The last time I checked Truman Capote’s mid ‘70s social suicide (Esquire’s publishing of “La Cote Basque, 1965“, a roman a clef chapter from his never-published “Answered Prayers”), was more his story than the story of “the swans.”
But the trailer for Feud: Capote vs. The Swans (FX Hulu, 1.31) seemingly has it ass backwards. The scenario is all about Babe Paley (Naomi Watts), Slim Keith (Diane Lane), C.Z. Guest (Chloë Sevigny), Lee Radziwill (Calista Flockhart) and Joanne Carson (Molly Ringwald), and secondarily about Capote.
I’ve no idea why the late Gloria Vanderbilt isn’t a character (she was certainly in “La Cote Basque, 1965“), but perhaps CNN’s Anderson Cooper, her son, presented the filmmakers with difficult terms.
That said, Tom Hollander seems to have his Capote impersonation well in hand.
The eight-part miniseries was directed by Gus Van Sant, Max Winkler and Jennifer Lynch, and written by Jon Robin Baitz.
Wiki excerpt: “Capote sold four chapters (‘Mojave’, ‘La Cote Basque, 1965’, ‘Unspoiled Monsters’ and ‘Kate McCloud’) of the novel-in-progress to Esquire at the behest of Gordon Lish in 1975 and 1976.
“’Mojave’ was published in the magazine’s June 1975 issue to little fanfare. However, with the publication of ‘La Cote Basque, 1965’ in the November 1975 issue, there was an uproar of shock and anger among Capote’s friends and acquaintances, who recognized thinly veiled characters based on themselves.
“Both ‘Mojave’ and ‘La Cote Basque, 1965’ were exposés of the dysfunctional personal lives led by the author’s social benefactors, including CBS head William S. Paley, his wife Babe (then terminally ill with cancer), Gloria Vanderbilt (depicted as being insufferably vacuous), Happy Rockefeller and Ann Woodward.
“The Paleys would never socialize with Capote again and led an exodus of ostracizing friends. Subsequently, ‘Unspoiled Monsters’ and ‘Kate McCloud’ were published in the periodical in May 1976 and December 1976, respectively.”
Here’s a summary of the “Cote Basque” nitty gritty, written by Madeline Hiltz of the Vintage News.