Who Is Kate Harrington, Truman Capote's Young Protégé in 'Feud'?
Truman Capote was famous for the friendships he cultivated with powerful women—especially the society doyennes portrayed by Naomi Watts, Demi Moore, and others in Feud: Capote vs. the Swans—but one of his most enduring relationships was with a young woman from Long Island named Kerry O’Shea. She was the daughter of Capote's on-and-off-again lover John O’Shea, and they became friends after she reached out to him for career advice when she a teenager. Capote invited her to come have lunch with him in New York City and they quickly hit it off.
Capote introduced her to his famous friends and helped her find work as a model and she eventually moved into his apartment in the United Nations Plaza and lived with him as a sort of protege and adopted daughter. He encouraged her to chronicle her new life in a diary and change her name for her career. Soon Kerry O’Shea became Kate Harrington, Capote’s constant companion at lunches and nightclubs.
In Feud, Harrington is played by Ella Beatty, the 24-year-old daughter of Annette Bening and Warren Beatty, and her character—who features this week in episode six—reveals a different, more compassionate side of Capote.
Over the years Harrington, who now lives in New Mexico, has been a moderating voice in the dissection of Capote’s legacy. While others focused on his “tiny terror” reputation and the fallout from the publication of the "La Côte Basque, 1965" excerpt in Esquire, Harrington has spoken about his loyalty and good advice. In a 1984 New York piece called Un-Answered Prayers, she told writer Julie Baumgold, “He was my mentor. With all his enfant terrible behavior, with me he was not that way. He protected me at Studio 54. He taught me what to read, took me on shopping sprees.”
Harrington was also a central character in The Capote Tapes, Ebs Burnough’s 2019 documentary, in which she described Capote’s tireless efforts to help her expand her horizons. “Slowly, slowly, slowly my whole world began to change,” she told Burnough. “He opened up the doors of literature, dance, art, music, fashion, and meeting all kinds of accomplished people.”
In Feud, the Harrington character needs all the help she can get. "I'd let my hair fall naturally," Lee Radziwill (played by Calista Flockhart) advises Harrington when she stops by her and Capote's table at a restaurant. "You're not in the Daughters of the American Revolution."
You Might Also Like
