The FX series *Feud: Bette and Joan* (2017), which dramatized the relationship between the two women with Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon in the lead roles, is emphatically not a primary source, and the series’ own creators acknowledged they were telling a dramatic version of events rather than a documentary account. The California courts, in ruling on a defamation suit brought by Olivia de Havilland over her portrayal in the series, established that the show was clearly understood as a creative interpretation rather than a factual record. This distinction matters enormously when discussing what we actually know about Crawford and Davis.
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THE BANCROFT QUESTION: WHAT DID SHE KNOW AND WHEN?
One element of the night of April 8, 1963, that has received less attention than it deserves is the question of what Anne Bancroft knew about the Crawford-Davis dynamics before she made her arrangements.
The accounts that have come down to us suggest that Crawford made herself available to multiple absent nominees—not specifically to Bancroft, and not with any particular strategic intent toward Davis. The arrangement was a practical one: Bancroft was in New York, she needed a proxy, and Crawford was available.
Whether Bancroft knew of the fraught relationship between Crawford and Davis when she agreed to this arrangement—and whether, if she did know, it affected her decision—is something the historical record does not clearly establish. Bancroft rarely discussed the episode in her subsequent interviews; she was not given to dwelling on the backstage dramas of a ceremony she had not attended.