The Big Picture
This winter, viewers will be able to relive one of the greatest cold-blooded feuds in the history of 20th-century American literature. Feud: Truman Capote vs. The Swans, the second installment of Ryan Murphy’s Feud series, will premiere on FX on January 31.
Capote’s four “Swans” can be seen in the new key art for the series; they are Barbara “Babe” Paley (Naomi Watts), Slim Keith (Diane Lane), C.Z. Guest (Chloë Sevigny) and Lee Radziwill (Calista Flockhart). Based on Laurence Leamer’s 2021 non-fiction bestseller Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era, the series will star Tom Hollander as Truman Capote, author, essayist, and social gadfly. Over the years, Capote collected a variety of socialites who became his entourage and confidantes, dubbing them his “Swans”. However, a rift is driven between them when Cappote publishes an excerpt of his long-awaited novel Answered Prayers, which contains lightly-fictionalized and highly-unflattering portraits of them. The series will also star Demi Moore as Ann Woodward, another subject of Answered Prayers; Molly Ringwald as Joanne Carson, Capote’s friend and the ex-wife of Johnny Carson; the late Treat Williams as philandering executive Bill Paley; Joe Mantello as Capote’s longtime partner Jack Dunphy; and Russell Tovey as Capote’s ex-lover John O’Shea. The eight-episode limited series will premiere with two episodes on January 31, with new episodes airing weekly; episodes will be available to stream the next day on Hulu in the US and Disney+ internationally. A special Director’s Cut of the premiere will air on FXX, and will also stream on Hulu.
What Were the ‘Answered Prayers’?
After writing the 1966 “non-fiction novel” In Cold Blood (the research and writing of which is covered in two separate Capote biopics, Capote and Infamous, with Philip Seymour Hoffman winning an Oscar for his performance in the former), Capote struggled for years to complete his sophomore novel. The novel in question, Answered Prayers, was to focus on a writer struggling to complete his own novel as he navigates high and low society. Eventually, in 1975, he had completed four chapters of Answered Prayers, which he sold to Esquire. Once they were published, Capote’s friends recognized themselves in the book; he was subsequently shunned by much of his social circle. Capote died of liver disease in 1984, at age 59; the unfinished Answered Prayers was published posthumously, in 1986. What happened to the rest of Answered Prayers has remained a matter of debate; some theorize that Capote, distraught over the reaction of his friends to the excerpt, destroyed it; others suspect that Capote simply never finished it.
Feud: Truman Capote vs. The Swans was written by Jon Robin Baitz, and directed by Gus Van Sant (To Die For), Max Winkler (Ceremony) and Jennifer Lynch (Boxing Helena). It is executive produced by Ryan Murphy, Alexis Martin Woodall, Baitz, Van Sant, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Watts, Eric Kovtun, and Scott Robertson.
Feud: Truman Capote vs. The Swans will premiere on FX January 31. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.
