‘Feud: Capote vs. The Swans’ to Usher in a New Chapter For FX’s ‘Feud’ Series
By: Paige Cornell
Ryan Murphy’s ‘FEUD’ is debuting its second season on January 31 on FX and streaming on Hulu the next day. The series, part of an anthology focusing on famous celebrity feuds, is an eight-episode limited series based on the best-selling book ‘Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal and a Swan Song for an Era’ by Laurence Learner. The second installment of the series will focus on the downfall of Truman Capote, an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright and actor.
Truman Capote (Tom Hollander) has found himself amid a circle of upper-class women. These women are wealthy, glamorous socialites in New York City, and Capote has nicknamed the group “the swans”. Prominent and beautiful, the circle included grand dame Barbara “Babe” Paley (Naomi Watts), Slim Keith (Diane Lane), C.Z. Guest (Chloe Sevigny) and Lee Radziwill (Calista Flockhart). Feeling drawn toward the women, Capote intertwined himself into their lives, befriending them and becoming their trusted advisor, only to ultimately betray them by writing a rather thinly veiled fictionalization of their lives, exposing their inner most secrets.
When an excerpt from the book titled ‘Answered Prayers’, considered Capote’s magnum opus, receives a publication in Esquire, it ruins his relationship with “the swans”, exiled him from the world he adored, and sent him into a spiral of self-destruction, a hole from which he would never be able to climb out of.
The series cast also includes Demi Moore as Ann “Bang-Bang” Woodward, Molly Ringwald as Joanne Carson, Treat Williams as Bill Paley, Joe Mantello as Jack Dunphy and Russell Tovey as John O’Shea.
Adapted for television by Jon Robin Baitz, FX’s ‘FEUD: Capote Vs. The Swans’ was directed by Gus Van Zant, Max Winkler and Jennifer Lynch. The series is executive produced by Ryan Murphy, Alexis Martin Woodall, Baitz, Van Zant, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Naomi Watts, Eric Kovtun and Scott Robertson. It is produced by 20th Television.
You can watch the official trailer for the series on YouTube.