While Bette and Joan is the classic one (read the Considine book of it if you get a chance -- it went on for DECADES, long before Baby Jane), I'm fascinated by the Bette and Miriam Hopkins one. They made two movies together (The Old Maid and The Old Acquaintance) and Miriam made the mistake of trying to be queen bee on the set and take over. Mme. Davis wasn't having it. In one scene in The Old Acquaintance, Davis had to slap Hopkins. In take after take, Bette got the slap right, but would miss her mark or flub her line, so they would have to do yet another take. Bette slapped the hell out of that woman until she realized Bette was messing up on purpose -- Hopkins ran screaming and crying to her dressing room humiliated.
Hopkins had learned the hard way -- there ain't but ONE queen bee on a Bette Davis set and that's Bette Davis. Even her many directors (with the exception of William Wyler) learned not to cross her and let her have her way. And I'm not sure if it's just a coincidence or not, but Hopkins didn't make a movie for 6 years after The Old Acquaintance. While her bio says she simply preferred stage work during that period, I've always assumed the real reason was that she was still too traumatized by Mme. Davis to go near a film set again.
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
[http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/]
"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
