THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 5, 1994 TAG: 9411050072
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Long : 104 lines
I DO DECLARE, Miss Shannen, wherever did you get the notion that Margaret Mitchell was writing about herself when she created Scarlett O'Hara?
Your humble columnist has it on good authority - Mitchell's most recent biographer, Marianne Walker - that the author did not put a mirror up to herself when she wrote ``Gone With the Wind.''
``When I read Peggy's letters, I heard Scarlett's voice at times. But make no mistake about it. Margaret Mitchell was not Scarlett O'Hara,'' said Walker from her home in Henderson, Ky.
Shannen Doherty, in her first gig since leaving the Peach Pit and the gang on ``Beverly Hills 90210,'' plays the title role in the NBC movie ``A Burning Passion: The Margaret Mitchell Story,'' which airs Monday night at 9.
Maybe it's a coincidence. Maybe not. But NBC's made-for-TV biography comes along just six days before CBS puts on ``Scarlett,'' the eight-hour miniseries that picks up where ``Gone With the Wind'' ended.
A peek preview of ``Scarlett'':
When Scarlett and Rhett Butler are reunited on the screen for the first time since the 1930s, her first words to him are . . . ``Hello, Rhett.''
I know. You expected more. And more. You will get more.
``Scarlett'' is deliciously entertaining trash.
America will be in the grip of Scarlett fever Nov. 13 to 17.
Before you settle down with the Cheetos to watch the ``Gone With the Wind'' sequel, catch Doherty as Mitchell. You'll learn a thing or two about the woman who wrote the great American novel, such as the fact her first husband, Berrien ``Red'' Upshaw, beat her black and blue.
And, no, Red Upshaw was not Rhett Butler. Mitchell said so.
In an interview with TV Guide, Doherty insisted that Margaret (``Call me Peggy,'' she said to folks in Atlanta) Mitchell re-created her life when she wrote about the beautiful, spirited Southern Belle she named Scarlett.
``She was Scarlett,'' said Doherty.
Walker in Kentucky disagrees.
Scarlett, Rhett and the other characters in ``Gone With the Wind'' were composites of the people Mitchell heard about in stories told to her by relatives, said Walker. She had lots of relatives.
``Cousins of every degree . . . ''
Walker, a college professor, recently published a biography of Mitchell and her second husband, John Marsh. In ``Margaret Mitchell & John Marsh: The Love Story Behind `Gone With the Wind,' '' from Peachtree Publishers Ltd. of Atlanta, Walker drew on more than 200 previously unpublished letters from Mitchell to produce the new volume about Mitchell and the man who edited ``Gone With the Wind.''
NBC did not use any material from Walker's book. That's too bad, because the network got some things wrong, such as the idea that Mitchell's parents wanted her to study medicine. ``That's nonsense,'' said Walker.
Nor did NBC reveal that it took Mitchell 10 years to write ``Gone With the Wind,'' starting in 1926, including a spell when she suffered painful arthritis in her ankles. Marsh helped his wife through the bad times.
Walker speculates that he may have typed two chapters of the original manuscript, which was delivered to the publisher in bundles of large envelopes.
Why did Walker come to that conclusion?
Because only two chapters were typed neatly on white paper. The others were written on yellow pages with messy margin notes - Mitchell's work. There isn't much about the writing of the novel in ``A Burning Passion: The Margaret Mitchell Story,'' which is shame.
Just about the time that Mitchell achieves great success with ``Gone With the Wind,'' the NBC movie ends. Mitchell was struck by a car and killed in Atlanta before she could write another novel - done in by a drunken driver, said Walker. You won't see the accident in the NBC movie.
Walker speculates that if Mitchell had written another novel, it would not have been a sequel to ``Gone With the Wind.''
``Peggy believed that she had said all there was to be said about Rhett and Scarlett,'' Walker said.
Alexandra Ripley didn't feel that way, obviously.
In ``Scarlett,'' the author packed Scarlett and Rhett off to Ireland, touched their lives with the unpleasantness of cold-blooded murder, death from yellow fever and a near drowning. All of that takes place in the first six hours of ``Scarlett.''
It's the November sweeps when the networks spend millions on programming and millions more to plug these special programs. You're probably already sick of hearing about ``Scarlett,'' in which Joanne Whalley-Kilmer plays the title role. Timothy Dalton plays Rhett.
Tomorrow has come at last for Scarlett.
Other network November sweeps' spectaculars include David Letterman in his first prime time special for CBS on Nov. 21. Jerry Seinfeld on NBC on Thanksgiving night salutes Abbott and Costello, two comedians who were once wildly popular but never achieved the following of the Marx Brothers, W.C. Fields or Laurel and Hardy.
NBC, on Nov. 25, airs Reba McEntire in concert, at home and on the road. More music during sweeps, also on Nov. 25: CBS reunites the artists who joined Frank Sinatra on his ``Duets'' album, just in time for the release of ``Duets II.''
Thursday night on ABC, Barbara Walters sits down to chat with Kelsey Grammer, Brett Butler and Heather Locklear.
That's Brett Butler from the ABC sitcom ``Grace Under Fire.'' Rhett Butler is the dude with the moustache whose life is all tangled up with Scarlett, the heroine who is not and never has been Margaret Mitchell. Got it? ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Morgan Weisser and Shannen Doherty...
by CNB