It bears the stamp of Ryan Murphy but, in reality, Feud: Capote vs the swans is not his creation. Jon Robin Baitz, known for his role as a playwright and as the creator of Five Brothers, wrote all the scripts and the prestigious director Gus Van Sant, who filmed six of the eight episodes, acknowledges that Murphy was not present at the filming.
The author of Nip/Tuck, Glee and American horror story this time settled for being executive producer. And where is it noticed? In his ability to form a stellar cast in this series about the betrayal of the writer of In Cold Blood to his friends from New York high society, which this Wednesday arrives on HBO Max with the first two episodes. Who are they and what swans (since that’s what Capote called them) do they play?
Finding the ideal Truman Capote was a complicated task for two reasons: the writer was an extreme character, who the public can perceive as overacting at the slightest, and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman immortalized him in the cinema with the film for which he received the Oscar. Baitz and Murphy opted for the British Tom Hollander, fresh from the acclaimed second season of The White Lotus and known for his work in the series Rev or the film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
“Truman was deeply brave, a tough little fighter who lived in a time when it was much more difficult to be gay than it is now,” highlighted the actor of his character in Entertainment Weekly, who was also characterized by being mannered without trying to hide it in a homophobic society.
In the series, however, it is shown to what extent he was part of high society, which welcomed him through women, and how he betrayed his friends by publishing his intimacies in Esquire magazine in a fictional manner with the stories of La côte basque. He was desperate to have the new In Cold Blood, he was uninspired and alcoholic, and thought it would be a good idea to talk about the rumors, infidelities and secrets of who had taken care of him.
If there was anyone who was the center of Truman Capote’s existence, it was Babe Paley, elegance personified. The daughter of a neurosurgeon, during World War II she worked as an editor for Vogue magazine and was considered one of the best dressed women in the United States. When she married William Paley in 1947, she abandoned journalism to focus on the role of perfect wife to one of the most powerful men in the United States: she turned a radio station, CBS, into one of the most watched channels in the country. .
He met Capote on a private flight to Jamaica after the Paleys invited him by mistake: a friend asked them to invite Truman and they assumed they were contacting the president of the United States. The relationship between Babe and Truman was not superficial, hence the betrayal was more painful, especially considering that she was suffering from cancer at the time of the publication of the La côte basque stories, a title that referred to the restaurant where the socialites were there.
In La côte basque the swans used to have lunch at the central table: it could be the most uncomfortable, unlike the booths or corner tables, but it allowed them to be seen, observed and admired in Manhattan, making it clear what their social position was. . Who could not fail in these meetings was Slim Keith, of such high status that Babe Paley and she divided the weekend events: one traditionally had Saturdays and the other stayed on Sundays.
Mary Raye Gross, who was called Slim for her ability to maintain her thinness, was a daughter of businessmen who, when remembered, is always from the same anecdote: in the 1940s she was married to Howard Hawks, the influential Hollywood filmmaker who directed films like La fiera de mi chica or Río Bravo, and Slim was the one who discovered Lauren Bacall when he saw her face in a magazine.
Among his lovers are illustrious names such as Clark Gable, Frank Sinatra and Ernest Hemingway. Her second husband was the Broadway theater producer Leland Hayward, with whom she was in the 50s, and in the 60s she married the businessman Kenneth Keith, for whom she moved to London until she returned to New York in the 70s, just time to suffer Capote’s backstabbing.
For television lovers, Feud: Capote vs the swans can be interpreted as the reunion between Calista Flockhart and Jon Robin Baitz after the five seasons they worked together on Five Brothers. And he doesn’t have a mediocre character. Lee Radziwill was Jackie Kennedy’s younger sister, a well-connected woman applauded for her style who was suspicious of the popularity of her sister, with whom she had a competitive relationship.
Born Caroline Lee Bouvier, she took the surname Radziwill from her second husband, to whom she was married from 1959 to 1974, a Polish prince with whom she had two children.
Viewers will see that, after the first publication in Esquire, there is a friend more willing to forgive Truman Capote, the one played by Chloë Sevigny, muse of indie cinema, actress of Lars von Trier and known for her work in series such as Big love or American horror story.
This is C.Z. Guest in fiction, another US best-dressed list ubiquitous, married Winston Frederick Churchill Guest, son of a baron and cousin of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. As a curiosity, they got married in Havana, in the house of Ernest Hemingway who acted as best man at their wedding.
The actress from Ghost, Harassed and Charlie’s Angels lends herself to a character who, in reality, was not a swan. Ann Woodward, born Angeline Lucille Crowell, was a humble girl who made a living as a model and showgirl when she met William Woodward Sr, a wealthy New York banker, and fell in love with his son William Woodward Jr, marrying him in 1943. This allowed him to become a key figure in the city’s social scene.
Ann, however, is a star in the black news after the death of her husband in 1955. They were returning to their residence in Oyster Bay after a party in honor of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor when, after hearing a noise in the middle of the night, Ann shot her husband with the shotgun, believing him to be a thief. There were many who distrusted the official story. Woodward had an adulterous relationship and was considering leaving his wife and gossip believed it had been a premeditated cold-blooded murder.
In the stories of La côte basque, which was a preview of the novel Answered Prayers that was published unfinished in 1986 after Capote’s death, the writer had fun with this rumor, convinced of the theory of first-degree murder. It had serious consequences for Woodward and in 1985 the case (and the relationship with Capote) were exploited by Dominick Dunne in the novel The Two Mrs. Grenville.
And, closing this circle of swans, the eighties icon Molly Ringwald (The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink) plays Joanne Carson, the television presenter who between 1963 and 1972 was married to the legendary presenter Johnny Carson of The Tonight. Show. She is the only friend she managed to keep: the writer died in Joanne’s arms in 1984 when he settled in the presenter’s house in Los Angeles to prepare for her 60th birthday party, which she never managed to celebrate.
