Dana Rohrabacher, screenwriter

Congressman Dana Rohrabacher is best known to readers as a strong advocate of space commercialization in particular. But did you know that he’s also—like seemingly about every other person in southern California—an aspiring screenwriter? Or, perhaps, was an aspiring screenwriter: he announced yesterday that he would return $23,000 he received from convicted producer Joseph Medawar for optioning a screenplay Rohrabacher wrote:

Rohrabacher used his influence to open doors in Washington, D.C., after Medawar paid him an option on the screenplay in late 2003. At the time, Rohrabacher’s action-adventure script was nearly 30 years old and had been kicked around Hollywood for so long that its conservative protagonist had been rewritten from a Vietnam veteran to a soldier who had served in the Persian Gulf War.

Rohrabacher’s decision came after Medawar pled guilty to charges he defrauded investors of $3.4 million, claiming he was developing a TV series about the Department of Homeland Security.