Faye Dunaway to write a book about "Mommie Dearest"!

[Jimmy Todd]

Fun anecdote: I know someone who worked in a post office that Ms. Dunaway used frequently. Because of her difficult manner, none of the employees wanted to deal with her. The person I know is the only one who would. It got so that Dunaway would request this person, and only want to deal with him, which was fine with all of them. When she was later in L.A., she invited this person to visit and took them out to dinner.
I asked how they were not only able to deal with Ferocious Faye, but become something of a friend to her, the reply was, "I lived with my grandma my whole life. I know how to deal with cranky old ladies."

 

[Toni]

The Joan-Faye connection deserves to be updated very often:

Ben Affleck To Direct Adaptation of ‘Big Goodbye’ For Paramount; Behind-The-Scenes Story Of The Making of ‘Chinatown’

EXCLUSIVE: After earning some of the best reviews of his acting career for The Way Back, Ben Affleck is ready to make his return behind the camera, and he looks to have zeroed in on his next directing job. We are hearing that Affleck has signed on to direct The Big Goodbye for Paramount, an adaptation of the Sam Wasson book The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood..

Affleck also would write the script. SNL’s Lorne Michaels pursued the rights to the book and brought it to the studio and will produce along with Affleck.

The non-fiction book tells the behind-the-scenes story of the 1974 film noir classic starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway. From Roman Polanski’s directing and Robert Towne’s Oscar-winning script to the twist ending that shook filmgoers to their core, Chinatown joined the long list of films to make their mark during the 1970s. Looming over the story of the classic movie is the imminent eclipse of the ’70s filmmaker-friendly studios as they gave way to the corporate Hollywood we know today.

The story is very dear to hearts of the Paramount community as it was one of the great deals made by studio head Robert Evans. He died in October but truly made his mark and not only helped turn Paramount into a juggernaut with films like Chinatown and The Godfather but helped redefine how a studio ran in the ’70s.

Affleck’s love of film history is what drew him to the project, along with the nostalgic tone the story brings. It’s unknown whether Affleck also would act in the project, but the script is sure to attract A-list talent from all over town. Between Evans and Dunaway to the great Nicholson, the number of real-life Hollywood legends set to appear in The Big Goodbye surely will attract actors to portray the people they grew up admiring.

The film marks Argo helmer Affleck’s first directing job since 2016’s Live by Night, as he has focused on acting over the past four years. He is coming off the sports drama The Way Back, which again not only earned him critical acclaim but ended up doing big PVOD numbers after COVID-19 pandemic forced Warner Bros. to release it early on-demand.

https://deadline.com/2020/08/ben-af...ramount-about-making-of-chinatown-1203007502/

Now it´s Joan´s turn to laugh!! Faye must be scared to death of who and how she will be portrayed...

"Now you´ll know what it feels like..."​

 

[ginnyfan]

Maybe they can get Jessica Lange to do Faye.

 

[Toni]

Maybe they can get Jessica Lange to do Faye.

That would be poetic justice!!

 

[Alexis Colby Carrington]

Maybe they can get Jessica Lange to do Faye.

I take it they don't get along?

 

[Toni]

I take it they don't get along?

Who knows, but since Jessica Lange "did" Joan in "Feud", maybe she could also "do" Faye. Anyway she is far too old to play her in the age she was in "Chinatown" (around 30s). But just the thought of it is outrageously funny...

​

 

[Brian Kinney]

This is Hollywood hypocrisy at his best: delete Roman Polanski from the list of Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science members and greenlight a film where Roman Polanski is inevitable one of the main characters . As much as I love the brilliant Chinatown - I don't see an audience going for it and didn't like Affleck's director debut film Live By Night. If it's Josh Gad as Jack Nicholson I'm definitely out. However I'll order Sam Wasson's book because it sounds very interesting to me.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I love when Faye pretends to be a normal person with a normal temperament...

 

[Crimson]

Interesting new doc on MOMMIE DEAREST (film, not so much the book) and its impact on the legacies of both Joan & Faye

 

[DallasFanForever]

I didn’t realize just how much Faye regrets doing that movie.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

And here it is, not her first time at the rodeo...

 

[darkshadows38]

i dunno why this film gets the hate it does it's actually a pretty good movie and among my favorites i look at it this way, some of it is honesty and some of it for the film is them over doing shit and lying about it. personally i think that Joan did do a lot of the shit that's in the film her mother was where she learned it from though i really doubt she ever realized that. but what's really curious is she was awful to Christina part of it no doubt was she stood up for herself i think but that was later i think.
and Christopher i don't remember, the twins seemed to be the only kids she was good to my guess is cause they behaved really good to take a guess ?

but than the twins also said Christina was lying about the abuse i don't think she is, what's also interesting is that her if my memory is right her Original version is apparently really poorly written the one that was put out in what (1978) is when she had been helped and some of it the publisher put in i dunno if that's true or not but that's what i've heard. later in life you also had Christina changing stories so who really knows? my guess her memory on some of it maybe faded i don't know
either way i've always thought she had a terrible child hood with Joan even if the events have been changed over the years i dunno

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

the twins also said Christina was lying about the abuse i don't think she is,

The twins seemed like deeply damaged women, for whatever reason. They came along later and were sent off to boarding school earlier.

later in life you also had Christina changing stories

What has she changed? She has added stuff, like suggesting Al Steele's death was suspicious, for similar reasons that Bette Davis' husband's death was suspicious (ie. they pushed 'em).

Christina did assert that the twins weren't really twins, but DNA tests showed they indeed were; I'd like to hear her rationale for that._

 

[darkshadows38]

i've only heard that she was changing her stories i dunno if she actually is. i also don't know enough about the twins to say they were damaged but perhaps they were?
what's really interesting her kids Crawford's i mean were from one of the most evil women who ever f... lived Georgia Tan

 

[darkshadows38]

i was reading i forget where or when maybe a year or so ago how even today the Georgia Tan babies are still somehow finding each other after all these years since they were taken away from their family's they are at there age meeting siblings they didn't know they had and Georgia Tan has been dead what 70 years now? or close to it so they are pretty up there in years if i'm not mistaken

 

[Crimson]

What has she changed? She has added stuff, like suggesting Al Steele's death was suspicious

I know she published a modified version of MOMMIE DEAREST some years after the original; I haven't read it, but I don't think the changes were significant.

When people talk about Christina's story changing, they usually mean her pre-MOMMIE DEAREST comments on Joan, which are vastly different than her later allegations. There are reasons both sympathetic and cynical to explain why her account changed, but it did change. If the allegations were tried in a court of law rather than court of public opinion, I think Christina would have been shredded on the witness stand. Either Version A was untruthful or Version B was untruthful, but either way it puts a dent in her credibility. I don't disbelieve Christina in a broad way, but can still find her motivations and credibility to be shaky.

And I have no answers here. I am sympathetic to victims, but also very wary of guilt-by-accusation. The MOMMIE DEAREST situation presaged the modern #MeToo dilemma by 40 some years.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I know she published a modified version of MOMMIE DEAREST some years after the original; I haven't read it, but I don't think the changes were significant.

When people talk about Christina's story changing, they usually mean her pre-MOMMIE DEAREST comments on Joan, which are vastly different than her later allegations. There are reasons both sympathetic and cynical to explain why her account changed, but it did change. If the allegations were tried in a court of law rather than court of public opinion, I think Christina would have been shredded on the witness stand. Either Version A was untruthful or Version B was untruthful, but either way it puts a dent in her credibility. I don't disbelieve Christina in a broad way, but can still find her motivations and credibility to be shaky.

And I have no answers here. I am sympathetic to victims, but also very wary of guilt-by-accusation. The MOMMIE DEAREST situation presaged the modern #MeToo dilemma by 40 some years.

Yes, just as BD Hyman (who is loathsome) said nice things about mama Bette Davis before writing "My Mother's Keeper" (to my mind a far less credible memoir, but one which probably contained a lot of truths within it).

 

[darkshadows38]

that's what i was trying to say about Christina, with B.D. yes i find that funny too how there is footage of her saying nice things about her, but than she w as offered money to do the book and she got greedy, her brother told her you can't take it back don't do it and she said but i already took the money he said so give it back he told her. i can't she said i think she had already spent it. the thing about that book is that it came out if i recall in (1983) or was it announced? i forget which i think it was released in (1983) when Bette Davis was in the hospital for having a stroke. that's a cold thing to do at that time i think. Davis i don't think ever spoke to her daughter ever again i mean she Literally broke her heart and there was a note in Davis's 2nd Bio which i have both where she made a note about the name of her daughters title at the back on the book i forget what it was though i'd have to go and look.

Christina i believe more than B.D. as for the later edition of Mommie Dearest i hear that version is badly written as a said i haven't read that version nor own it. why do i believe Christina more? well look up what Davis said about it and i think she was right, i was going to explain what it was but i don't want to offend anyone here in case i word it wrong

 

[DallasFanForever]

No matter what kind of mother I felt I grew up with, I would never write a tell all book about the things she had done. That’s just me.

It would be unfair of me to condemn Christina for doing what she felt she had to do without ever having walked in her shoes. It’s her life. She lived it, and I hope her account is all true to be honest for those are pretty harsh accusations to make about your own mother if they aren’t true.

As for Faye’s book, I would love to read it just for the entertainment value alone. I’ve read so many stories and rumors about what went on on that set over the years that I think it would be an interesting read at the very least.

Or maybe like the movie itself, we will never be able to separate fact from fiction.

 

[darkshadows38]

exactly i had a bad child hood but it wasn't because of my mother it was cause of the douche bags at school for example. and no i wouldn't write a book either about her either. i dunno if she did it for the money or if that was her way of healing ? i don't think it's always for the money or else i'd like to believe that anyways