ThatsDarling

This is the same apology our current Leading Lady of Cinema, Jennifer Lawrence, gave after she boasted about rubbing her butt on sacred rocks in Hawaii. Famous people don't like admitting it when they're wrong. Was very impressed by Jessica Lange's acting opposite Mamacita at the top of the episode. Anger, sadness, and shame are what she tends to do best as a performer, and here she fused the three brilliantly. I wouldn't be surprised to see her add another Emmy to her award collection.

What a treat it was to see Anne Bancroft and Geraldine Page depicted on Feud this week. They, along with my other big favorite Kim Stanley, were of a generation of Method-trained actresses I find thrilling to watch onscreen. Two years after her Oscar-winning performance in The Miracle Worker, Bancroft received an additional nomination for portraying a London housewife on the verge of a nervous breakdown in The Pumpkin Eater. She then played the iconic Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate, earning a third nomination. The three performances are so different in tone, voice, and physicality, it's remarkable they were given by the same person, and she would have been a deserving Academy winner for all three of them. Geraldine Page was giving terrific performances up until her untimely death at the age of 62. I'm particularly fond of her work in Sweet Bird of Youth, Interiors, and The Trip to Bountiful. Along with Bancroft, she could never be pigeonholed into a certain type--she played fading movie stars, shy spinsters, manipulative mothers, comedy, and drama with the same amount of honesty and brilliance. I miss them both, and hope this series encourages the younger generation to check out their work.

I agree with you about de Havilland's voice, and I also think CJZ is playing her a bit too coquettish. Olivia adopted a mature, conservative look and demeanor relatively early, while CJZ is very glamorous with lots of va-va-voom. If I didn't know better, I would think she was playing Lana Turner. I doubt CJZ would have allowed it, but it would have been more realistic if she had been padded and wore less makeup. This is a photo of de Havilland from 1977, one year before the majority of CJZ's de Havilland interview scenes take place.

Anne Bancroft not attending the Academy Awards so she wouldn't have to miss any performances of her Broadway show was a classy move. Up until the 1980s, it was pretty common for actors nominated for Oscars to miss the ceremony if they were appearing onstage elsewhere. I know Judy Holliday and Ellen Burstyn also missed their Best Actress wins for this reason. They didn't want to disappoint people who had paid in advance to see them in their plays. These days, it's extremely rare for an Oscar hopeful to miss the ceremony for any reason--even the precursor ceremonies. A few years ago, an actress appearing on Broadway took time off of her show to attend the Critics Choice Awards and the Golden Globes, and then the show closed early so she could go to the BAFTAs. The idea of prioritizing the work over the reward just doesn't seem to be as popular anymore.

Anne Bancroft was played by Serinda Swan. The resemblance is pretty strong.

Yes, Bette struck me as being quite supportive of her fellow actresses, so long as they were talented. She was very generous in her assessments of the younger generation of leading ladies; she had lovely things to say about Gena Rowlands, Liv Ullmann, Glenda Jackson, Jane Fonda, and Carol Kane, to name a few. She even wrote a letter to Meryl Streep expressing her desire to work with her. This is why her conspiracy with Joan to get the actress playing the neighbor girl fired didn't ring true to me. I don't think the real Davis would have been that insecure about sharing the screen with an ingenue.

Bette and Joan's debate over the 1950 Best Actress Oscar race got me thinking about how the result of that contest subtly underscores a major theme of Feud: how women lose their value in Hollywood once they pass a certain age. 51-year-old Gloria Swanson and 42-year-old Bette Davis--nominated for Sunset Boulevard and All About Eve respectively--lost out to 29-year-old Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday. Holliday was wonderful and would have been a deserving winner in almost any other year, but Swanson and Davis gave two of the most iconic performances in film history. It was mind-boggling to me that neither of them won, until I started thinking about the political aspects of the Oscars. By 1950, Davis's days as the leading lady of Hollywood were behind her, and Sunset Boulevard was Swanson's first film in nearly a decade. Neither actress had ties with any particular movie studio at this time, so no studio was invested in them winning (the studios often voted in blocs). Judy Holliday, on the other hand, had just signed a contract with Columbia, and Born Yesterday was a big hit. To Academy members voting in 1950, she probably looked like the future of Hollywood cinema, while Swanson and Davis were the past. I find Swanson's loss especially unfortunate because, unlike Davis, she never won before and this was the Academy's final chance to honor her contribution to film. She had been working in motion pictures since the early days of the medium, and by the 1920s her star power was such that she received 10,000 fan letters a week. Hollywood profited immensely from her likeness, then lost interest and seemed to forget about her for years. The fact that the Academy never recognized her work--not even with an Honorary Oscar between the time of Sunset Boulevard and her death in 1983--remains an egregious oversight and a testament to the industry's disrespect of women.

This line gave me life! And I have to agree with Joan's assertion here (minus the "bitch" part). Bette Davis was fabulous in All About Eve, but I've always felt Gloria Swanson deserved to win that year. ...And this is why, no matter my quibbles with the show, I eagerly tune into Feud every week. Where else are you going to hear debates about a 67-year-old Best Actress contest?

I was reading an article about B.D. and she had the following recollections: She has a YouTube ministry, in which she claims the Easter bunny is demonic, vegetarian diets are witchcraft, and that Satan stole her money. She also sells audiotapes of her preachings, which she says have cured AIDS.

B.D.'s treatment of her mother was detestable. It should also be noted that Bette financially supported B.D., B.D.'s husband, and their children for many years, as they didn't like to work. My Mother's Keeper was a cash grab when she thought Bette (who was sick with cancer) was going to die and the gravy train would run out. Here's an interview with B.D. conducted shortly after her mother's death. She basically says she doesn't care that her mother is gone and that she has no fond memories of her.

I enjoyed this episode, but as a film buff I have to quibble with the show's assertion that Bette turned down Mildred Pierce because she didn't want to play the mother of a teenager. She had played the mother of 22-year-old Theresa Wright in The Little Foxes four years earlier. The same year Mildred Pierce was released, Davis played 50-year-old Lily Cristobel Moffatt in The Corn is Green, wearing 30 pounds of padding and a gray wig to look age appropriate. Vanity was of little concern to her when choosing projects. BD's verbal annihilation of her mother was upsetting to watch, but consistent with the behavior of the real BD. Her assertion that "men don't look at you anymore" was a bit difficult to believe when uttered to the very attractive Susan Sarandon, as was Joan Crawford's comment about Davis looking old enough to be her mother. Years of heavy drinking and smoking had taken their toll on Davis's physical appearance by the early 1960s, but Sarandon is too well-maintained for those comments to make sense. One of my favorite lines of the night: Crawford: You're so lucky your acting career never took off, Hedda. So fortunate you never became a star...

Bette Davis always maintained she was the heavy front-runner for the 1962 Best Actress Oscar, but I can't find any evidence from the time to support that claim. Geraldine Page had won the Golden Globe for Sweet Bird of Youth, Katharine Hepburn had triumphed at the Cannes Film Festival for Long Day's Journey Into Night, and Anne Bancroft was selected Best Actress by the National Board of Review (she also went on to win the BAFTA). Going into the ceremony, Davis hadn't won any of the precursor prizes. It's true that in those days actors could win the Oscar without precursor awards, but Davis had several other things working against her. The 1962 Best Actress category is considered one of the strongest in the Academy's history, and voters may have been reluctant to choose Davis, already a two-time winner, over other deserving, unrewarded actresses. Anne Bancroft's film, The Miracle Worker, was also more of a prestige project compared to What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and may have seemed like the respectable choice to an Academy that is historically biased against horror-thrillers. Long story short, I don't think Davis was necessarily the favorite she made herself out to be, nor do I think Crawford lobbied the Academy to vote against her (she didn't even have the clout with the organization to get herself nominated for Baby Jane). Offering to accept the award for the winner was her attempt at revenge against Davis, and she succeeded.

I've always felt this series called for an animated adaptation, preferably in the style of the animated sequences in the first film. Excited to see more of this, though.

Random, but Erin really reminds me of Bjorn Ulvaeus's wife, Lena Kallersjo.

Unfortunately, only past winners are allowed to win PR: All Stars. Roberi would end up losing to Ashley or Anya or Erin again.

Called Dom's win the moment the cast list was announced. We're going to have a previous winner win every season they participate in. I'm not mad about it, because I really do think she's the best designer of the three. Still, it would be nice to see someone else get a chance. Dom got the biggest prize package in the history of Project Runway the first time, and parlayed it into...domstreater.com.

I really don't think there's any way Sam can win--his edit this season has been much too negative, and he seems kind of bitter on social media. He's being kept around for the drama, because that's what the judges and producers think we want to see. Can't have a show where everyone gets along and focuses on producing good work. This is Dom's to lose, but it will probably feel like a default victory after this lackluster season.

Dom's comment about the slit on her dress being too high was the first time I've ever heard her criticize one of her own looks. Of course, her next remark was "Overall, though, it's a great design!" Was happy to see Emily win. I thought her look was the only successful one on the runway, and it's nice to see her get some praise after being undervalued by the judges on her original season. Still, I think she and Ken are destined to be the two cut before the finale. The producers want to keep the Kini-Sam feud going until the end, though I'd be shocked if either won. Wasn't feeling Zac Posen last night. No one who produces garments like this should criticize another designer's work. Read that he hired Horrid Helen from last season...it seems like they would get along.

It's strange that Dom is so known for her humility when she is constantly patting herself on the back. I don't think she's ever had anything remotely critical to say about one of her looks. A big ego is certainly not uncommon in the fashion industry, but you probably shouldn't sell yourself on your humility if you're going to sing your own praises all the time.

Sam is this season's Helen: he's produced the worst garment on the runway several times, and yet the judges and/or producers insist on keeping him around because they think he's entertaining. They are very wrong. Zac Posen, who I would argue is the least talented major designer of our time, is unlikely to set them straight next week. Quite liked Emily and Kini's looks, but everyone not named Dom is just competing for second place.

Dom has really stepped her game up. My main issue with her work in S12 was that it felt unambitious--she pretty much stuck to basic dresses and let her prints do the heavy lifting. Now, she's one of the few designers who consistently produces well made separates, and I love all the detail work she does. Isaac doesn't seem very fond of her (has he ever championed a female designer?), but I would be shocked if she didn't win in the end. I also loved Emily's look and thought she should have been in the top 3 over Kini, whose taste is just as bad as Layana's IMO.

I remember Sam writing on his blog last year that it's a waste of time to appear on All Stars unless you're a robbed fan favorite. Apparently, he thinks he's a robbed fan favorite. Ha!

Yeah, Kini seems like a nice guy and all, but I don't think he's a strong designer. His final collection for S13 was weak and would have been 100 times worse without the judges' intervention. I just don't think he has good taste. Dom has this sham of a competition on lock. The panel might be high on Sam right now, but no way he's winning with such a negative edit.

"Blind judging" my ass. No way Mitchell could have been safe for that monstrosity if the judges didn't know he was responsible for it. Easily my least favorite thing on the runway. I didn't like Kini's either and thought he should have been on the bottom. I think Dom's ugly jacket is what kept her from being in the top. She needs to learn when enough is enough. Overall, I don't think there's a designer left in this bunch who can meet the decidedly low standards set by past All Stars champs.

I fully expect Dom to win. Like previous All Stars champs, she was a fan favorite during her original season, and I don't think it's a coincidence that previous winners have won each season they've participated in. It's a way to validate past judging decisions and make the winners, often perceived as unsuccessful, look more accomplished. I'm sure the network would also like to crown a woman for once. If anyone can beat her, it's Kini.