Books, TV

Tandy Culpepper Talks with Author Laurence Leamer about His Book Capote’s Women as well as the TV Adaptation Capote vs. the Swans

Before Laurence Leamer became a best-selling author of nonfiction books, he wore many hats in widely divergent locales. Journalist in Iowa and at Newsweek. A coal mine in West Virginia. Peace Corps in Nepal. Covering a civil war in Bangladesh. Researching a novel hanging out with a cocaine trafficker in South America. 

Over time, he settled into a career as an author of nonfiction books covering a wide range of subjects: Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Kennedys. Palm Beach. The Reagans. Johnny Carson.

His book Capote’s Women was optioned by producer Ryan Murphy, and this year (2024), the TV adaptation, Feud: Capote vs. the Swans, dropped on FX, His most recent book, Hitchcock’s Blondes, has also been optioned by Ryan Murphy. His next book, Warhol’s Muses, is due for publication next spring.

In this episode of The Hollywood Beat, Tandy Culpepper talks to Leamer about Capote’s Women and the limited series adaptation. They also briefly touch upon Hitchcock’s Blondes.

 

 

 

 

 

Published by Tandy Culpepper

I am a veteran broadcast journalist. I was an Army brat before my father retired and moved us to the deep South. I'm talkin' Lower Alabama and Northwest Florida, I graduated from Tate High School and got botha Bachelor's degree and Master's in Teaching English from the University of West Florida, I taught English at Escambia County High School for two years before getting my m's in Speech Pathology and Audiology from Auburn University. Following graduation, I did a 180 degree turn and moved to Birmingham where I began ny broadcasting career at WBIQ, Channel 10. There I was host of a weekly primetime half-hour TV program called Alabama Lifestyles. A year later, I began a stint as a television weathercaster and public affairs host. A year later, I moved to West Palm Beach, Florida and became bureau chief at WPTV, the CBS affiliate. Two years later, I moved to Greensboro, North Carolina where I became co-host of a morng show called AM Carolina. The next year, I moved cross-country and became co-host and story producer at KTVN-TV in Reno, Nevada. I also became the medical reporter for the news department. Three years later, I moved to Louisville, Kentucky and became host and producer of a morning show called today in WAVE Country at WAVE-TV, Channel 3, the NBC affiliate. Following three years there, I moved to Los Angeles and became senior correspondent at the Turner Entertainment Reportn, an internationally-syndicated entertainment entertainment news service owned by CNN. I went back to school afterwards and got an MFA in Creative Nonfiction at Goucher College in Towson, Maryland, a suburb of Baltimore. Oh, yes. I won a hundred thousand dollars on the 100 Thousand Dollar Pyramid, then hosted by Dick Clark.

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