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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...

Women of the White Queen - Lady Margaret Beaufort

Lady Margaret Beaufort has always been sort of a cipher to me, not quite as knowable as either Elizabeth Woodville or Marguerite of Anjou. Perhaps that’s because she was never a Queen, but the mother of a King. She wasn’t royal, although she was descended from royalty. Her son, Henry Tudor, by rights, should never have become King. Margaret, with her deep faith, believed that it was always God’s plan that Henry should be king. In the BBC 1/Starz miniseries, she’s played by actress Amanda Hale with a furrowed brow and a fierce expression. In her only scene in the first episode, she wears a red dress and chastises Jacquetta Woodville for her daughter’s marriage to the Yorkist king. Reading about her life, I found a much more fascinating woman. Throughout her life, Margaret took matters into her own hands, whether it was finding a husband or safeguarding and protecting the interests of her son. She was genuinely pious, extremely clever, and ...

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