What is it that makes relationships between queer men and glamorous women so intimate—and so volatile? Consider Jennifer Coolidge’s tragic White Lotus character, Tanya, who wandered off with a crew of fortune hunters she memorably described as “high-end gays.” Or Andy Cohen playing ringmaster to a universe of pugnacious Real Housewives.
Half a century ago, the Andy Cohen of the Upper East Side was Truman Capote, and the women whose world he insinuated himself into were A-list socialites. For two decades, the author of and heard their that exposed their deepest humiliations. FX’s the long-awaited second season of a Ryan Murphy anthology that began with 2017’s traces the friendships and eventual schism. It’s a messy rendering that, at times, reverts to cliché. But beneath the distracting artifice is a psychologically rich, wonderfully acted portrait of an artist torn between his work and the life that fueled it.
