Erika Jayne: No More Wire Hangers. Ever.
The Real Housewife, Broadway star, and unapologetic maximalist relives the deranged glamour of Mommie Dearest — and the chaos that shaped her.
Erika Jayne is an American TV personality and singer. She is the joint second-longest serving cast member (alongside Lisa Vanderpump and behind the ever-present Kyle Richards) on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills; the 14th and most recent season was her ninth. In 2023, she had a Las Vegas residency at the House of Blues at the Mandalay Bay hotel and in 2025, she returned to Broadway as Roxie Hart in Chicago, five years after first playing the role.
A notorious biopic of Joan Crawford, adapted from a memoir by her daughter Christina, which paints the Hollywood legend as an unstable and violent mother. For her no-holds-barred performance, Dunaway won the Razzie for Best Actress, five years after she won the Best Actress Oscar for Network (dir. Sidney Lumet, 1976).
WHY I LOVE IT
“I love old Hollywood. I love glamor. I love insanity, and I love chaos.”
FIRST TIME I SAW IT
“I was 12 years old, by myself, and I think it was on cable TV. I remember being intrigued; I loved the costumes and I always wanted to be a movie star from the golden age of Hollywood, like Joan Crawford. I thought she was fabulous and crazy.”
LAST TIME I WATCHED IT
“I watched it last year, at home in my living room, because of the Faye Dunaway documentary [Faye (dir. Laurent Bouzereau, 2024)]. Altogether, I've seen this film too many times to count, really – at least 20 and maybe 50 times. At home only, though. I've never seen it in a theater.”
HOW DEEP MY LOVE GOES
“I spend a lot of my hard-earned money on my wardrobe, and I do hate seeing my expensive things on cheap hangers. [In the movie, Joan Crawford flies into a rage when she sees Christina’s clothes on cheap wire hangers, and beats her daughter with a hanger.] And I use phrases from the movie. When I get really overwhelmed I’ll say, “Barbara, please. Please, Barbara.” That's from the bit when Barbara, a reporter, tries to intervene in a fight between Joan and Christina. So, whenever my nerves are about to get shattered and I'm about to unleash on somebody, it's always like, “Barbara, please.”
MY FAVOURITE CHARACTER
“Duh, Joan Crawford. Complicated, but a real movie star – glamorous, unapologetic, and rarely seen without a martini in hand. I mean, I identify. What else could you want?”
THE BEST OUTFIT
“Joan Crawford's costumes are immaculate. I mean, from head to toe, it's over the top. Theatrical shoulder pads, the hair, all of it. It's all good.
THE BEST BIT
“When Christina scrubs the bathroom and then Joan beats Christinia with the Old Dutch cleaning powder, it's pretty amazing. ‘Clean up this mess!’”
MY FAVOURITE LINE
“Barbara, please. Please, Barbara,” and “No. More Wire. Hangers!” When she says, ‘I buy you beautiful dresses’ [in the rant about the hangers], I really feel it because I feel the same way – I don’t want hangers on my expensive clothes.”
WHERE TO WATCH
If you want to dive into Joan’s wired wrath tonight:
Streaming: Available on Paramount+, Apple TV Channel
Rent/Buy: Amazon Video, Fandango At Home, and Apple TV