ENTERTAINMENT NEWS JANUARY 7, 2019 / 10:16 AM / UPDATED 16 MINUTES AGO

U.S. top court snubs actress de Havilland's suit against FX Networks

Jan Wolfe
3 MIN READ

(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to consider reviving a lawsuit by 102-year-old Oscar-winning actress Olivia de Havilland accusing a Twenty-First Century Fox Inc unit of falsely portraying her in a miniseries about a famous Hollywood feud.

The justices let stand a lower court ruling throwing out the lawsuit filed by de Havilland, a Hollywood star whose career began in the 1930s. She had claimed that “Feud: Bette and Joan,” a FX Networks miniseries about a famous feud between de Havilland’s fellow screen legends Bette Davis and Joan Crawford damaged her reputation by portraying her as a gossip and hypocrite.

“Feud,” which aired in 2017, explored the bad blood between Crawford and Davis in the later years of their lives. The miniseries was created by producer Ryan Murphy, known for the series “American Horror Story” and “Glee.”

In February 2018, Murphy agreed to create exclusive series and films for Netflix Inc as part of a five-year deal expected to be worth up to $300 million.

De Havilland was portrayed by Catherine Zeta-Jones in “Feud,” which starred Jessica Lange as Joan Crawford and Susan Sarandon as Bette Davis. De Havilland objected to scenes in which she was portrayed as using a vulgar term to refer to her sister, actress Joan Fontaine, and joking about Frank Sinatra’s drinking.

-snip-