Queen Victoria's Children (Documentary)...

I watched the first two parts of this documentary, and I found it fascinating. Although none of the information is new, it was interesting to hear from Lucinda Hawksley, the author of a new biography of Princess Louise, as well as one of my favorite historians, Helen Rappaport. The other two parts are also available on YouTube.

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Becoming Jane

Recently on a Saturday night, I watched Jane Fonda receive the AFI Life Achievement on TNT. She’d been off the grid for a few years, but recently in the past seven or eight years, she’s slowly been making a comeback in not only film but theater as well ( I had the chance to see her in 33 Variations on Broadway a few years back). Not bad for a woman who will celebrate her 77 th birthday this coming December. I had forgotten how much I've enjoyed her performances over the years. There is a direct link between the tough but tender women portrayed by Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Crawford to Jane Fonda. Gloria In They Shoot Horses Don’t They , Bree Daniels in Klute , Lillian Hellman in Julia . There would be no Angelina Jolie if Jane Fonda hadn't paved the way. What other actress could go from Barbarella to winning an Academy Award in just a few short years? It was heartwarming to hear actress such as Sally Field and Meryl Streep acknowledge the debt that they ow...

July Books of the Month: Everything's Coming up Romanov

This month on Scandalous Women, we have not one but two books recently published about the Romanov's. First up is Michael Farquhar's book new book Secret Lives of the Tsar's. From the back cover: Scandal! Intrigue! Cossacks! Here the world’s most engaging royal historian chronicles the world’s most fascinating imperial dynasty: the Romanovs, whose three-hundred-year reign was remarkable for its shocking violence, spectacular excess, and unimaginable venality. In this incredibly entertaining history, Michael Farquhar collects the best, most captivating true tales of Romanov iniquity. We meet Catherine the Great, with her endless parade of virile young lovers (none of them of the equine variety); her unhinged son, Paul I, who ordered the bones of one of his mother’s paramours dug out of its grave and tossed into a gorge; and Grigori Rasputin, the “Mad Monk,” whose mesmeric domination of the last of the Romanov tsars helped lead to the monarchy’s undoing. From Peter the Grea...

Reluctant Mistress – The Life of Henrietta Howard, Countess of Suffolk

This week we leave the Plantagenet era behind and journey to the Early Georgian era of London during the reigns of George I and George II. The early Georgians seem rather tame compared to the antics of George IV when he was Prince of Wales or the many royal mistresses of Charles II & James II. I never even knew that George II had a mistress until I read Eleanor Herman’s book SEX WITH KINGS. As far as I knew, the Georgian kings had spent most of their time hating their eldest sons, and pining for Hanover. The story of Henrietta Howard is fascinating because she was the last person one would expect as a royal mistress. Circumstances led her to seek the protection of the Prince of Wales, later George II. Henrietta was born Henrietta Hobart in London in 1689. Her father was a Norfolk landowner and MP who was killed in a duel when she was almost 9. Before his death, she had led an idyllic childhood at Blickling Hall (the childhood home o...

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