The same old story for females in film
CELEBRITY feuds are as much a part of showbiz as agents and air kisses.
They ended Simon & Garfunkel’s partnership, inspire hit songs (Taylor Swift and a long, acrimonious list of ex-boyfriends), and even fed the forces of robot wars between the actors who played C-3P0 and R2-D2 in Star Wars.
But the tension between Hollywood stars Joan Crawford and Bette Davis made conflicts between Eastern Bloc countries look chummy.
A new TV series, Feud, coming to Sky Atlantic, revives the hostilities with Susan Sarandon playing a chain-smoking Bette and Jessica Lange sporting weapons-grade eyebrows as Joan for a drama about the first and last time they worked together, on the gothic classic Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, released in 1962.
By this point both women were in their fifties, glory days long behind them, and financially and emotionally desperate to jump-start their careers.
Hollywood was only too happy to exploit their rivalry: if the stars looked like bonding, their male director and producer fuelled new fallouts, feeding them lies about each other the way studios fed Judy Garland pep pills.
Attitudes haven’t evolved much since then, give or take a shot of Helen Mirren in a red bikini. Lange and Sarandon could tell you that themselves, although both are at least ten years older than the women they play, which speaks volumes for 21st century preservations.
Today, teenage boys hold the keys to the box office kingdom and serious roles for grown-up women remain scarce.
When Crawford laments that actresses have three roles in their career: ingénues, mothers and gorgons, Feud reminds you how little has changed.