# Feud: Capote vs. The Swans
**Feud: Capote vs. The Swans** is the second installment of the American anthology drama series *Feud*, created by Ryan Murphy for FX. It is an eight-episode limited series based on Laurence Leamer's 2021 book *Capote's Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era*, dramatizing writer [Truman Capote](https://www.edgepedia.org/truman-capote)'s friendships with a circle of elite New York socialites he nicknamed "the swans" and the betrayal that ended them.[1](https://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/feud) The season premiered on FX in January 2024 and streams on Disney+ and Hulu.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/feud/s02)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Series position | Second installment of Ryan Murphy's *Feud* anthology, following 2017's *Bette and Joan* about the Bette Davis–Joan Crawford rivalry[1](https://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/feud) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/feud/s02) |
| Format | Eight-episode limited series on FX, streaming on Disney+ and Hulu[1](https://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/feud) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/feud/s02) |
| Source material | Laurence Leamer's 2021 book *Capote's Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era*[1](https://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/feud) |
| Key creatives | Written by playwright Jon Robin Baitz; largely directed by Gus Van Sant[3](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/capote-vs-the-swans-bitterly-depicts-the-end-of-an-era) |
| Lead cast | Tom Hollander as Truman Capote, with Naomi Watts, Diane Lane, Chloë Sevigny, Calista Flockhart, Demi Moore, and Molly Ringwald[4](https://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/feud/capote-vs-the-swans/cast) |
| Central event | Capote's 1975 *Esquire* story "La Côte Basque, 1965," which exposed the swans' secrets and led to his exile from high society[5](https://time.com/6588110/feud-capote-vs-swans-review/) |
| Emmy record | 10 nominations and 1 win at the 2024 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning Outstanding Period Costumes for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie[6](https://www.emmys.com/shows/feud-capote-vs-swans) |
| Reception | 77% on the Tomatometer from 79 reviews; 61% on the Popcornmeter from 100+ ratings[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/feud/s02) |
## Premise and historical subject
The series follows Truman Capote, the celebrated author of *Breakfast at Tiffany's* and *In Cold Blood*, who in the 1960s was also the toast of New York high society. He surrounded himself with a coterie of glamorous, upper-crust women whom he nicknamed "the swans," describing them as gliding through the ponds of society while paddling twice as fast underneath the water.[7](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/feud-capote-review-uk-release-b2529491.html) The group included Barbara "Babe" Paley ([Naomi Watts](https://www.edgepedia.org/naomi-watts)), Slim Keith ([Diane Lane](https://www.edgepedia.org/diane-lane)), C.Z. Guest ([Chloë Sevigny](https://www.edgepedia.org/chloe-sevigny)), and Lee Radziwill (Calista Flockhart).[1](https://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/feud)
For two decades Capote heard the women's confessions and dried their tears. Then, in 1975, he published a story in *Esquire* titled "La Côte Basque, 1965," named after the Manhattan restaurant where he and the swans dined, which exposed their deepest humiliations in thinly veiled fictional form.[5](https://time.com/6588110/feud-capote-vs-swans-review/) • [8](https://www.history.com/articles/truman-capote-swans-scandal) The story earned him the wrath of the image-obsessed women he called his swans; led by Slim, they dropped him overnight, and Babe, whose marital woes Capote had aired in lurid detail, followed the crowd.[5](https://time.com/6588110/feud-capote-vs-swans-review/) The season dramatizes this banishment and Capote's accompanying artistic decline, a story that spans from the mid-1950s through his death in 1984.[5](https://time.com/6588110/feud-capote-vs-swans-review/) • [9](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/02/12/feud-capote-vs-the-swans-tv-review-fx)
## Cast and characters
[Tom Hollander](https://www.edgepedia.org/tom-hollander) plays Truman Capote, following previous screen Capotes including [Philip Seymour Hoffman](https://www.edgepedia.org/philip-seymour-hoffman), Toby Jones, and [Robert Morse](https://www.edgepedia.org/robert-morse).[4](https://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/feud/capote-vs-the-swans/cast) • [7](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/feud-capote-review-uk-release-b2529491.html) The principal cast:[4](https://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/feud/capote-vs-the-swans/cast)
- Naomi Watts as [Babe Paley](https://www.edgepedia.org/babe-paley), also an executive producer
- Diane Lane as [Slim Keith](https://www.edgepedia.org/slim-keith)
- Chloë Sevigny as C.Z. Guest
- [Calista Flockhart](https://www.edgepedia.org/calista-flockhart) as Lee Radziwill
- Demi Moore as Ann Woodward, whom Capote insisted had killed her husband
- Molly Ringwald as Joanne Carson, Johnny Carson's wife
- Treat Williams as Bill Paley, Babe's husband, the influential CBS chief
- Joe Mantello as Jack Dunphy, Capote's long-term partner
- Russell Tovey as John O'Shea, Capote's abusive lover
[Jessica Lange](https://www.edgepedia.org/jessica-lange), who played [Joan Crawford](https://www.edgepedia.org/joan-crawford) in the first season, appears as Capote's mother.[7](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/feud-capote-review-uk-release-b2529491.html) • [9](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/02/12/feud-capote-vs-the-swans-tv-review-fx)
## Production
The season was adapted by playwright Jon Robin Baitz from Leamer's book, with Ryan Murphy executive producing and [Gus Van Sant](https://www.edgepedia.org/gus-van-sant) directing the episodes.[3](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/capote-vs-the-swans-bitterly-depicts-the-end-of-an-era) • [10](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/apr/17/feud-capote-vs-the-swans-review-the-starriest-tv-show-in-living-memory-forgets-to-be-fun) [Costume designer](https://www.edgepedia.org/costume-designer) and producer Lou Eyrich, a longtime Murphy collaborator, led the costume team, which won the Emmy for Outstanding Period Costumes; the production hired security to ensure the safety and care of expensive jewelry by designers including Verdura, Van Cleef & Arpels, Belperron, and Cartier.[6](https://www.emmys.com/shows/feud-capote-vs-swans) • [11](https://apnews.com/article/26513c3a536fee61fcca7eb258a5e610) Designer Zac Posen conducted final fittings with the cast for the Black and White Ball episode.[1](https://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/feud)
A standout episode, framed as footage for a Maysles brothers documentary, revisits Capote's ultra-exclusive 1966 Black and White Ball, which marked the height of his influence.[5](https://time.com/6588110/feud-capote-vs-swans-review/)
## Reception
Critical response was mixed to positive. On Rotten Tomatoes the season holds a 77% Tomatometer from 79 reviews and a 61% Popcornmeter score from 100+ ratings; the site's critics consensus says that while this *Feud* might lack the abundance of incident that made its predecessor such a nasty delight, the luxe milieu and dynamite ensemble keep spectators entertained.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/feud/s02) Reviewers praised Hollander's performance: *The Times* wrote that though playing an attention-seeking drunk bent on self-destruction at full volume, he avoids caricature and delivers a performance full of nuance and, eventually, pathos.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/feud/s02) *Time* called it a psychologically rich, wonderfully acted portrait of an artist torn between his work and the life that fueled it.[5](https://time.com/6588110/feud-capote-vs-swans-review/) The *New Yorker* criticized the season for sanitizing its larger-than-life subject and lacking sufficient plot to sustain eight episodes.[9](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/02/12/feud-capote-vs-the-swans-tv-review-fx)
At the 2024 [Primetime Emmy Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/primetime-emmy-awards) the series received 10 nominations, including Outstanding Lead Actor for Hollander, Outstanding Lead Actress for Watts, Outstanding Supporting Actress for Diane Lane, and a posthumous Outstanding Supporting Actor nomination for Treat Williams as Bill Paley; it won one Emmy, for Outstanding Period Costumes for the pilot.[6](https://www.emmys.com/shows/feud-capote-vs-swans)
## Fact and fiction
As a "based on a true story" Ryan Murphy production, the series takes creative liberties in dramatizing real-life events, and reviewers and viewers have debated where the line falls.[12](https://gazettely.com/2024/02/entertainment/feud-capote-vs-the-swans-review/) The historical events the show rests on are documented: Capote's decades-long intimacy with the swans, the *Esquire* excerpt, and his exile are all part of the record, and Leamer's book theorizes that a combination of style, beauty, wealth, and woe drew the author to his female friends.[9](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/02/12/feud-capote-vs-the-swans-tv-review-fx) Baitz, the adapter, offers another reading: Capote's loathing for silk-stockinged snobs stems from the knowledge that they would never have countenanced a striver like his own mother, who died by suicide years before.[9](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/02/12/feud-capote-vs-the-swans-tv-review-fx)
## References
1. [FX's FEUD: Capote Vs. The Swans, FX Networks](https://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/feud)
2. [Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/feud/s02)
3. [Capote vs. the Swans Bitterly Depicts the End of an Era, Vanity Fair](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/capote-vs-the-swans-bitterly-depicts-the-end-of-an-era)
4. [Meet the Cast of FEUD on FX, FX Networks](https://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/feud/capote-vs-the-swans/cast)
5. [Substance Edges Out Snark in Ryan Murphy's Messy, Fascinating Feud: Capote vs. the Swans, Time](https://time.com/6588110/feud-capote-vs-swans-review/)
6. [Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, Emmy Awards and Nominations, Television Academy](https://www.emmys.com/shows/feud-capote-vs-swans)
7. [Feud: Capote vs The Swans review, The Independent](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/feud-capote-review-uk-release-b2529491.html)
8. [How Truman Capote Cultivated New York's Elite—Then Exposed Their Secrets, HISTORY](https://www.history.com/articles/truman-capote-swans-scandal)
9. ["Feud: Capote vs. the Swans" Is a Simulacrum of a Scandal, The New Yorker](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/02/12/feud-capote-vs-the-swans-tv-review-fx)
10. [Feud: Capote vs the Swans review, The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/apr/17/feud-capote-vs-the-swans-review-the-starriest-tv-show-in-living-memory-forgets-to-be-fun)
11. [Dressing the high-society 'swans' in 'Feud', AP News](https://apnews.com/article/26513c3a536fee61fcca7eb258a5e610)
12. [Feud: Capote vs. The Swans Review, Gazettely](https://gazettely.com/2024/02/entertainment/feud-capote-vs-the-swans-review/)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Seasons, episodes, and installments › Screen seasons › Streaming-original series seasons*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license