A new book has doubled down on long-standing rumours there was drama behind the scenes of the hit show The Golden Girls and particularly, between late co-stars Bea Arthur and Betty White.
According to People, TV writer Stan Zimmerman claimed in his new book, The Girls: From Golden to Gilmore, that he heard that Arthur thought White was “two-faced”.
“During our time on set, I never felt tension between the two,” he wrote. He worked on the show.
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“I only heard stories and recently learned, from producer Marsha Posner Williams on a podcast, that Bea thought Betty was two-faced.”
He added: “Bea liked real people.”
“I had the sense that Betty was more like Sue Ann Nivens, the character she played on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, than she was like Rose. More conniving than the innocent airhead from St. Olaf.”
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During a recent appearance on The Originals podcast – hosted by entertainment journalist Andrew Goldman and produced by Los Angeles Magazine – casting director Joel Thurm recalled White’s main co-stars Arthur and Rue McClanahan not liking her and calling her profane names.
“The women hated her,” Thurm told Goldman when asked if the cast got along.
“Literally Bea Arthur, who I cast in something else later on, just said, ‘Oh, she’s a f—ing c–t,’ using that word.”
“Bea Arthur called Betty White a C-word?” Goldman asked.
“Yeah, she called her the C-word. I mean, I heard that with my own ears,” Thurm replied. “And by the way, so did Rue McClanahan. Rue McClanahan said it to me in Joe Allen’s; Bea Arthur on the set of Beggars and Choosers.”
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Although Estelle Getty, Arthur, McClanahan, and White played such good friends on-screen, it was believed that an ongoing rift between the actresses, particularly between White and Arthur, was occurring off-screen.
“Bea had a reserve. She was not that fond of me. She found me a pain in the neck sometimes,” White revealed to Joy Behar in 2011.
“It was my positive attitude – and that made Bea mad sometimes. Sometimes if I was happy, she’d be furious!”
Meanwhile, Arthur’s son Matthew Saks spoke about the rumoured feud in 2016. He told The Hollywood Reporter that his mother took her job as an actress very seriously and would always stay in character. But White would often talk and joke with the live audience between takes.
“Sometimes Betty would go out and smile and chat with the audience and literally go and make friends with the audience. Which is a nice thing – a lot of them have come from all over the country and are fans,” Saks said at the time.
“I think my mom didn’t dig that. It’s more about being focused or conserving your energy. It’s just not the right time to talk to fans between takes.”
Betty White died in December 2021 at the age of 99, just a few weeks short of her 100th birthday.
Bea Arthur died in April 2009 at the age of 86.