Entertainment Weekly has the story today about The Governor’s Wife, which if Duck Dynasty, Rat Bastards and Swamp People embarrass you might well cause you to stroke out about how Louisiana is perceived…

A colorful four-term Louisiana governor has landed a docu-series on A&E.

The Governor’s Wife will star 85-year-old Edwin Edwards and his 34-year-old wife, Trina, along with several of their children from previous marriages. Edwards served four times as Louisiana’s governor over the course of three decades, and also served eight years in federal prison for crimes committed while he was in office. In 2001, Edwards was convicted on bribery and extortion charges. He became pen pals with Trina during his prison stint and theymarried after his release last year.

The show will focus on Edwin and Trina’s May-December relationship and follow Edwin’s daughters (Anna, a 62-year-old, four-time divorcée and Victoria, a 60-year-old ex-showgirl) along Trina’s sons (Logan, 15 and Trevor, 13).

Some official description: “The series follows Trina as she attempts to fit into the former governor’s upscale world and busy social life while trying to get along with daughters twice her age and corral her teenage sons. Between school projects, running for president of the Homeowner’s Association, fending off skeptics who think she’s a gold digger, and thoughts of adding a baby of their own to the mix, the Edwards clan truly represent a new take on the modern family.”

An additional taste of what will be on offer when the show premieres on Feb. 27 came from back in November at 225 Magazine…

Sources say filming is underway on the much-rumored Edwin Edwards reality show. Earlier this year, reports surfaced that the former governor was in talks with Shaun Sanghani of SSS Entertainment, who has ties to Louisiana with Girls, Guns and Gators, the Travel Channel’s Bastrop-set series. Operating under the working title The Governor’s Wife, the show is said to follow the 84-year-old Edwards and his new spouse, thirtysomething Trina Scott Edwards, on their many adventures, including attempts to have a biological child together. “She and Edwin are both popping fertility pills in public,” says 225’s source.

Classy.

If this horrifies you, at least we can report that, so far, you’re not paying for it. We asked Louisiana Entertainment, the state agency which has supplied tax incentives for the production of a large number of the other reality shows emanating out of Louisiana, if the same incentives were raining down on Sanghani and the Viagra-munching Edwardses – and the response was something of a relief…

While we have received an application for a project titled “the Governor’s Wife” we are still processing and have not yet made a determination. No tax credits have been given to this project at this time.

Think this will become a political football in this state? It had better. If convicted public-sector extortionist Edwin Edwards can’t be denied state support for a publicity project he’s getting paid for that makes Louisiana look like a freakshow, then it’s clear nothing has changed around here.

And of course, those of us who point this out will be castigated as vindictive scolds for our insistence on some degree of hygiene in the use of our resources.

It’s a fight we’re happy to have, whether it’s on a riverside or someplace else.