The Heart Held Hostage is Diane Chambers' play mentioned in One for the Road. It wins the Cable ACE Award for Best Writing in a Movie or Miniseries presented by Mike Ditka and Kim Alexis. According to Diane the story was based on the life Carla Tortelli. It is "the story of a resilient hardworking mother bucking all odds to raise her six children". In the end the heroine who "out of the despair and frustration of her unmanageable life" goes "berserk and takes out a few people with an Uzi."