Hollywood and Law
Mar. 6th, 2018 01:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fabrisseOlivia de Havilland is an interesting woman. She's 101, won two best actress Oscars, and beat Jack Warner by suing the studio under California's peonage law. The De Havilland Decision is a huge component of California labor law, still quoted today in many rulings. While I've never sought out her movies, there isn't a performance of hers that I haven't enjoyed. She has recently sued Ryan Murphy for using her as a character in the miniseries Feud.
Many people know that her sister was the actress Joan Fontaine, and, speaking of feuds, the two of them did not get along well. Most of the stories about their estrangement came from Ms Fontaine, and when she wrote her autobiography, she did not spare the dirt. To which her older sister said (paraphrase), "I remember it differently." Ms de Havilland didn't shoot back in any way; she remained mum.
Her most famous role is probably as Melanie Hamilton Wilkes in Gone with the Wind. The role was offered Joan who told Mr. Selznick that it would better suit her sister (there are conflicting reports as to whether she described Olivia as "mealy-mouthed"). Olivia de Havilland snapped the role up, and did a great job. It got her out of the Errol Flynn swashbuckler rut and made her the second lady of the Warner Brothers' lot, after Bette Davis and before Joan Crawford joined them. (No comment on the subject matter implied; Gone with the Wind is fascinating, but it's also propaganda for slave owners and the glory of the Confederacy.)
Anyway, there's an interesting article on her and on the current lawsuit. One of the more interesting items for me, is that the producers of Feud are defending the decision to portray her on the screen without permission based on a previous case where the person portrayed was dead.
It's apparently doubtful that she'll win, but there are some interesting moral issues about docudramas and other forms of real person fiction.
Many people know that her sister was the actress Joan Fontaine, and, speaking of feuds, the two of them did not get along well. Most of the stories about their estrangement came from Ms Fontaine, and when she wrote her autobiography, she did not spare the dirt. To which her older sister said (paraphrase), "I remember it differently." Ms de Havilland didn't shoot back in any way; she remained mum.
Her most famous role is probably as Melanie Hamilton Wilkes in Gone with the Wind. The role was offered Joan who told Mr. Selznick that it would better suit her sister (there are conflicting reports as to whether she described Olivia as "mealy-mouthed"). Olivia de Havilland snapped the role up, and did a great job. It got her out of the Errol Flynn swashbuckler rut and made her the second lady of the Warner Brothers' lot, after Bette Davis and before Joan Crawford joined them. (No comment on the subject matter implied; Gone with the Wind is fascinating, but it's also propaganda for slave owners and the glory of the Confederacy.)
Anyway, there's an interesting article on her and on the current lawsuit. One of the more interesting items for me, is that the producers of Feud are defending the decision to portray her on the screen without permission based on a previous case where the person portrayed was dead.
It's apparently doubtful that she'll win, but there are some interesting moral issues about docudramas and other forms of real person fiction.
