From "Lee Radziwill, Ex-Princess and Sister of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Dies at 85" (NYT).
I've never been interested in Princess Radziwill, but I'm thoroughly intrigued by the news that Vidal sued Truman Capote for saying that he was drunk when what he was really doing was antagonizing Robert Kennedy.
Here's an article from People from 1979: "Sued by Gore Vidal and Stung by Lee Radziwill, a Wounded Truman Capote Lashes Back at the Dastardly Duo." That's the way we talked back then, 40 years ago — "dastardly duo."
Says Capote of Vidal: “I’m always sad about Gore—very sad that he has to breathe every day.” Retorts Vidal: “Truman made lying an art form—a minor art form.”Celebrities were so much better then — better at talking, I mean.
The spat, legal and otherwise, springs from a 1975 Playgirl interview in which Capote charged that Vidal had been bounced from a 1961 White House party because of drunken and obnoxious behavior. Should it ever come to trial, the case could feature cameo court appearances by such eminent eyewitnesses as John Kenneth Galbraith, George Plimpton, Arthur Schlesinger Jr.—and even Jackie O herself. Capote has given a preview of the fireworks-to-come in a withering blast at the guest of honor of that ill-starred Camelot bash—Jackie’s little sister, Princess Lee Radziwill, 46.fKeeping up with the Auchinclosses. By the way, "[)]" is not an emoji — what would it be an emoji for? — It's me providing the close-paren that People left out.
It was Princess Lee, says Capote, who told him that Gore was tossed out of a White House function. Vidal’s alleged offenses: putting his arm around Jackie and insulting her mother, Mrs. Hugh D. Auchincloss. (Curiously, Gore’s mother was a previous Mrs. Hugh D. Auchincloss.[)]
Guests at the party... deny that Vidal was forcibly ejected, though they confirm that he squabbled with Bobby. And Lee herself—on whose testimony Truman had counted—shocked him by signing an affidavit for Vidal. “I do not recall ever discussing with Truman Capote the incident or the evening,” she declared in the document. Replies Capote angrily: “She’s just a treacherous lady, and that’s the truth of it. She’s treacherous to absolutely everyone.”Okay, the "treacherous lady" is dead now and so are Capote and Vidal, the men she called "two fags." Capote fought back at the time:
What did the princess think of being caught in the quarrel? “We know what they are,” she told a New York gossip columnist. “They are two fags. It is just the most disgusting thing.”
“We all know a fag is a homosexual gentleman who has just left the room,” he said, and went on to define a Southern fag as “meaner than the meanest rattler you ever met.”... “I know that Lee wouldn’t want me tellin’ none of this,” he giggled, “but you know us Southern fags. We just can’t keep our mouths shut.”...
“You know, she calls herself a princess,” he marveled in falsetto. “I always thought that a princess was the daughter of a king and a queen.” (Radziwill’s title dates back to her 1959 marriage to Polish Prince Stanislas Radziwill, whom she divorced in 1974.) ... He accused Lee of jealousy toward her sister (“The princess kind of had it in mind that she was going to marry Mr. Onassis herself”) and claimed she once tried to woo author William F. Buckley Jr. away from his wife....
“You know, I was placed in an impossible situation by this whole thing,” he says. “It wasn’t as though I sat down and was deliberately being vindictive. She simply didn’t tell the truth.” He accuses Radziwill of turning sister Jackie against him, then deserting him for Vidal during Capote’s lengthy struggle against liquor and pills. “I think she kind of thought I wasn’t going to pull myself out of that the way I did,” he surmises.
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79 comments:
I assume Vidal “antagonized” Bobby Kennedy because he was drunk.
Truman Capote let his man crush on the Jr partner in the Clutter family murders cloud his judgment when he wrote “In Cold Blood”.
as Big Mike said... Embrace The Power of the word "AND"
In both the Polish-Lithuanian and Russian aristocracy, there were hereditary Princes, as that was a translation of the Russian native title - knyaz. The Poles-Lithuanians acquired Russian titles at various times. On the flip side there was no comparable title of Duke.
In general this is just a difference of terminology.
In "War and Peace" you have several of these Princes, both historical and fictional - Prince Andrei for one.
The Radziwills were an extremely powerful family of Lithuanian magnates, well known for their political games. A historical Radziwill is a traitorous villain in Sienkiewicz' "The Deluge"
"Earthly ruin, a fallen soul, darkness, nothingness-that is all he managed to attain as a reward for service to himself"
Perhaps the rare example of someone taking sort of a silly personal dispute that's not about money to court and actually getting some relief: he won the suit and got an apology.
Though I wonder what that apology looked like? Are court-ordered apologies satisfying? They really only humiliate the apologizer because the recipient knows the apology is not sincere--it is court ordered.
When public figures threaten to sue over these alleged slanders and libels it usually (not always) seems so childish and desperate. Even a large money verdict doesn't always bring vindication.
Now this is amusing. Fags, indeed. Try saying that word out loud today. I'm surprised they published it. Were Vidal and Capote ever linked romantically? I had never heard of Lee Radziwill before today. Those were the days; much more fun and entertaining. Compare to today where we have SNL airing yet another boring skit attacking president Trump, and Katy Perry is forced to remove from the market shoes with fun designs on them because they're racist.
Looking back now I find the 60's and 70's were much more interesting - at least in terms of what was going on in public.
"Celebrities were so much better than — better at talking, I mean." I'm not sure it was just celebrities. Here in my small central VA town they're doing video oral histories at an assisted care facility and I watched the trailer - and it was like time travel - both the accents and the more colorful, elaborate language made me realize how differently we talk now.
In my blog about the movie Dirty Dancing, I have published an 11-part series of articles about the song "Moon River". The song became famous from the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's, based on Truman Capote's novella of the same name.
My series of articles begins here.
"Looking back now I find the 60's and 70's were much more interesting - at least in terms of what was going on in public."
Its been argued that by various measures American, and probably Western, civilization peaked around 1970. The seeds of destruction were germinating of course. Technology proceeds regardless, and hides the decline.
"Breakfast at Tiffany's"
Audrey Hepburn made that movie. There can be no more Audrey Hepburns. The modern world doesn't make them.
Where Althouse says "Celebrities were so much better than", I believe the correct usage should be "better then"........Capote created some scandals in his personal life, but they we're nothing compared to the scandals he dispensed about the people he knew. Ditto Gire Vidal, but Capote was the champ......Neither man was ever attacked by Goldwater loving Republicans. They lacked imagination back then.
Quite awhile ago I read Noel Coward's Diary (available on Amazon used) and I recall the entry where he mentioned that Vidal and Capote, then good friends, had come to call. After describing the visit, he wrote "Thank God, i'm normal."
There can be no more Audrey Hepburns. The modern world doesn't make them.
I'm sure they're still getting cranked out, but I always found her to be slightly creepy, like a manikin pretending to be a 12 year old human.
That people of that class put up with an awful human being like Gore Vidal shows just how much slack the upper crust cut each other.
I bet much of the clown-car wreck that is "our betters" exists along similar lines of tolerance for incompetence & nastiness.
Truman Capote is about one year older than Gore Vidal. The White House incident happened in 1961, when Capote and Vidal were about 37 and 38 years old.
Both became successful novelists in the late 1940s. Vidal's novel Williwaw was published in 1947, and Capote's Other Voices, Other Rooms was published in 1948.
The first feature movie made from a Vidal work, The Catered Affair, was released in 1956. The first feature movie made from a Capote work, Breakfast at Tiffany's was released in 1961.
Although Capote was a year older, his successes trailed Vidal's by a year or two.
Audrey Hepburn became an archetype. Natalie Portman and Keira Knightly share some of her properties. Lily James is a pretty fair Audrey Hepburn......There were lots of dumb blondes before Marilyn Monroe, but Audrey Hepburn created the Audrey Hepburn role.
"Celebrities were so much better than — better at talking, I mean."
Hmm:
“They are two fags. It is just the most disgusting thing.”
Well, Vidal did get attacked by Buckley on national television. History has not been kind to Buckley. It's now an accepted fact that Republicans are all "crypto-Nazis" and only a hateful bigot would respond to that factual observation by calling his accuser a "faggot".
She was perfect for that one Twilight Zone.
I am accustomed to that Audrey Hepburn personality.
You will find the genuine thing, still, among the Philippine upper class.
You really need a true hereditary upper class, a genuine landed gentry, to make it.
It is a curious combination, I agree. They can be truly lovely people, raised in an odd combination of shelter and earthliness, of the certainty and reliability of power plus very rigid social norms. A grande dame of that lot is both exquisitely delicate and extremely formidable.
Note that this is a social condition, not actual titles. In the Philippines they never had titles (other than foreign ones), but de facto they were and are aristocrats.
Cory Aquino was just like that. Audrey Hepburn either came by it naturally, being an actual aristocrat (her mother was a Baroness), or learned to fake it.
"Looking back now I find the 60's and 70's were much more interesting - at least in terms of what was going on in public."
Its been argued that by various measures American, and probably Western, civilization peaked around 1970.
There is also an argument that IQ peaked in mid-Victorian times.
Vidal's novel "Burr" was pretty good.
Me-ow!
One of the best books I ever read was C. David Heymann's Bobby and Jackie: A Love Story. Hermann assembled an amazing amount of evidence that Robert Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy had a sexual affair that lasted (as I remember) at least for a year after the assassination of John Kennedy. Anyone who reads the book will not have any doubt at all that there was such an affair.
While JFK still was alive, he had an affair with Jackie's sister Lee Radziwill. Later Radzwill had an affair with Aristotle Onassis. Then, to get revenge for Lee's affair with JFK, Jackie had an affair with Onassis. This Jackie-Onassis affair happened while JFK was President.
In 1968, Onassis funded the assassination of Robert Kennedy.
--------
Compare the Kennedy family with the Trump family.
"That people of that class put up with an awful human being like Gore Vidal shows just how much slack the upper crust cut each other."
The upper crust isn't what it used to be, and progs can't abide faux pas that truly threaten The Narrative or The Project (where are you, Les Moonves? Al Franken?), but the new ruling class cuts its members plenty of slack--neither Al Sharpton nor John Brennan have been exorcised, Alec Baldwin still gets to play Trump.
As Billy Wilder said: “God kissed Audrey Hepburn on the cheek, and there she was”
Every generation gets the fags it deserves.
Audrey Hepburns personality matched her roles, as in "Roman Holiday", which were very traditional.
The ingenue in 18th-19th century theater was often an aristocrat, or a princess.
In "My Fair Lady" she transitions into it, her natural fit.
In "Breakfast at Tiffanys" she was also doing something traditional, pretending to such status, an open-imposter. This was another staple of the 19th century, the demimondaine. Think of "La Dame aux Camelias", or "La Traviata".
Dastardly, now there's a word for you. One of the unlettered members of the House of Representatives was screaming "racist" a few years back when another member used the word "niggardly" to describe a paltry sum of money which had been appropriated for some purpose. The fact that the Representative did not understand the meaning of the word says something about his or her level of intelligence. Heck that kind of thinking leads to the idea that you can tip over Guam if you put one more B-52 on it.
The problem these days is that such poltroons as Schumer and Pelosi don't rise to the level of humanity where they could legitimately be described as "dastardly". It's a five dollar word which can not be properly used when describing a two-bit politician.
["Celebrities were so much better than — better at talking, I mean."
Hmm:
“They are two fags. It is just the most disgusting thing.”]
And you make three, disgusting things that is. Are you a passive or an active disgusting thing? Is there really any doubt?
Vidal was viciously funny. He wrote that once at a party he was about to sit on what he thought was a tuffet but then realized it was just Truman.
Come to think of it, "Breakfast at Tiffany's" is very much like "La Traviata", and etc., thematically and to a degree in plot. Other than the tuberculosis of course. The movie more so than the book IIRC, and I think that was the influence of Hepburn.
Tuberculosis in Traviata ?
George: No, it's gotta be a woman.
Lucy: What a surprise. I suppose a certain bust size would help. Maybe some bathing-suit shots?
George: It will annoy Howard if it's a woman. Tell you what. All I want is someone as intelligent as you but a little less tense and argumentative. A sort of Katharine Hepburn figure.
Lucy: You don't deserve Katharine Hepburn.
George: Audrey Hepburn.
Lucy: Also too good. Just stay away from the Hepburns.
Two Weeks Notice (2002)
Yeah, I forgot. We were supposed to see it a week ago but I was ick.
There isn't a lot of overlap between Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe, but I think Marilyn Monroe would have been great in Breakfast at Tiffany's.
Tuberculosis in Traviata ?
Yes. That's what kills Violetta in act 3.
Trumpit: "And you make three, disgusting things that is. Are you a passive or an active disgusting thing?"
Maybe he's just muslim.
Yes of course, tuberculosis in Traviata. Consumption in a contemporary English translation. It gives the dying Violetta the excuse to sing a couple of arias and a duet in the last act.
If you want nasty repartee Vidal-Capote were two of the best. Neither of them let the truth get in the way of a good story, or a nasty crack.
Both could be hilarious. Vidal was much better at seeming to be reasonable and truthful. I can remember hearing his TV anecdotes about historical figures and reading his essays in the 1980s. Then I started reading some real history and discovered he was a BS artist who just made up shit.
I'm currently reading a Tennessee Williams biography, and it seems he, Vidal, Capote used to go "cruising" together for Italian boys in the 1950s.
As for the Kennedy's. Its a good thing JFK was the first Catholic POTUS and the family were Democrats. I wonder what their reputation would be if they'd been Republicans?
So the Princess was a Fag Hag. What a trio.
The whole Buckley-Vidal feud was fun to read about. It never went to court because both men had skeletons in their closet. Or rather WFB, didn't think it worth the money and energy to pursue. IRC, he settled for an apology from the magazine and a retraction of the article.
But he had plenty of ammo on Vidal. There's a reason Vidal lived in Rome and used to go to Bangkok a lot. And it wasn't for the curry.
And let's not forget the Vidal vs Mailer dust-up.
I assume Vidal “antagonized” Bobby Kennedy because he was drunk.
More likely it was because Bobby K. told him that Jerry Lewis movie he wrote stunk of cum-breath.
Caroline Lee Bouvier kept that ridiculous title long after divorcing her second husband. In later years it to make certain no one confused her with Marjorie Jacqueline Bouvier, which was tragic.
Her Serene Highness Princess Lee Radziwiłł sounds impressive unless one remembers the whole "serene highness" crap was invented to sort out the politically important aristocrats from the titled idiots.
(reposted minus typos)
The plus side of TB is that it gives a woman's cheeks a rosy flush. It is also said to boost sexual appetite and aid in weight control. There are worse ways for a beautiful woman in an opera to perish..........JFK was rumored to have been with Audrey Hepburn. Also Sophia Loren, Angie Dickinson, Marlene Dietrich, and Gene Tierney. So far as is known at the present time, there were no threesomes with any of the above. He really missed out on a lot. Woody Allen had threesomes, but no threesomes for JFK.
In "War and Peace" you have several of these Princes, both historical and fictional - Prince Andrei for one.
As Muscovy expanded in the 16th century it absorbed a number of lesser principalities, some ruled by mini-tsars. Ivan the Terrible allowed them to restyle themselves as Prince This and Prince That in exchange for not being troublesome. For the troublesome ones, there were the Black Hundreds.
Gore was a rich gay punk his father was the head of the FAA precursor he was a far left figure, a vicious anti semite, yet he found no traction when he ran for office in the 80s nowadays he might win the nomination for some office
In California or New York, he was a playwright of limited talent, but many polemical opinions.
Capote picked the wrong fag to fight. The Alabama boy tangled with east coast aristocracy. They stick together. Especially when they are wrong.
Celebrities certainly dressed better in the 60's.
Jackie's mother Janet Lee Bouvier tried to pass herself off as a Lee of Virginia when she came to the DC area, but the reigning matriarch said no, she'd heard it came from Levy.
Vidal's histories made mighty good reading: Burr, Lincoln, 1876, Empire, Hollywood. Mix 'em, match 'em. Collect the whole set.
Gore Vidal v Truman Capote in court?
If I may paraphrase Henry Kissinger on the Iran-Iraq War in the early 80s - too bad they both can't lose:)
I'd swear Caspar Weinberger said that. Maybe they both did.
a case of "scribbling rivalry"?
Antagonizing Robert Kennedy? Whoa, #StrangeNewRespect.
(Aside to Big Mike: why not start out with the more basic assumption that Vidal antagonized RFK because he deserved it?)
Althouse,
"What would it be an emoji for?"
A smiling blockhead.
" A historical Radziwill is a traitorous villain in Sienkiewicz' The Deluge"
Damn you, buwaya.... now I've got to go reread it and I don't have time for this... ;-) And With Fire and Sword, while I'm at it, despite the execrable translation ("with the forehead!")
I find it hard to believe anyone was drunk at the Kennedy White House.
If you want to be kind of repulsed by Gore Vidal, watch Netflix's "The Voyeur"
Those two deserved each other.
Speaking of Gilda Radner above, anyone remember her SNL skit where Roseanne Rosannadanna accosted Lee Radziwell in a restaurant to tell her that she had a piece of toilet paper trailing from one of her high heels?
Blogger buwaya said...
Yes of course, tuberculosis in Traviata.
I must have been thinking of Tosca. I haven't seen Traviata in years. It was in Tucson on the 3rd but I was hors de combat. Wasted good seats. Marriage of Figaro in three weeks.
" Celebrities were so much better then — better at talking, I mean."
They were writers for goodness sakes, and in the case of Capote, excellent ones.
I only knew of quo vadis, its available at project guttenberg
https://culture.pl/en/work/the-deluge-henryk-sienkiewicz
He seemed very amusing on the tonight show less so in other venues, his essays in the nation were enormously anti American and anti semitic,
I'm speaking about Vidal, of course. He spoke about the national security state, but he would likely approve of what they are doing to trump.
The new translations (1990s) of Sienkiewicz Polish history series are very worthwhile.
Great adventure stories. Cossacks and Tatars and winged hussars.
Sienkiewicz is unjustly forgotten. Maybe because he was a Pole and a Patriot.
Here's part of an adaptation
https://youtu.be/6BWgNjtJjwQ
Peter Evans tale is a fascinating scenario, onassis is like a bond villain a real life largo or blofeld, who exemplifies balzac line about great fortunes and their source.
This too I found is quite fun enjoyable.
How to steal...
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060522/
I find that the translator of the "Witcher" (Sapkowski) fantasy novels (sons more or less forced them on me), managed a curiously similar tone to the new translations of Sienkiewicz. There is a Polish sensibility to them, I think, that comes across both. You hear it in dialogue. It is simple, tough, understated, laconic even. The humor is mostly tongue in cheek.
Celebrities were better then, in general. Most people who became stars did so in part because they were likeable: Mary Tyler Moore. The rest were accomplished (the unlikeable Vidal and unlikeable Norman Mailer for example). Now we get Cardi B, or Steven Colbert.
YoungHagelian wrote: And let's not forget the Vidal vs Mailer dust-up.
Among the things I can hardly endure remembering was that bitchy bore versus bloviating bore imbroglio. Thus I eshewed your carefully sought for link. Until just now. Outstanding. Thank you.
It involves the earlier application of a hate crime hoax, allegedly occurring in Buckley's home town of sharon conn.
What a great post.
Althouse provides the vehicle for her stable of phenomenal commenters to flex their historical muscle, and wry wit, exploring the "Beautiful people" of a bygone era. What great Sunday fun.
Vidal had the talent for the cutting bon mot. Here's two off the top of my head.
"The three saddest words in English literature are Joyce Carol Oates."
After a fight in which Norman Mailer sent him to the floor, "Once again, words fail Norman."
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