The Other Woman

With production on Baby Jane underway, Joan proposes an alliance with Bette; their first act is to get a pretty young blonde actress in a minor role replaced. In flashback, we learn how an ambitious Joan, wanting to play more challenging roles, moved from MGM to Warner Bros. She ended up as a tool used by Jack Warner to try to control Bette, the studio's "problem child" – and winning an Oscar with a role in Mildred Pierce, a role Bette passed on. Back on set, Bette and Joan seem to be getting along swimmingly. Warner plans to give the film a wide release... but asks Bob to keep his stars at each other's throats for publicity purposes. And so, despite a warning from his wife, Harriet, about the dangers of gossip, he feeds Hedda Hopper some salacious red meat for her column. And soon, as Bette and Joan begin to feud again, he finds himself in the middle... right where he intended to be, so he can continue to manipulate them. But even this isn't enough for Warner, who believes their chemistry on screen depends on their hatred for each other, and asks Bob to escalate things. But Joan knows how to be manipulative, too. Meanwhile, Bette – after meeting her love interest in the film, Victor Buono – takes her frustrations out on her daughter, B.D., and subsequently finds herself in need of a friend.