Meryl Streep (top) and Gwyneth Paltrow

Los Angeles, Aug. 9 (AFP): Superstars Meryl Streep, Gwyneth Paltrow and Annette Bening are teaming up for a new movie about the Watergate scandal that toppled ex-US President Richard Nixon, the industry press said.

Streep, 56, who has won two Oscars and been nominated for a record 13, will play Martha Mitchell, the whistle-blowing wife of former US attorney general John Mitchell, in a celluloid version of John Jeter’s play Dirty Tricks.

Martha Mitchell became famous during the scandal that led to Nixon’s 1974 resignation to avoid impeachment, for revealing late-night telephone calls to journalists that earned her nicknames such as “the mouth that roared”.

Her revelations to journalists, including Bob Woodward, who broke news of the Watergate scandal, and veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas, firmly implicated her husband in the scandal.

The creator of the hit television show Nip/Tuck, Ryan Murphy, will write and direct the film that will be produced for Paramount Pictures by actor Brad Pitt and Dede Gardner of Plan B productions, Daily Variety said yesterday.

Oscar-nominated actor Bening will play Thomas, who worked for United Press International, while Paltrow will take on the role of Maureen Dean, the wife of White House counsel John Dean, who stood firmly by her husband when he was dragged into the fray.

Veteran actor Jill Clayburgh will play the President’s wife, Pat Nixon, who grew to loathe Mitchell for destabilising the presidency, according to Variety.