"MRS. GRENVILLE, must you leave?"
"I wish you'd call me Alice."
"I don't think I could ever do that."
And so it went between Ann-Margret and Claudette Colbert in the 1987 deluxe TV version of Dominick Dunne's deluxe not-so-fictional novel, "The Two Mrs. Grenvilles."
Dominick's book was based on the real-life 1955 scandal of Billy and Ann Woodward. He was heir to the Hanover Bank fortune. She was a showgirl. They married, tempestuously. She shot him to death, "by mistake." His mother, in an effort to staunch the dirty laundry, publicly backed her shotgun totin' daughter-in-law. Privately, she believed Ann had deliberately murdered Billy.
Truman Capote wrote a thinly disguised version of these events in his notorious 1965 "Le Cote Basque" article for Esquire, all but accusing Ann of murder. She committed suicide shortly after the piece appeared. (Capote had also done himself in, socially. Tru had told too much about too many.)
The Dominick Dunne movie is finally, at long last, out on DVD from Warner Bros. Directed by John Erman this was filmed at the peak of the lush '80s miniseries genre, and it's great! Ann Margret chews the scenery to a nub, and then chomps down even more, as the voluptuous social climber with a seedy past. Miss Colbert, in what would be her last film appearance, underplays exquisitely. The fire and ice confrontations between the two stars are electrifying.
Stephen Collins appears as the doomed, decadent heir, but the movie belongs to the two Mrs. Grenvilles. (Staircase scenes, hospital room scenes, graveyard scenes -- Ann-Margret and Colbert are fed sirloin, and devour it.)
I usually save this accolade for feature films from the golden age of Hollywood, but it applies as well to this masterpiece of glamorous TV melodrama: "They don't make 'em like this anymore!"
HEY, YOU people planning vacations. London becomes good value as the pound falls. The Lonely Planet guide points this out, claiming that dear old London town is one of the world's top 10 best-value attractions with lots of cheap hotels and free museums. The editor Tom Hall writes: "The tables have turned and London's reputation as one of the world's most expensive cities is over."
Other cheap spots -- Iceland, South Africa, Las Vegas and Kenya!
ACTOR John Hurt is trying to get his sequel movie on the late gay doyenne Quentin Crisp up and running. Hurt played Crisp in the 1975 classic "The Naked Civil Servant" and now "An Englishman in New York' should already be released. It's been in the can for more than 18 months. It has the distinction of taking its title from the song by Sting, whose inspiration was Mr. Crisp. As the latter was so popular in New York, there is great anticipation. "Of course, I'm a bit fed up about the delay!" says Hurt. He is hoping the film will appear in late December, but who knows? (Is Mr. Hurt unaware that "An Englishman..." is running on America's Logo Channel; devoted to all things gay?)
...IF YOUR dog lived at the White House, like Bo, the Portuguese Water Dog belonging to Malia and Sasha Obama, you could expect things like a birthday "cake" shaped into a dog kennel and made out of veal. It's a dog's life but not at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
...SPEAKING of that, Sir Roger Moore joined the anti-foie gras brigade and says he'll fight to get shoppers to stop buying the goose liver product. He didn't say that as a forerunner of 007, James Bond, he'd give up champagne and caviar.
...AFRICANS ARE BESEIGING MADONNA'S school charity in Malawi, demanding more money for the land on which the school is to be built. One hundred forty protestors have blocked the building of The Raising Malawi Academy for Girls, which would accommodate about 500 young girls. It's already costing Madonna about $15 million. Hmm, no good deed goes unpunished!
...THE LADY Lynn de Rothschild is pouring when the popular actress Emma Thompson arrives in New York City tomorrow to be honored by the UN Journalists of the Dag Hammarskjold Fund. Such as Diane Sawyer, former Merchant & Ivory CEO Donald Rosenfeld, Joanne Woodward, CEO of Avenue Capital Group Marc Lasry and others will be there at River House to applaud Emma. And let's not forget Mike Nichols who produced her film "Remains of the Day" and directed her in a takeoff of Hillary Clinton in the film "Primary Colors." Emma doesn't suffer fools gladly and I'm happy to see she is an anti-Twitter person. "I can't imagine anything more banal. I would rather have root canal than go on Twitter."
...MEL GIBSON sold the British rights to his movie distribution arm to a Russian billionaire Len Blavatnik. Mel is very rich, but has a new baby girl to add to his first family of seven kids.
...AN ENORMOUS sculpted statue of Mao Tse-Tung, as big as the faces on Mt. Rushmore in the Dakotas, has been shaped in Changsha, looking toward the Yuelu Mountain. It portrays the communist leader as a young revolutionary with flowing hair. He doesn't look like the bloodthirsty villain of recent books of Chinese history.
I WAS sorry to read that Orso, the Hollywood power restaurant, is closing as of Nov. 21. This trattoria near Robertson Boulevard had a delightful garden. New York's own Joe Allen, who has another popular Orso on West 46th Street in New York, created it.
The last time I sat in the West Coast Orso garden, I was with the wonderful Roddy McDowall who regaled me with anecdotes about La La Land stars. He'd been a child star who knew everyone in the world. He is missed and Orso will be as well!
(E-mail Liz Smith at MES3838@aol.com, or write to her c/o Tribune Media Services, 2225 Kenmore Ave., Suite 114, Buffalo, NY 14207.)
