In the teaser trailer for the FX limited series “Feud: Capote vs. the Swans,” a title card tells us that a certain coterie of New York socialites were “The Original Housewives,” how’s that for a hook? Indeed, there are parallels to be drawn between these generation-spanning groups of appearance-obsessed, backstabbing, viciously gossiping and status-conscious women, but as “the Swans” are portrayed in Ryan Murphy’s lurid and meandering but always watchable series, I found the OG ladies of the 1960s and 1970s more frightening and cunning than any collection of Real Housewives from Orange County or Atlanta or Salt Lake City.
You do NOT want to incur the wrath of these women — something Truman Capote learned to heartbreaking and lasting effect when in 1975 he published a thinly disguised exposé cloaked as a short story in Esquire magazine titled, “La Côte Basque, 1965.” Frozen out by the “Swans,” as he dubbed them, Capote spent much of his last decade in a haze of drugs and alcohol, unable to finish his near-mythical novel “Answered Prayers,” reduced to a slurring parody of himself on talk shows and writing only sporadically. He died on Aug. 25, 1984, at the home of his dear old friend Joanne Carson, the ex-wife of Johnny Carson, having never reconciled with the Swans.
Ah, but just as “Feud: Capote vs. the Swans” employs shifting timelines to tell its story (in accordance with Limited Series Law), let’s go back and set the table for this series, which is based on Laurence Leamer’s book “Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal and a Swan Song for an Era” and is written by Jon Robin Baitz, with Gus Van Sant (“Good Will Hunting,” “Milk”) directing most of the episodes.
With the late Philip Seymour Hoffman having won an Oscar for the 2005 biopic “Capote,” and Toby Jones also doing brilliant work as Capote in “Infamous” a year later, the bar has been set as high as possible for anyone slipping into Capote’s trademark look and distinctive vocal and physical mannerisms. But Tom Hollander (“White Lotus”) is equal to the task, capturing the author at his most magnetic and clever and interesting — and also at his absolute worst, when he bathes himself in narcissism, is frequently cold and cruel, and seems incapable of loyalty.
Whereas the Hoffman and Jones portrayals concentrated on the young Capote and his work on “In Cold Blood” in the late 1950s and 1960s, “Feud” is set in the aftermath of Capote’s raging success, with Truman apparently finding any excuse not to write as he devotes most of his time and effort into cultivating his celebrity and ingratiating himself into New York’s high society so he could literally have a place at the table.
And what a group of iconic actresses cast to play the Swans, each of them doing fine work as they slide into the immovable hairstyles and impeccable fashions of these real-life figures. Naomi Watts is arguably the standout of standouts as Barbara “Babe” Paley, who was Capote’s favorite Swan. Married to the powerful William S. Paley (the late Treat Williams), the head of CBS, Babe could tolerate her husband’s serial philandering, but never forgave Truman’s betrayal of her. The same goes for Diane Lane’s Slim Keith and Calista Flockhart’s Lee Radziwill.
Chloë Sevigny’s C.Z. Guest is portrayed as being more sympathetic to Truman, while Joanne Carson (Molly Ringwald), far removed from the Swans in California, remained his friend to the end.
Then there’s Ann Woodward (Demi Moore), who was never an insider with the Swans and became a tragic social pariah as Capote kept perpetuating the rumor that she had intentionally shot and killed her husband, though a grand jury had ruled the death accidental. Knowing the Esquire piece was about to run and that she would be implicated once again, Ann killed herself.
A tragic shooting. A suicide. Extramarital affairs all around. Alcoholism. Betrayal. Truman’s tumultuous and often horrific relationship with the abusive John O’Shea (Russell Tovey). Heavy, heavy stuff to be sure, but the series also captures the magic bubble of New York society in the 1960s and 1970s. (It’s surely no accident that the vast majority of scenes take place indoors. The Vietnam War, civil rights protests, Nixon and Watergate — all of that was taking place out there.) The Swans were stuck in a kind of time warp.)
We get some fascinating, albeit totally fictionalized, sequences, most notably in the third episode, which comes in the guise of a documentary by the Maysles Brothers about Capote’s legendary Black and White Ball. (No such documentary exists, though the Maysles did do a half-hour TV special consisting mostly of observing a Newsweek reporter interviewing Capote.) There’s also a fantastical and wholly imagined sequence in which James Baldwin (Chris Chalk) has a kind of intervention with Truman.
In keeping with Capote’s “nonfiction novel” approach to writing, “Feud: Capote vs. The Swans” is inspired by true events but takes great liberties with real-life characters and situations. As a kind of alternative-universe representation of some fascinating, albeit mostly unlikable personalities, it’s hard for us to look away, even though we realize we are bearing witness to some high-profile human train wrecks.
