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FOX to fight Olivia de Havilland in Feud lawsuit

Studio says no permissions of any kind were required for its questionable portrayal of 101 year old actress.

Unbelievably, FOX 21 Television Studios is planning to take on 101 year old actress Olivia de Havilland in the lawsuit that hangs over her portrayal in Ryan Murphy’s Feud miniseries.

The studio is clearly motivated by protecting its future turf to dramatise living persons, but it’s hard to see how it will win the PR war on this one.

De Havilland is upset she was depicted as a gossiping veteran, telling tales from the set of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? As the only living principal she refuted the portrayal by Catherine Zeta-Jones (pictured), penned by Ryan Murphy, who acknowledges he did not approach her.

“Our project was a meticulously researched dramatization of the well-documented feud between actresses Bette Davis and Joan Crawford,” the studio said in a statement. “The law on this is very clear: no permissions of any kind were required in order to tell the tale. Docudramas, such as this one, are original narrative works, based on real, verifiable facts and events. By the logic of Ms. de Havilland’s attorneys, no producer would be able to tell any stories about famous people, living or dead without their consent. We respectfully disagree with Ms. de Havilland’s objections to her portrayal, and we stand by the content, including her portrayal, and will vigorously defend this project.”

This week de Havilland asked the court to speed up the trial schedule for her suit, given her age, hoping to wrap it before her 102nd birthday.

Source: Variety

7 Responses

  1. You’d think an 101 year old would have better things to do than get involved in a law suit. But given that she has been feuding with her own sister, Joan Fontaine, for decades it is obvious that Olivia has issues with people she doesn’t like.

  2. Huge implications for true story dramas if she wins, which I doubt she will. Probably more a case of making a statement that she doesn’t agree with how she was depicted.

    She didn’t show much class when she turned 100 and made derogatory remarks about her dead sister.

  3. As revealed in Shatner’s ‘Chaos on the Bridge’ about the sometimes crass behaviour of studio moguls, showrunners and producers when dealing with Gene Roddenberry until his death during the making ‘Star Trek the Next Generation’, commercial considerations, studio promotions and money have no respect for the sensitivities or reputation of personalities or actors unless someone actually stands up to them.

  4. Fox 21 should be praying Olivia lives for another 5 years – for should she go to the Great Star’s Dressing Room in the Sky anytime soon, they’ll be known as the studio that killed Maid Marian and Melanie Hamilton; what next, are they going to try and run over Bambi!

    1. Ryan Murphy must be wishing it would all go away, or even to settle out of court. FOX clearly wants the right to dramatise ppl in future projects, so it can’t risk a precedent. But it doesn’t look good for Murphy’s name in Hollywood. Imagine the press coverage and pics.

  5. I hope Maid Marian destroys Fox.

    I would really like to know if Gina Rinehart extracted a pound of flesh from Channel Nine over “House of Hancock.”

    1. Her party said it wasn’t about money. But she won with a grovelling apology issued to her. Another case on Paper Giants for Ita Buttrose’s former husband ended in an out of court settlement.

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