murder Your Husband.” In the essay, she discussed various motives for killing one’s spouse, as well as possible ways to carry out the act. A jury convicted her in May 2022. She was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Cybill Shepherd plays Crampton-Brophy in Lifetime’s take on the story, titled How to Murder Your Husband: The Nancy Brophy Story. It airs Saturday, Jan. 14 at 8 p.m. ET.
Lifetime’s second movie about Jodi Arias airs Jan. 21
The Jodi Arias case has captivated true-crime aficionados for years. Her 2013 trial for the 2008 murder of her boyfriend, Travis Alexander, was a media sensation, and Lifetime has already made one movie about the crime, Jodi Arias: Dirty Little Secret. Now, a second Lifetime movie about Arias is in the works.
Jodi Arias: Bad Behind Bars, stars Celina Sinden as Arias. It focuses on the period after Arias’s arrest while she is in jail awaiting trial. She befriends a couple, Donovan Bering and Tracy Brown, who are incarcerated alongside her. Donovan and Tracy fall under Arias’s spell. At first, Donovan speaks out in defense of Arias, but eventually, she realizes her friend’s stories don’t add up. The movie airs Saturday, Jan. 21 at 8 p.m. ET.
The Sherri Papini kidnapping hoax gets the made-for-TV movie treatment
In early November 2016, Sherri Papini vanished while on a jog near her home in Redding, Calif. Three weeks later, she reappeared, spinning a tale about how she’d been abducted and abused by two Hispanic women. An extensive search was conducted for the kidnappers, but they were never found. Then, years later, came a bombshell revelation. Papini had staged her own kidnapping. She was eventually sentenced to 18 months in prison for the hoax.
Jaime King plays Papini in Lifetime’s Hoax: The Kidnapping of Sherri Papini. Matt Hamilton plays Papini’s husband Keith Papini. It airs Saturday, Jan. 28 at 8 p.m. ET.
Jennifer Grey plays Gwen Shamblin in the Lifetime movie ‘Starving for Salvation’
Finally, in early February, Lifetime tackles the story of Gwen Shamblin Lara, the creator of the Weigh Down Workshop and the leader of the controversial Remnant Fellowship Church. Lara – who’s story was also told in the HBO docuseries The Way Down – first found success with a Christian-focused diet program and then went on to become the leader of her own megachurch. Her church came under fire for allegedly shunning overweight members and advocating strict punishment of children. In 2021, while she was at the peak of her power, she and her husband Joe Lara died when the plane he was flying crashed shortly after takeoff.
Jennifer Grey plays the title role in Gwen Shamblin: Starving for Salvation. Vincent Walsh plays Joe. It airs Saturday, Feb. 4 at 8 p.m. ET.
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