Get ready for the ultimate showdown in FEUD: Capote Vs. The Swans, where Ryan Murphy brings together a cast so massive, you’d think he raided Hollywood’s talent warehouse during a celebrity sale.
Picture this: Truman Capote, played by the charming Tom Hollander, surrounded himself with the cream of society’s crop – the crème de la crème, if you will. These were not just any women; they were the elite, the high and mighty, the OG influencers of a bygone era in New York high society. And Capote, being the social butterfly he was, gave them a name fit for fairy tales – “the swans.” Cue the dramatic music.
Now, these swans weren’t your average birds paddling in a pond; no, they were the likes of Barbara “Babe” Paley (enter Naomi Watts), Slim Keith (cue Diane Lane), C.Z. Guest (hello, Chloë Sevigny), and Lee Radziwill (yep, that’s Calista Flockhart). Beautiful, distinguished, and probably with a secret handshake that excluded everyone else.
Capote, with the finesse of a seasoned infiltrator, wormed his way into their glamorous lives, becoming the confidante they never knew they needed. But, as they say, all good things must come to an end, especially when you’re dealing with a wordsmith like Capote. The man wrote a thinly veiled gossip fest disguised as a magnum opus called “Answered Prayers.” Spoiler alert: it didn’t go well.
When Esquire published an excerpt from Capote’s literary grenade, it was like the gossip equivalent of a mic drop. Suddenly, the swans were not so enchanted, the society was not so high, and Capote found himself on a one-way ticket to social exile.
But hold on, because the real drama might not be on the screen but behind the scenes of this series. Move over, swans; Ryan Murphy’s backstage antics might just outshine your scandalous soirées.
FEUD premieres on January 31st on FX, and if you’re not tuning in, you’re missing out on the late Treat Williams and a front-row seat to the glitziest feud in town.