New Book Revisits Crawford–Shearer Feud Behind MGM's The Women
The Hollywood Reporter published an exclusive excerpt on Sept. 22 from Illeana Douglas's Jungle Red! The Making of MGM's The Women, centred on the Joan Crawford–Norma Shearer feud The Hollywood Reporter. The book was published on Sept. 15 by Lyons Press. Douglas is credited as author of the new production history.
The film at the centre of it is MGM's 1939 The Women. Shooting started on April 25, 1939. The studio tracked it internally as MGM production #1091, its file number for schedules and costs.
Its credited stars were Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer, Rosalind Russell, Paulette Goddard and Joan Fontaine. Crawford and Shearer led that ensemble. Their shared billing put two contract stars from the same lot on the same set.
Crawford resented Shearer, who received most of the plum roles at MGM, meaning the best leading parts Newsday. Douglas's book presents the Shearer–Crawford rivalry as surpassing even the better-known Bette Davis–Joan Crawford feud SGN. That framing places the tension on The Women ahead of the later Crawford–Davis story in Hollywood lore.
The book itself is organised as a making-of account. It runs 304 pages. It is listed at $34.95 with ISBN 978-1-4930-9394-6 Publishers Weekly.
Douglas marked publication with a live appearance at The Kate, the Connecticut theatre, on Sept. 15, 2026. The event was billed as a book launch. Admission included a signed copy of Jungle Red! The Making of MGM's The Women The Kate.
What makes this stand out is the paperwork behind the quarrel. A start date, a production number and a casting list give general readers a clear way into an old studio dispute, without needing prior knowledge of MGM, the Hollywood studio system that employed both stars.
