Mrs Pilate: Claudia Procula and Clare Boothe Luce

“While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, ‘Have nothing to do with that innocent man, for today I have suffered a great deal because of a dream about him.’ From this single sentence in the Gospels, a rich tradition has grown up about Pontius Pilate’s spouse, later called Claudia Procula. Her story found expression in the small-screen dramas of the mid-century. From this same period comes the most intriguing portrait of Claudia, though it was a production that never in fact made it from the page to the screen. From March of 1951 through the spring of the following year, the multi-talented Clare Boothe Luce worked diligently on a concept for RKO Pictures to be entitled Pilate’s Wife, which told the story of the Passion from the perspective of the prefect’s new spouse, Claudia. As the eighteen-year-old niece of the emperor Tiberius, Claudia develops over the course of the story from a spoiled young aristocrat interested in nothing but her own amusement into a figure of deeper spiritual depth. In the early 1960’s, Pilate’s wife was also featured on a best-selling recording called Claudia’s Letter, read with musical accompaniment by actress Marjorie Lord.