Feud: Bette & Joan

[Progress Pigment]

I've been watching this highly praised FX mini-series about Bette Davis (Susan Sarandon) & Joan Crawford (Jessica Lange), making "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" and in episode three, they threw Victor Buono (King Tut) under the bus! I had to put it on pause just to write this. They had him picked up for lewd behavior, and Bette Davis (apparently they were friends) bailed him out. I can't believe they would put something like this out. Doesn't he have existing family that might sue? If you see the episode, it's pretty gut-wrenching. It makes me sad that the public will remember him like this.

[rickkrefft]

Back in those days if you were gay you pretty much had to have sex in secret places and it's no different than guys and girls hooking up and having sex in similar settings, only gays didn't have a lot of choices then and most lived in the closet. I doubt it will hurt the way people remember him. They'll just dismiss it as those were the times. I love how they portray him on this show...in a real honesty. I enjoy the friendship between him and Bette and how he was allowed to be himself around her. I bet he didn't have too many opportunities to do that back in the 60's. The two women (especially Joan) comes off in a far worse light then he does. Frank (old blue eyes) also was shown in a much more unflattering way. The show makes him out to be an overbearing, hateful, ignorant bully. He and Joan could shake hands. I think they've handled Victor pretty nicely actually. He's one of the only characters on the show (besides the maid and the female wannabe director) that you feel any fondness for. He's one of the very few likable characters on this series.

[Dr. Shimel]

The term "creative license" comes to mind. Anyone intelligent enough to know about Victor knows that embellishments are standard in these types of films.

[Progress Pigment]

Back in those days if you were gay you pretty much had to have sex in secret places and it's no different than guys and girls hooking up and having sex in similar settings, only gays didn't have a lot of choices then and most lived in the closet. I doubt it will hurt the way people remember him. They'll just dismiss it as those were the times. I love how they portray him on this show...in a real honesty. I enjoy the friendship between him and Bette and how he was allowed to be himself around her. I bet he didn't have too many opportunities to do that back in the 60's. The two women (especially Joan) comes off in a far worse light then he does. Frank (old blue eyes) also was shown in a much more unflattering way. The show makes him out to be an overbearing, hateful, ignorant bully. He and Joan could shake hands. I think they've handled Victor pretty nicely actually. He's one of the only characters on the show (besides the maid and the female wannabe director) that you feel any fondness for. He's one of the very few likable characters on this series.

That's a nice way of looking at it. The circumstances of his being arrested were what bugged me, not his orientation. This guy thought he was Charles Laughton. Laughton was like 40 years older than him!! It's amazing that they were able to find an actor who looks that much like Victor Buono -- he's almost shockingly similar. I missed the first episode, but it's coming up again. Maybe if I'd seen them in sequence I wouldn't have been so freaked out. The fact that Sinatra was a world class jerk is pretty well known. I think you come off with some sympathy for Joan. She'd been a star since the silents, and fought like a dog for 45 years to hang onto it -- despite the fact she never had the range or talent of someone like Bette Davis. I wish she HAD played 'The Devil' on Batman!

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9FThHsaI-0[/youtube]

[chrisbcritter]

Even Victor had a wry sense of humor about it:
"I've heard or read about actors being asked the immortal question 'Why have you never married?'. They answer with the immortal excuse 'I just haven't found the right girl.' Because I'm on the hefty side, no one's asked me yet. If they do, that's the answer I'll give. After all, if it was good enough for Monty Clift or Sal Mineo..."
And yes, it was a different time. I have a copy of an L.A. Times front page story from 1962 about a private drag party that was busted by the LAPD; they published a photo of the guys who were arrested and posted their names and addresses. Getting caught was a real danger unless you had someone with pull on your side like Bette.