Hollywood’s legendary rivalry comes to television with Ryan Murphy’s ‘Feud: Bette and Joan’

Audiences must have witnessed a number of cat fights in the entertainment and film industry but no one has ever witnessed a rivalry like this one in the history of global cinema! Hollywood legends - Bette Davis and Joan Crawford are known for their epic Oscar wins and their exceptional performances in movies but what they are most famous for is their unrelenting and very public spat that lasted decades!

Depicted in the up and coming anthology series ‘Feud’ by Emmy award winning creator/producer, Ryan Murphy, Feud: Bette and Joan is the first instalment and is all set to premiere in India this Sunday, March 19^th at 9 PM on Star World Premiere HD!

Their rivalry kicked off when Davis made her first starry debut in Hollywood but was upstaged by Joan who announced her divorce on the same day, leading to Davis’ publicity campaigns being white washed and her movie going off-theatres in a week! But this rivalry got to its bitter worst when, years later, both Davis and Crawford, who went on to become Oscar winning actresses worked together on the sets of what was Davis’ last Oscar nomination for the movie ‘What Ever Happened To Baby Jane’! Their spat got uglier, barbaric, more public and incidents started to roll off the sets and straight on to national newspapers!

Did you know that Bette Davis who has 10 Oscar nominations to her name slapped Joan Crawford really hard while filming a scene? Allegedly, she did it on purpose and Crawford required stitches! Are you aware that Joan Crawford knew Davis had serious back problems and despite that, the star diva of Hollywood dragged Davis around the sets for a scene and made the director take multiple cuts?

The series ‘Feud: Bette and Joan’ will centre around this very combustible relationship, initially conceived as  a promotional vehicle, on the sets of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, but later went on to emerge as a genre classic and extended well after the cameras stopped rolling.

"It's a blue-sky fantasy show, and I think people want that now, particularly after this bruising election,”says Murphy, who will look at Prince Charles and Princess Diana in the second Feud instalment, due in 2018. “It’s fun to watch. It looks pretty. The sets, costumes, jewellery and music (create) a weird fantasy, but, hopefully, there’s more depth than you would expect.”

The eight-episode project, recalls how the ladies struggled to hang on to fame in the twilight of their careers as they faced such obstacles as ageism, sexism and misogyny. The series comprises of a stellar star cast such as Oscar winners Susan Sarandon, Jessica Lange, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Kathy Bates, Oscar nominees such as Stanley Tucci, Judy Davis and Emmy award winner Alfred Molina among others!

“There’s nothing more delicious than movie stars playing movie stars,” Murphy says. “The only two people I ever wanted to do this with were Jessica and Susan. They just add a certain gravity. They have both been movie stars since the ‘70s, so they bring a lot of knowledge about Hollywood and how things have changed and not changed that informs the material in a wonderful way.”

Catch the sensational battle between the Hollywood divas exclusively on Star World Premiere HD every Sunday starting 19 March, 9PM.