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<blockquote data-quote="Crimson" data-source="post: 240829" data-attributes="member: 5079">That Lucy&#039;s behavior fell somewhere between tactless to antagonistically uncongenial is indisputable.&nbsp; Any biography written after the 70s (prior, she was still written as being practically a saint ; coasting along from the martyr-like aura she picked up after the divorce from Desi) delves at least somewhat into the harsher aspects of her personality.&nbsp; People are complicated; they&#039;re not soap opera characters.&nbsp; Bad behaviors come from somewhere and there are often mildly to wildly diverging accounts of most of these incidents that make it like triangulating a position on a map.&nbsp; Saying, &quot;She was mean to Andy Griffith&quot; is easy;&nbsp; the nuances of accounts and possible motivations are more interesting to me.There&#039;s a famous anecdote that has been trotted out in a few Lucy biographies about how she berated Jack Benny on the set of HERE&#039;S LUCY.&nbsp; Benny&#039;s longtime agent, on the set, disputed that version saying that it was two old friends making caustic remarks to each other.&nbsp;&nbsp; Likewise there are multiple versions of how and why Madeline Kahn got fired from MAME, usually some variation of Lucy as the aging, jealous star.&nbsp; Madeline&#039;s own account was more blasé -- Lucy wanted the performance like Jane Connell&#039;s on Broadway, so she got Jane Connell.&nbsp;&nbsp; On the other hand, Lucy&#039;s mom, DeeDee, interrupted an interview between Lucy and a prospective TV director to warn him that Lucy was an absolute bitch to work for.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Crimson, post: 240829, member: 5079"] That Lucy's behavior fell somewhere between tactless to antagonistically uncongenial is indisputable. Any biography written after the 70s (prior, she was still written as being practically a saint ; coasting along from the martyr-like aura she picked up after the divorce from Desi) delves at least somewhat into the harsher aspects of her personality. People are complicated; they're not soap opera characters. Bad behaviors come from somewhere and there are often mildly to wildly diverging accounts of most of these incidents that make it like triangulating a position on a map. Saying, "She was mean to Andy Griffith" is easy; the nuances of accounts and possible motivations are more interesting to me. There's a famous anecdote that has been trotted out in a few Lucy biographies about how she berated Jack Benny on the set of HERE'S LUCY. Benny's longtime agent, on the set, disputed that version saying that it was two old friends making caustic remarks to each other. Likewise there are multiple versions of how and why Madeline Kahn got fired from MAME, usually some variation of Lucy as the aging, jealous star. Madeline's own account was more blasé -- Lucy wanted the performance like Jane Connell's on Broadway, so she got Jane Connell. On the other hand, Lucy's mom, DeeDee, interrupted an interview between Lucy and a prospective TV director to warn him that Lucy was an absolute bitch to work for. [/QUOTE]

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