Feud lawsuit escalates as Olivia de Havilland insists she didn't call her sister a 'bitch'
There's been a new twist in the feud over Feud's feuds. Yesterday, a legal representative for 101-year-old actress Olivia de Havilland took issue with the use of the word "b----" by a fictional version of de Havilland, played by Catherine Zeta-Jones in the TV series Feud.
Gone with the Wind star de Havilland is suing the makers of the hit US docudrama, which explores the real behind-the-scenes rivalry between Hollywood stars Bette Davis and Joan Crawford on the set of the 1962 film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?.
De Havilland's lawyer argued that she is portrayed as a gossip who makes waspish comments about friends and colleagues including Davis, Crawford and her younger sister, the actress Joan Fontaine (star of Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Rebecca).
In her initial lawsuit, filed last June, de Havilland claimed the series had damaged her “professional reputation for integrity, honesty, generosity, self-sacrifice and dignity."
On Tuesday, her attorney drew attention to a scene in which de Havilland is seen calling her sister Fontaine a "bitch". A lawyer for FX, the company behind Feud, noted that the actress had been quoted calling Fontaine a "dragon lady".
According to Variety, laughter was heard in the courtroom when Halim Dhanidina, one of three judges on the panel, asked: “Is there a substantial difference between calling someone a bitch and calling her a dragon lady?”
“Yes, there is, your honor,” De Havilland’s attorney replied. “In my household, if you say the word ‘bitch,’ you get your mouth washed out.”
The exchange took place at a hearing to decide whether de Havilland's lawsuit can proceed. FX's lawyers have attempted to have the suit thrown out, claiming it could set a worrying precedent for free speech – and for the the future of the docudrama genre.
“Of course we will still have docudramas,” de Havilland's attorney said. “What we need to have are docudramas that don’t defame, that don’t tell lies.”