"The Avengers" Girl: Emma Peel

In the 1960s, Diana Rigg became a British television icon as Emma Peel on The Avengers—a brilliant, stylish, judo-trained spy who didn’t wait to be rescued. The show’s success rested heavily on her performance. Yet she discovered she was being paid less than the cameraman. Instead of quietly accepting it, Rigg went public, sparking a scandal that exposed how routinely women in entertainment were underpaid, dismissed, and expected to be “grateful.” She was called “ungrateful,” “difficult,” and wo

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