Truman Capote’s scandalous, gossipy fiction about New York’s literary and fashion set will provide the fodder for a forthcoming miniseries.
On Thursday, Deadline reported that the second season of the FX anthology series Feud, produced by Ryan Murphy, will be an adaptation of Laurence Leamer’s 2021 book, Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era. The book describes the author’s relationships with writers, socialites, and fashion mavens in the ’70s—and how he wrecked those relationships through his fiction. A Kirkus critic called it “engagingly gossipy” and an “extensive behind-the-scenes peaks into Capote’s tangled social life.”
Struggling for a follow-up to In Cold Blood, Capote began to fictionalize his friends and acquaintances, often viciously, for a long-promised roman à clef titled Answered Prayers. The book was unfinished when he died in 1984. (It was published posthumously in the United States in 1987.) But an excerpt, “La Côte Basque 1965,” was published in Esquire in 1975, exposing the inner lives of William S. Paley, head of CBS; his wife, Babe; Gloria Vanderbilt; and others. Capote was increasingly ostracized after the story appeared. (Kirkus’ review of Answered Prayers described it as “an undeniable source of slimy scuttlebutt” but “shiny and shallow.”)
Gus Van Sant is slated to direct the eight-episode adaptation, titled Feud: Capote’s Women, according to the Deadline report. Tom Hollander will play Capote, and Treat Williams will play Paley; Calista Flockhart, Diane Lane, Naomi Watts, Chloe Sevigny, and Ella Beatty have also been announced as cast members.
Mark Athitakis is a regular Kirkus contributor who also writes about books for the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and other publications.
