Joan Crawford: Ultimate Movie Star

I liked this bio-documentary on Joan quite a bit. I watched some of it last night, but I saw the whole thing when it originally aired.

I don't think you can do a bio on Joan without mentioning the turmoil with her daughter Christina, and then the book and movie "Mommie Dearest." And I agree with the guy who said, "I don't think Joan's reputation will ever recover from it."

I was more shocked that Christina agreed to participate in it! She also seems like she's made her peace with it, as much as she ever will be able to. She got her revenge, and it worked big-time. Now, she talks about it calmly, almost as if she's removed herself from the entire experience.

And while I don't think Christina told the "whole truth and nothing but the truth" in her book. let's face it, Joan was definitely no angel, and there was some serious trouble in that house. Christina is a "drama queen" just like her mother, but there is truth at the core of her tell-all. And that's the disturbing part. Joan was a great actress and movie star, but a lousy and damaging mother.

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She was also responsible for the Ripper murders in the 1880s AND the current war in Iraq! Joan Crawford is the reason we have Global Warming today.

Go figure.

In all honesty, my grandmother was friends with Joan Crawford. Good friends in the '40s and '50s. And my grandmother always swore that the Mommie Dearest book was completely made up. She was outraged by it. Joan NEVER abused her children!

Of course my grandmother didn't know that my dad's nanny was horribly abusing him and his older brother when they were young kids.

If she didn't know what was going on in her OWN house, how could I take her strong opinion about the goings-on in Joan's household seriously?

I couldn't. And I don't.

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I watched this last night and had a great time. It really captured her, warts and all...fine performances and weak ones, her glamorous look and her harsh one. I'm not a big Crawford fan, but I was totally drawn in.

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I was thinking late Peggy Lee. It killed me when she went on and on about how "sad" her mother's life had been. Yeah. Cry us a river, dear.

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