You’ve heard about Palm Beach no matter where you live. It’s the permanent vacation spot for millionaires and billionaires, the hangout of Kennedys and Trumps. The year-round high-society zone is the backdrop of a new series from Apple TV+. Whatever you see in Palm Royale — set to premiere on March 20 — can well be a feature in the Shiny Sheet or the gossip paper Palm Beach Daily News, which Donald Trump once referred to as “sort of a bible”.
For all its notoriety, Palm Beach remains a reclusive enclave of gated mansions and private clubs. It’s exactly the place where Maxine Simmons (Kristen Wiig) wants to make a grand entry but she doesn’t have an engraved invitation or a Rolls-Royce. In her quest to become a part of high-society action, she puts on a show. Is her show grand enough to stump Evelyn Rollins (played by Allison Janney) and Dinah Donahue (played by Leslie Bibb)?
Looking for validation
“Evelyn Rollins is perceived to be the top of Palm Beach society right now as Norma (played by Carol Burnett), the doyenne of the society, has been sidelined. I’m desperate to hold on to that position and very much vulnerable underneath and afraid that I will be bumped out of my position and I don’t want to be, so she exudes power and competence but underneath, there’s fragility and fear,” Allison tells us over a video call.
Allison Janney in Palm Royale.
Tied to the character of Evelyn is that of Dinah. “Dinah Donohue has only been one season in the Palm Beach elite but has done very well for herself. She desperately wants to take over power, shall I say replace… have a new guard come in. But I think she also craves desperately Evelyn’s approval. I think, for Dinah, if she can attain power and this place, it will make her feel like she is powerful. It feels very slippery, the soap… it feels very tenuous, this holding on to what I’ve got. It’s all fun, games and laughter and I get to say delicious, funny, sometimes insane things and rotten things that will make you laugh, but underneath, I think there’s something heartbreaking to this deep need to succeed. It’s where she drives her worth from. There’s something really sad about that, so underneath, I think for all the women, this comedy is just covering a deep well of insecurity and fear,” says Leslie.
Set during the powder keg year of 1969, Palm Royale is a testament to every outsider fighting for their chance to truly belong. The series is loosely based on the novel Mr. and Mrs. American Pie by Juliet McDaniel and produced for Apple TV+ by Apple Studios. While Palm Beach has had its share of newcomers, its social scene used to be discreet in the 1960s. Names like Kennedy, Vanderbilt and Pulitzer held sway and occasionally, a British royal would drop in. Palm Beach remains a 12-mile-long island for America’s rich, complete with all the social climbing and publicity mongering that comes with such a show. Cocktail parties are common and so are preening guests trying to get themselves seen.
One name needs to be kept in mind while talking of Palm Beach — Slim Aarons, a lifestyle and celebrity photographer who from the 1950s to the 1970s was celebrated for his portraiture of — in his own words — “attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places”. It’s interesting to see how the place has changed.
“It’s so interesting because what it seems to be about… underneath all these people, being shaken left, right and centre, you realise that it’s all built on quicksand,” says Leslie. “Palm Beach is a very elite community. It still is. And it’ll be interesting to see how provocative it is for them to sort of have a light cast back to see… I don’t know if it’s changed that much. But maybe after this show, it’ll change a little bit more.”
Former US president Donald Trump, who has been a lifelong New Yorker, a few years ago moved his primary residence to Palm Beach. Mar-a-Lago Club is his permanent residence. Maybe he likes the chatter there. Maybe he likes the tax system there. One thing is for sure, Trump fits in with the Palm Beach crowd.
Past and present tense
There have been plenty of special moments for Allison and Leslie while making the show. “One of my favourite memories was the initial table read we had where all the women were there. And I was sitting next to Carol Burnett on one side and Kristen Wiig on the other, Leslie was on that table too… that was a pretty spectacular moment. It was very special. And I had not really met Kristen before, although she told me a story of being a fan of mine and how she saw me at a restaurant. That was so sweet of her to tell me,” says Allison.
Leslie jumps in: “I remember that table read and just being like: ‘How did I get so lucky?’ Getting to watch two people that I really admire and watching them work.… Kristen and I have this scene on a golf course and I’m sort of coaching her on what she needs to do to make her life better. I was driving a golf cart and I was driving it so badly. Kristen and I were laughing. It was a fun day. Kristen and I were just having the best time and the things we were getting to say and the things we were getting to improvise… the costumes… it was a great day at the office.”
Though set in the tail end of the 1960s, the story remains relevant. Business still gets done here like before and this is also a place where people simply want to put jeans and T-shirts on and just hang around. The dizzying Palm Beach social circle hasn’t lost its shine.
“First of all, it’s pure entertainment. And that’s always a reason to watch anything… just to enjoy… and such great actors; every element of this is spectacular and fun to watch. If you’re looking for a theme that resonates, there is this idea of these women of not wanting to move into the future or holding on to their past, holding on to the way they want the world to be. At the same time, there are voices of women trying to move into the future, the need to change. And it’s a theme that runs through our lives and in the show for sure,” says Allison.
Taking the point forward, Leslie says, “Dinah is desperately trying to hold on to some sort of power because it’s all she has. She feels like at any moment, she would be replaced. She doesn’t have a firm ground to sort of stand on; she’s made her house out of like matchsticks. We sacrifice things in life. But for these women, it feels like very high stakes, this sort of life and death stakes to hold on to their social standing. And I think their social standing makes them feel powerful. It makes them feel secure, which is so interesting. I guess it’s not very different than when somebody posts a photo on Instagram. Did they like it? Do they like me? As human beings we really all want to feel liked and accepted and belong somewhere.”
Palm Royale will premiere on Apple TV+ on March 20
