Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
The untold story of the unique friendship between Hollywood icon Bette Davis and her young assistant and protege, Kathryn Sermak, who became her best friend and loyal companion during the final decade of Davis's life.
When Kathryn started working for "Miss D" in 1979, the recent college graduate had to be schooled by her new employer in everything from how to give a proper handshake to which fork to use for dinner by her exacting, sometimes imperious boss. But under Miss D's tutelage, Kathryn began to blossom, and a close friendship began to develop. Kathryn was offered a front-row seat to Davis's life of Hollywood glamour--also the dark side of that world. Using one of their final road trips together in France during the summer of 1985 as a backdrop, this is the story of Kathryn and Miss D's unlikely friendship and a fascinating look at a larger-than-life diva who was determined to live her life on her own terms."
Synopsis
For ten years Kathryn Sermak was at Bette Davis's side--first as an employee, and then as her closest friend--and in Miss D and Me she tells the story of the great star's harrowing but inspiring final years, a story fans have been waiting decades to hear.
Miss D and Me is a story of two powerful women, one at the end of her life and the other at the beginning. As Bette Davis aged she was looking for an assistant, but she found something more than that in Kathryn: a loyal and loving buddy, a co-conspirator in her jokes and schemes, and a competent assistant whom she trained never to miss a detail. But Miss D had strict rules for Kathryn about everything from how to eat a salad to how to wear her hair...even the spelling of Kathryn's name was changed (adding the -y-) per Miss D's request. Throughout their time together, the two grew incredibly close, and Kathryn had a front-row seat to the larger-than-life Davis's career renaissance in her later years, as well as to the humiliating public betrayal that nearly killed Miss D.
The frame of this story is a four-day road trip Kathryn and Davis took from Biarritz to Paris, during which they disentangled their ferocious dependency. Miss D and Me is a window into the world of the unique and formidable Bette Davis, told by the person who perhaps knew her best of all.