Just over a month after the death of Betty White, one of her former colleagues has revealed more details about how the beloved TV icon ran afoul with some of her most high-profile co-stars.
White’s death on December 31 sent her scores of fans into a deep state of mourning. (We’re still recovering from the sadness ourselves!) Generations of viewers had grown up watching her work on game shows, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and, of course, The Golden Girls.
Related: A forgotten ‘Golden Girls’ spinoff just landed on Hulu. Twitter has thoughts.
Now, casting director Joel Thurm, who assembled the cast of The Golden Girls, has gone public about the alleged on-set friction between White and her co-stars.
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Speaking to the podcast The Originals, Thurm shared his recollection of a tense exchange between with Bea Arthur about White.
“Literally Bea Arthur, who I cast in something else later on, just said ‘oh, [White is] a f*cking c*nt, using that word,” he said. “She called her the C-word, I heard it with my own ears.”
Thurm went on to claim Arthur wasn’t the only one to apply the label to White.
“By the way, so did Rue McClanahan. [McClanahan] said it to me in Joe Allen’s [restaurant],” he added.
Related: That time Betty White schooled Anderson Cooper when he asked about her love life
Thurm further elaborated that White’s co-stars made the remark out of frustration with White making fun of fellow Golden Girl Estelle Getty struggling to remember her lines. Doctors would later diagnose Getty with dementia and Parkinson’s Disease.
White spoke many times about the on-set tension between herself and Bea Arthur, though she always insisted she and Rue McClanahan remained close friends until McClanahan’s death in 2010.
Thurm made his appearance on The Originals as part of the promotion for his new memoir Sex Drugs & Pilot Season, in which he shares anecdotes about his career in Hollywood and on Broadway casting such TV shows and films as Grease, Chico and the Man, and more.
We don’t want to end this post on a negative note, so here’s a video of Cher performing “Thank You For Being A Friend” on last month’s Celebrating Betty White special that aired on NBC.
banditboy
It doesn’t surprise me since the reality is we never really know what any of these people are like in real life.
BarryM
I agree.
jw8890
I believe be arthur said it. Of course bea arthur was also known to be a colossal bitch on set. She didnt like gum chewing and literally stormed to another shows set interrupted filming and demanded a girl spit out her gum. So yes i believe bea said it, but it was her being her usual self. Hell she refused to even work on the show because betty and rues roles were reversed originally.
ShiningSex
I’ve seen interviews with Bea (some are on YouTube). She said she always wanted actors to be professional. She also said she has her own friends and didn’t necessarily have co-stars as friends. Rue was close to Bea, but yeah Bea and Betty were not friends.
BarryM
ShiningSex:
Bea Arthur was very good friends with Angela Lansbury (Jessica Fletcher on “Murder She Wrote”).
Jbaltes
It has long but known that Bea Arthur was not in Betty’s fan club. Bea’s background was from the stage, but Betty’s was from television-the two often didn’t mesh well!
It is also not surprising that with four women working very closely together, there would be “issues!”
Russian Blue
“It is also not surprising that with four women working very closely together, there would be “issues!”
Let’s rephrase this so it’s not so blatantly sexist: “With four professional actors working very closely together…”
Bea, Betty and Rue were all strong-willed, respected, seasoned actors in their day. It could have easily been four male actors. Would you have made the same comment?
frapachino
Most of the females I know agree women are much cattier then men and are more likely to have issues amongst themselves especially in cpompetive environments. That’s not a knock on women unless YOU see it that way. Men and women are different, FACT.
TheDefiler
Russian Blue, Family member teaches HS and coaches men & women’s volleyball & basketball. Has for over twenty years — she notes that the women are much harder than the men. Her hypothesis is that men are typically exposed to team sports and thus teams much earlier, but isn’t adverse to the “sexist” explanation. We’re both reality TV junkies and she notes battling for queen bee is prevalent and womens alliances tend not to last as long.
Russian Blue
So, because you have some female friends who say women are “cattier”, that explains it away? Or because you know someone who says that women are harder on other women? Seriously, as a female these remarks are ridiculous. On a site where we advocate for equality and equity and you’re going to spew sexist bullshit that just perpetuates stereotypes?
I routinely advocate for the queer community as a straight ally and I read this sexist commentary? I don’t care what your friends or family members say. The original comment was sexist. Period.
I realize the generations on this site have different perspectives but as a Gen X’er some of the comments I read here are total bullshit and reveal hypocrisy in a community I have long advocated for.
THAT Steve
Sorry, children, but we outdo straight woman for cattiness. Some of us even make careers out of it.
Joshooeerr
I worked with teams of creatives over thirty years, sometimes mixed, occasionally all men and occasionally all women. My observation is that mixed generally works best. With an all male team you’ll often get too much joking around or goofing off. But with an all female team you’re almost guaranteed constant drama. They’re more likely to bring personal problems or issues to the work room; they’ll form little alliances often over matters that are never disclosed or discussed, and they’ll constantly play the gender card against a male boss. That’s the reality.
Mike Hunt
Jesus, Russian Blue …. Calm your tits.
whereshouldistart
Russian Blue…as a woman who has worked for companies with all-female employees, and a welder who has worked with all-male employees, I can attest to this.
Women will not hesitate to stab each other in the back if they think they can gain from it.
Men gossip far more than women do.
Just a fact…get over it.
graphicjack
I don’t know why it’s not possible that Rue and Betty could have been close, but in a moment when Betty was being insensitive, Rue called her out for bad behaviour. Sometimes friends get annoyed with each other… it happens. Maybe Betty or Rue apologized for the dispute and it all blew over.
As for Bea and Betty, it was probably just a case of oil and vinegar not mixing. They were very different people and it’s possible that they both respected each other’s talent and had tension from time to time. Word on the set was that they were always professionals. The media is always trying to paint women as unable to get along…. yet there are plenty of examples of men not getting along, or men and women not getting along, but it’s always the ‘catfight’ narrative that comes out. Of course, some women genuinely had serious fights, but I think these four women were able to get along at least well enough to create classic television for seven ‘golden’ seasons.
jsmu
Arthur was famous for being a c*nt herself. With her history of making enemies on every show she ever did (Broadway AND TV) she was in no position to snipe at ANYONE else.
ShiningSex
Bea is the queen!!!! Always!!!
She said that her co-stars were just that. She had her own friends. Work was work. That doesn’t make someone a c*nt.
DarkZephyr
Bea Arthur was an AMAZING friend to the LGBT community. Don’t talk smack about her. She LOVED us.
garmo98
I am wondering if these “recollections” of cast tension aren’t simply justifications by a key player in a show that didn’t work. With none of the four ladies here to either confirm or refute these claims I think they can be taken for what they’re worth; not much.
ShiningSex
This isn’t news. I believe it because Bea was not fond of Betty. Bea and Rue were close, but there was friction between the two with Betty.
I don’t see this as a smear campaign. It happens. We don’t know the real Betty. Only those that worked with her do, so get over it.
Also, remember on “Maude” when Bea was watching a program on tv, they mentioned Betty White was going to be on the episode and Bea sounded disgusted and turned the tv off. LOL. Love Bea!!!!
Jaquelope
“Maude” was also a scripted show, and not real life, so it was part of the story arc for that episode, and nothing else. Bea might have had her problems with Betty, and it was well known that they sometimes were at loggerheads with each other. Not every star of a TV show or movie is friends with everyone else in the cast, nor should they be expected to be. They never seemed to let any problems between them spillover onto the show. Since they are all three gone now, what difference does it really make anymore?
rray63
Why is it these hateful people always come out of the woodwork after someone dies and cannot defend themselves. There was talk years ago about Betty and Bea, but the talk then was Bea had a hard time with Betty’s popularity.
So go ahead and and say you believe it, meanwhile I have land about 750 east of me and I live on the coast of Florida that I’m selling at a good price.
gossip
Carol Channing was interviewed before she died and when asked about a Love Boat that she did with Betty White she said “Betty White is an absolute doll …as long as you’re not in the same show with her!” I’m sure Betty could be like Sue Ann sometimes instead of Sweet Rose…. Bea could be abrasive yes but she had a very good heart and left a lot of money to gay organizations… Betty had a closeted gay husband…..
Jaquelope
And you have concrete, absolute and irrefutable evidence/proof of that?
rray63
I think this person’s screen name says it all…
Essie
I remember the talk about how nasty Betty White was to Estelle Getty when Estelle was struggling in the later seasons of the show. Everybody knows about that. It wasn’t a secret. Betty’s fans just refused to remember it when people learned that Estelle had dementia. They didn’t want to think their Betty could be so cruel. I believe what this guy is saying. Betty wasn’t the angel people are making her out to be. Just because you live to be 100 doesn’t mean you were a nice person all your life.
Jaquelope
I can corroborate that, with having known my own grandfather. He was a nasty old reprobate who would find it fun to poke sacking needles into his own grandchildren, or shoot at dogs fighting (or otherwise engaged) when there was a crowd of young children gathered around, often including said grandchildren. He missed his 100th by about three months.
Fahd
Newsflash: there’s good and bad in everyone.
Leaving aside the mean-spiritedness of speaking ill of the dead so soon after she’s gone, I would think that a Hollywood hanger on who’s trying to sell books might embellish an anecdote here and there – especially if Betty’s in the news and he can sell a few more copies by telling a nasty story about her.
Shame on him, and just for that I’m not buying the book (maybe I’ll get at the library).
Mack
I once read where comedians all had “self conscience” problems. They were always afraid they wasn’t as good as they should be and when the “lights” were off they. had big egos. I think this pretty much applies to many in the TV or Movie industry.
Walker
I had a (now-deceased) TV actor friend who insisted Betty White was gay, and so was her beloved husband, Allen Ludden. Was he telling the truth? Maybe, maybe not. But the point is that every person who knows you has an entirely different viewpoint about you. Ultimately, there is no one who is universally good or universally beloved. Why would I “refuse to believe it?” When it was all attacks on Bea Arthur nobody had a problem with it, and the ninety-nine percent of the people who accepted it as gospel knew Bea Arthur as well as they knew Betty White.
Jaquelope
I’d never heard of that about Betty and Allen, but I had heard it about Ryan ONeill and Farrah Fawcett, when they were married.
Riley
Thurm is trying to sell a book. Having met the casting director, and several of the many actors who were invited to share his ‘couch’ it’s probably best to take what he says with a grain of kosher salt…
IAmUp4It
Betty herself said Bea was not her biggest fan when she appeared on Joy Behar’s talk show. The clip is readily available on YouTube.
scottj
I remember Rue actually confirming that story about Estelle in interviews years later and in her memoir. She mentioned there was frustration on set because Estelle had to have her lines on cue cards and eventually had to film her scenes without the audience because her disease had progressed the way it did. She never mentioned particular names or specifically what was said but there is truth to that story. And we all know after Betty got her Emmy win tension between she and Bea began to transpire. Bea was upset because she felt she deserved it for her performance that season(they were all except Estelle in the same category mind you)…
The real Bruce
Barry M.: Yes, Bea Arthur and Angela Lansbury were good friends from being on Broadway in the musical Mame for 1,508 performances. But work was work and both were/are professionals. Bea Arthur also reprised her role as Vera Charles in the film version with Lucy. Now THAT must have been fun on the set!
[email protected]
How many besties do you have at your work place? People don’t understand they are professional ACTORS who act LOL. ‘Nuff said.