Faye Dunaway beware: One of the only people in the movie industry who isn’t afraid of you is talking about the making of “Mommie Dearest.”
Rutanya Alda — who kept a journal while she played an assistant in the 1981 camp classic about Joan Crawford, starring Dunaway — will attend a screening at a Midtown hotel next week with between-scene commentary by columnist Michael Musto and host Michael Urie of “Ugly Betty” fame.
Dunaway can tune in to the Logo TV show “Cocktails & Classics” on Nov. 8 to see the “Mommie Dearest” episode.
Alda’s book, “The Mommie Dearest Diary: Carol Ann Tells All,” came out in September with stories of how the scene-stealing Dunaway forced the director to show Alda only from behind in one scene. In another, she was just a voice.
“She’s terrifying,” Alda, who lives in West Harlem, told me.
“The book shows how Faye could be human off-camera, but when they were filming, that’s when Faye’s fangs came out,” Musto said.
While Dunaway has steadfastly refused to discuss “Mommie Dearest” and flown into rages when interviewers bring it up, it was announced in April that the Oscar-winning diva will write her own memoir about the movie.
Alda’s agent then got a call from Dunaway asking if Alda would fly herself to LA to help Faye with research.
“My jaw dropped that she’d have the gall to ask me to help her write her book. I was literally stunned,” Alda said. “She still thinks it’s all about her.”
Alda advised Dunaway to simply buy a copy of her book.
Dunaway’s rep declined to comment.