Ollie and I are hanging out this morning watching the documentary, Grey Gardens. I borrowed it from the library last week and holy cow, if I knew it was going to be this disturbing, I would have skipped it.
The movie is a snapshot of the life of Edith Bouvier Beale and her mother, Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale, who live at Grey Gardens, a cat-filled, dilapidated, formerly glorious East Hampton estate on Long Island. The two are the cousin and aunt of Jackie Onassis Kennedy–which made the documentary more of a sensation when it was made in the early 1970s. The Beale women are a disaster together. They insult each other and carry on, talking over the other — eating liver pate out of cans with plastic knives. It’s the story of years of unimaginable wealth, followed by years of near poverty and isolation after these women were more or less abandoned by all the men in their lives – fathers and husbands and brothers.
Okay, Ollie. Let’s go on a run. We’ve had enough, haven’t we?