Feud: Capote vs the Swans
Truman Capote’s tragic falling-out with a group of socialites is now a new drama. Stars Chloë Sevigny and Molly Ringwald reflect on the lure of a deadly feud
FROM TAYLOR SWIFT V Beyoncé to Meghan Markle v Kate Middleton, via Sarah Jessica Parker v Kim Cattrall, feuds between the rich and famous have long captured the public interest.
It’s something television writer Ryan Murphy knows all about: his 2017 series Feud: Bette and Joan told of the bitter rivalry between Hollywood stars Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, while his follow-up, Feud: Capote vs the Swans, is the story of author Truman Capote’s very public falling-out with a group of socialites he nicknamed “the Swans”.
They were an elite group of New York wives who wore the finest clothes, dined at the best restaurants, and formed a close bond with Capote, who was gay but loved to surround himself with beautiful women.
Chloë Sevigny, who plays Capote’s friendturned-foe CZ Guest, says: “Truman had saddled up to these ladies and they all found him endlessly entertaining. They let him into their homes, spent holidays together. It was a status coup to have him in their corner.”
But the relationship imploded when the Breakfast at Tiffany’s author broke the Swans’ confidences and wrote about their scandalous secrets – which included infidelities and alleged murders – in an extract of his planned novel Answered Prayers, published in Esquire magazine in November 1975. Ostracised by most of the Swans, he ended up spiralling into drug and alcohol addiction, before dying in 1984 at the age of 59.
“Truman was a writer of great substance,” says The Breakfast Club star Molly Ringwald, who plays Joanne Carson in the series. “But he was side-tracked by these women and this lifestyle – in a way he created his own undoing with them.”
The show’s line-up includes British actor Tom Hollander in an acclaimed turn as Capote and Naomi Watts as his best friend Barbara “Babe” Paley, with Calista Flockhart, Diane Lane and Demi Moore also starring alongside Sevigny and Ringwald.
Set during a period spanning the 50s to the 80s, the show has the tagline: “The Original Housewives” – a nod to The Real Housewives reality franchise that relies heavily on arguments between its stars. Ringwald says there are certainly contemporary parallels.
“All of the feuds that are going on, from the royal family to Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, it’s something the media seems to be very thirsty for,” she says. “I’m sure it gains clicks or it wouldn’t continue.”
“People are endlessly fascinated by the wealthy and the privileged,” agrees Sevig
