Hollywood. Netflix 2020

SPOILER ALERT

I have mixed feelings for the latest Ryan Murphy intimate epic which seems to be the general consensus on it. But I suppose there is enough room in television land for this kind of camp fun. It looked great of course, and the costumes were to die for. I Have to give Patti lupone credit for doing this since she looks like a gorgon and the camera definitely does not love her. Even on the little screen I can understand why she never was able to make it on the big screen, and she doesn't sing. She also makes fun of herself saying at one point she was too Jewish and not pretty enough to make it as a movie star so she married the head of the studio, who is played with relish by Rob Reiner and they both cheat on each other like thieves. Subtle anti-Semitism.

The new thing seems to be hey lets do a revisionist Hollywood show kids, thank you Mr. Tarantino. I found the actor who played Rock Hudson to be a lumpy undercooked meat loaf, the real rock was beyond beautiful and this guy wasn't. Ditto for using an ordinary looking guy for guy madison who was also breathtakingly beautiful. The George Cukor Sunday night party scene was good, lots of truth and beauty there, but they were very careful not to name names including Tracy and Hepburn who Scotty Bowers use to supply with both male and female company and figures prominently in his tell all book, which the film is somewhat based on. Many of the cameos were unnamed ie. the lesbian threesome with Dorothy Arzner who is not named but I picked out her name in the final credits. The gas station whore house was of course based on Scotty Bowers with a lot of fiction thrown in.

Queen Latifah was ok as Hattie McDaniel but think that Octavia Spencer would have been a better fit, and I was surprised that they didn’t use a famous quote of hers “I would rather play a maid then be one,” but otherwise her snub was accurate and so was her bi-sexuality. Ditto for Anna May Wong who was indeed tested for The Good earth but not for the lead and was tested instead for the role of Muni's mistress which she turned down. If you know where to look for the buried bodies it was fun.

The final episode with the Oscars was like a kid playing make-believe, and got a bit tiring, The Manson Family it ain’t but The cast was pretty with Gays playing straight, Straight playing Gay and Gay playing Gay. I can see people who are not Hollywood fans or movie trivia nuts might be confused and feeling left out in the cold, but think it is a big hit and no doubt a second season will be done, hey we have the red scare and the Hollywood hearings to have fun with, I wonder who will play Robert Taylor, and will they finally out him and his lavender marriage to lesbian Barbara Stanwyck? Stay tuned.