GREG IN HOLLYWOOD

celebs! hugging! greg!

LATEST

GREG YOUR WAY

Take the feed! Subscribe

Get GIH news via Twitter

Follow Greg: Twitter Facebook

Greg on Flickr:

Greg In Hollywood talks about Bea Arthur’s dislike of Betty White in Mike Pingel’s new book

Yesterday, I mentioned Mike Pingel’s new book Betty White Rules the World: The Ultimate and Unauthorized Guide to Television’s Grand Dame!

I ran into Mike last night at the 50th anniversary screening of The Birds at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and he gave me a copy of the book and told me to turn to page 134.

On that page, he quotes some of what I’ve written about in the past about the relationship between Betty White and Bea Arthur:

“Bea Arthur had an intense dislike for Betty White,” wrote Greg Hernandez in a recent article about the feud on his blog, GreginHollywood.com. He had witnessed Bea’s coldness toward Betty firsthand at an event at the Museum of Television in Beverly Hills. The three beloved Golden Girls – Bea, Rue and Betty – were doing a Q&A. Rue was planted between them like a referee; Bea did not engage Betty once despite Miss White’s efforts to draw her in. Then after the event ended, Greg was standing near the stage and witnessed that Bea hugged Rue goodbye but left without saying anything to Betty who followed her backstage and called after her.

“It made me feel a bit sad for Betty. But that’s not to say that I didn’t think Bea was terrific. Not only was I a huge fan, but I was in attendance about six months before she died when she was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame. We were briefly introduced, and she promised an interview. When we didn’t have time to do it that night, she called the next day, we had a nice chat ajd she could not have been more lovely,” Hernandez reported.

Find out more about Mike’s book at www.mikepingel.com and www.bettywhiterulestheworld.com

FILE UNDER: Books

Comments

(All comments are reviewed before being published, and I review submissions several times per day.)

23 Remarks

  1. January 18th, 2013 at 1:31 pm
    Gaspar Marino says:

    I heard that Estelle Getty didn’t like Betty either.

  2. When yer fabulous there will always be detractors!

  3. That’s the way she was…sad.

  4. Betty White said in her book “If you ask me” that Bea disliked her positive attitude and sunny disposition. She said “I’d be smiling, and she’d (Bea) be furious!” Positive attitudes and happiness go a long way towards good health and longevity. I am not surprised that Ms. White is still working and looking wonderful.

  5. I absolutely loved all four of these ladies…Golden Girls was my fav program and even now I still watch the re-runs. I totally related to “Bea”. I’s hard to picture anything but love and admiration between them…they ALL made the show what it was. Betty’s personality has kept her young & vibrant…possibly “Bea’s” illness prevented her from enjoying life…or Betty!!! Each character brought their own kind of joy to that show…they hid “well” any dislikes or jealousy they may have had!!!!

  6. Maybe that day Bea and Betty had an argument,even the best of friends sometimes argue.

  7. In the series I never noticed that Bea Arthur did not like Betty White. As it should be, they were supposed to be best friends and they were great actors. But in this years later interview they were interviewed as actors, not as the friends they were in Golden Girls. And it could be that the ill Bea Arthur had not enough energy to give Betty White some of it too. It is a guess, we will never know for sure.

  8. It is a tribute to the professionalism of both actresses that they had chemistry on screen. I think we expect them to be like they are on screen because we adore shows like Golden Girls and Charlie’s Angels which depended on teamwork. The same thing happened with Kate Jackson and Cheryl Ladd. You would never know it on screen that Kate hated Cheryl.

  9. I loved that show, and still do. I have been skimming through a few sites and
    Was surprised when I read that Bea had a strong dislike for Betty,.

    Wow, That is surprising, but it never showed.

    I also was surprised to find out that Rue kept her Blanche Deveroux lingerie.
    I am glad that I know this information, it is just so amazing how different the girls
    Are from their characters,

  10. July 1st, 2014 at 3:03 am
    Troy von Tussle says:

    There is NOTHING wrong with disliking someone, even severely so. In all other walks of life people are allowed to despise others, like your boss, colleages, even family menbers. You don’t have to like the whole world.
    The same goes for actors. And, Bea/Estelle Vs. Betty are not the only cases of notorious dislike… I mean, we all relish the annecdotes about Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, or Marlene Dietrich just about hating everybody she didn’t or couldn’t sleep with…

  11. Yes, it is alright to dislike someone, but that does not mean the disliked person should be treated like dirt. There are people I do not like but I am not rude to them. I treat everyone the way I want to be treated, even the people I do not like.

    People need to grow up and act responsibly and act like decent humans.
    If everyone treated everyone else with some level of niceness, regardless of how we feel about them, the world would be a much better place. Society has gone back to the dark ages in regards to how humans treat one another.

  12. we should love the way god loves us

  13. May 17th, 2015 at 8:11 pm
    Katie Sears says:

    How disappointing to learn this about Bea. I thought she was a better person than that. Maybe she was jealous of Betty. Who knows? But this isn’t the first time I’ve read that she hated Betty White, and for no apparent reason. I may not have lost all respect for Bea Arthur, but I’ve lost a lot of it.

  14. So Bea Arthur was like the Mrs. Klaxton character in real life. Huh.

  15. den dere was maude

  16. Bea had a right not to like Betty. The fact the Estelle shared the sentiment is very telling. Betty is likely not the bubbly little Miss Wonderful that people assume she is. She likely behaves differently when cameras are not present. I once read that she had a strained relationship with her step children as they found it hard to get close to her. To be frank Betty has a certain quality that I find phony and rubs me the wrong way. I can’t say I hate her but I’ve never been particularly fond of her. Her sunny side seems very put on and insincere to me. Just my opinion.

  17. I watch the golden girls every night I c was sad the Vea disliked betty,but what is the real reason the dislike.when I watch the show I try not to think of the cold feelings between the two.

  18. I think we all may be falling into the hype of the situationb. the ensemble worked closely together for seven years and I am sure at one time or another they all butted heads or had those “Attitude throwing Moments.” I have no doubt that there was at least some level of truth in the reports of the feud between Bea & Betty- However, to make such general comments such as “Bea hated Betty” and “Bea and Betty couldn’t stand each other” and/or One was jealous of the other etc etc make it as if this was some ten year non stop hatred between the two beloved stars of such an iconic show. I notice that the ‘Gossip Rags and Entertainment News Programs” are all to fast to report the slightest little tiff between famous people but rarely ever report when people make up and or bury the hatchet and resume their friendships. People for some reason love negativity. A Love to hate! To some extent we are all guilty of this. (Some much more than others, but none the less all are guilty.) I can attest to times through the years when I have had misunderstandings and/or disagreements with friends and co workers. and …Thank God that Most of the time Me and the other person were mature enough to work it out ourselves and resume sanity- If it were up to surrounding friends or co workers, these instances would have drug out for decades of life long hatred- because so many people just love to see people ready to duke it out and love to keep the ball rolling! So…..I do believe that there most likely was at some point in time an issue between Bea and Betty-however I seriously doubt it was the “On-Going Battle” that went on for year after year after year that I have seen reported so many times now!

  19. I read somewhere that the reason Bea Arthur did not like Betty White had to do with the filming of the first episode. White apparently told Arthur how to read her lines correctly, and it apparently came off arrogant and rude. Arthur apparently never forgave her, HOWEVER I also read that Arhur would wait for Betty every day on the set- just to go to lunch. So to me, they probably had a very unique bond that no one can explain. Sometimes the people we are closest to are also the ones we cannot stand. It sounds weird, but especially in show business- this can occur quite a bit.

  20. August 9th, 2016 at 7:37 am
    Bette Sheets says:

    I love all of them. People who work together that closely for so long are going to have moments of discord. Just like siblings. Funny how nobody mentions the Rue interview where she tells how jealous the other three were because Estelle got the best lines.

  21. According to Rue, Bea Arthur didn’t like her either

  22. I met a girl who said Betty White married someone in her family. She said that Betty actually likes animals more than people, which is why she can be “cold” or “distant” from some. Off the screen, she’s just a person who feels closer to animals instead of people. I can understand that. She once said something about how people let you down but animals never do.

  23. October 8th, 2019 at 1:13 pm
    Aida Abdur-Rashid says:

    I’ve read where Betty and Rue where pretty close between the four of them. Just think, Rue has been castmates with both Betty and Bea in different series. “Mama’s Family” and “Maude”.

Leave a Reply