Viswa Vanapalli
Paramount+’s ‘The Offer’ is a dramatic recollection of the fascinating story behind the making of Francis Ford Coppola‘s ‘The Godfather.’ The story picks up with how Al Ruddy landed the production gig for the film and charts the various problems the team encountered on the way. We also see Al dating Francoise Glazer, a beautiful and mysterious woman who seems eager to help. So, if you’re wondering who Francoise is and whether she is rooted in reality, we’ve got the answers.
Is Francoise Glazer Based on a Real Person?
Yes, Francoise Glazer is, in fact, a real person who used to be in a relationship with Al Ruddy. She was a Jewish Holocaust survivor born to Polish parents in France in April 1937. Francoise weathered a difficult childhood, with her father dying in a concentration camp in 1942. She was only reunited with her mother when she was eight years old, and the two moved to Israel, where she later lived in a kibbutz (a communal settlement).
After Francoise was drafted into the Israeli Defense Forces, her mother decided to move to North America because she feared losing her daughter. After staying in Canada, Francoise and her mother moved to the United States and settled in New York. In 1956, Francoise married Guilford Glazer, a businessman, and they had a son and a daughter together. She later said, “My life was made up of servants who did the shopping, a house with 35 rooms, and parties with $20,000 worth of flowers.”
However, cracks soon crept in, with Francoise saying, “I didn’t know what was wrong with me that I didn’t enjoy being a PTA mother. I was embarrassed to admit that I wasn’t happy.” The marriage ended with divorce in 1965, after which she met Al and claimed that she helped with the production of ‘The Godfather.’ In 1973, it was reported that Francoise was to co-produce a film based on one of Anaïs Nin’s novels. Eventually, her marriage to Al ended too, and she traveled to India with a tour group because she couldn’t live with “the thought of dying without the answers.”
In India, Francoise went to Osho’s ashram in Pune and later continued to study his teachings at the University of California in Los Angeles. By 1978, she decided to raise funds for the ashram. Francoise brought in a lot of money and later went to Oregon, where Rajneeshpuram, a religious community, was set up. She allegedly gifted Osho many expensive things like a Rolls-Royce and watches and was later given the name Ma Prem Hasya. There, she married Swami Devaraj, a doctor who was Osho’s personal physician.
Regarding her time with Osho, Francoise said, “Life has an intensity and fullness now. However exciting and fast it used to be, I always suffered a sense of boredom. Bhagwan has shown me so many ways of discovering my inner depths.” By 1985, she took over Ma Anand Sheela‘s role as Osho’s right-hand woman. Francoise became the new chief of staff and managed the community’s business. But that was short-lived because the FBI raided the compound later the same year.
How Did Francoise Glazer Die?
After the compound was dismantled, Francoise traveled worldwide with Osho on a so-called “performance tour.” It was reported that she appealed to at least 21 countries for a place to set up a community similar to the one in Oregon. Ultimately, Francoise returned to India with Osho. Once he died in 1990, she went to the United States. There, she opened a spiritual center in Arizona and later held meditation sessions at her home in Los Angeles, California. Francoise was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease about seven years before her death. On August 19, 2014, she died at her daughter’s home at the age of 77.
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