Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman was many things - British aristocrat; daughter-in-law of Winston Churchill; lover of a variety of rich and famous men; wife of Broadway producer Leland Hayward; wife of powerful political figure Averell Harriman; political power-broker in her own right; American ambassador to France.
She was often described as "the greatest courtesan of the 20th century" and "the doyenne of the Democratic Party."What Pamela Harriman was not was boring. Which is why the Lifetime telemovie "Life of the Party: The Pamela Harriman Story" does her such a disservice - it makes her into just another romance-novel figure and a dull one at that.
"I really believe that Pamela would be smiling to see this film because she wanted to be remembered," said executive producer Francine LeFrak.
Well, she probably wouldn't mind the publicity. But chances are she would have preferred a TV movie less forgettable than this one (which airs Monday at 7 p.m. on Lifetime).
Ann-Margret does a passable job imitating Harriman from the late '50s through her death in 1997. But casting her in the role presents its own impediment to the movie - many of the more interesting incidents in her life happened when she was in her teens, 20s and 30s, and Ann-Margret couldn't possibly pass for anyone that young.
There is one brief scene with another actress portraying Pamela (opposite a younger Averell Harriman) during World War II, but that's it. What's missing from this biography is her upbringing as the daughter of the wealthy Lord Digby; her brief marriage to Randolph Churchill; her affairs with a variety of American and British bigwigs during the war - including everyone from American envoy Harriman to Gen. Fred Anderson (a top U.S. general) to Sir Charles Portal (marshal of the Royal Air Force) to Lord Beaverbrook.
Not to mention her liasons with everyone from CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow to Fiat heir Gianni Agnelli to Prince Aly Khan to Elie de Rothschild.
In the introduction to an "Intimate Portrait" of Pamela Harriman, which airs on Lifetime right after the movie, narrator Julie Harris tells viewers, "This is a story of ambition, glamour, power, wealth and cunning. Pamela Harriman - a master of reinvention."
In "Life of the Party," we get some glimpses of that in her marriages to Hayward and Harriman and her rise up the political ladder. (Her early backing of Bill Clinton - beginning in the '80s - led to Pamela being named ambassador to France.)
But the movie plays out like just another hackneyed adaptation of a Danielle Steel novel. It's slight, trite and shallow.
A really good biography of Pamela could easily have been a two-part, four-hour TV movie. But "Life of the Party" is so weak that two more hours of this would have put viewers into a coma.
The single memorable image from the movie is sheer exploitation - Ann-Margret as Pamela, sinking beneath the water of the Paris Ritz Hotel as she suffers a stroke while swimming.
If you're interested in Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman, go ahead and watch Lifetime's "Intimate Portait" on Monday at 9 p.m. It's hardly an intensive, in-depth portrait, but at least it touches on most of the bases.
However, unless you're having trouble sleeping, avoid "Life of the Party."