"She’d be furious!": New insight into Betty White and Bea Arthur’s relationship
Just one month after her passing, Hollywood gossips are looking for dirt on beloved actress Betty White - and they have uncovered just how frosty her relationship was with her co-stars.
Joel Thurm, the casting director for Golden Girls, revealed that White’s main co-stars Bea Arthur and Rue McClanahan thought little of her and described her using quite colourful language during his appearance on The Originals podcast.
He shocked the podcast hosts with the intensity of Bea Arthur’s language relating to White, saying their fury came after she mocked fellow Golden Girls actress Estelle Getty in front of a live audience when she began to forget her lines.
“That may seem like a minor transgression, but it really does get to you … I have no idea how Estelle Getty felt, but I know the other two did not like (White) at all,” Thurm said.
Getty passed away in 2008 from Lewy body dementia after retiring from acting in 2001 due to ailing health.
Andrew Goldman, the host of The Originals, took to Instagram following the episode.
“When I got into journalism, maybe I didn’t dream at 49 I wouldn’t be refereeing a fight between deceased sitcom stars,” he wrote.
“I’m very happy for the attention my latest episode of ‘The Originals’ is getting because Bea Arthur and Rue McClanahan apparently used the ‘c-word’ to describe Betty White.”
White had previously spoken about her tense relationship with Bea Arthur, revealing that her co-star had little fondness for her during a 2011 interview with Village Voice.
“Bea had a reserve. She was not that fond of me. She found me a pain in the neck sometimes,” White said at the time.
“It was my positive attitude - and that made Bea mad sometimes. Sometimes if I was happy, she’d be furious!”
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