Mommie Dearest: Difference between revisions
DWRDP
m (removed Category:Golden Raspberry Award using HotCat) |
(DWRDP) |
||
Line 1:
{{work}}
{{cleanup|There should likely be separate pages for the book and movie.}}
[[File:MommieDearestBook_817.jpg|frame]]
To put it more bluntly and in more detail, the book pretty much destroyed the reputation of Joan Crawford in the eyes of the public, as far as the book's revelations about her systematic abuse of her children, Christina in particular. The book's vivid recounting of Joan's psychotic behavior and abuse of her children polarized Hollywood into camps of those who confirmed Christina's story (or acknowledge that the signs of the abuse were there and that no one said anything about it) and those who proclaimed that the novel was a revenge plot, designed by Christina to ruin her mother's name after finding out that she was being cut out of her mother's will and as a means to gain fame, as her own attempt to launch an acting career had fallen short.
The book can be seen as one of the first (and arguably most successful) of the genre of nasty tell-all biographies of stars from the [[Golden Age of Hollywood]], told by their children. Others such as the kids of [[Marlene Dietrich]], [[Judy Garland]], [[Henry Fonda]], [[Loretta Young]], [[Bing Crosby]] and [[Bette Davis]] all tried to replicate the success with various results (the Bette Davis book flopped and was debunked, for example, but the books that Marlene Dietrich's and Bing Crosby's respective broods wrote did quite well).
The 1981 movie version of the book was an even bigger debacle: Faye Dunaway (who ironically had been praised by Crawford in print prior to her death and who even suggested that she should play her in the inevitable bio-film of Joan's life) was cast and Paramount
----
|