Guest star Patti LuPone delivers her version of Palm Beach grande dame Marjorie Merriweather Post, who plays a key role in this week’s action on ‘Palm Royale.’
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- This episode of “Palm Royale” features a guest performance by Patti LuPone as socialite Marjorie Merriweather Post, who built Mar-a-Lago.
- Maxine explores a new romance with Dr. Dusty Magic while also attempting to sell gold bars to finance her plans.
- The real Marjorie Merriweather Post was known for hosting popular square-dancing parties at her Palm Beach estate.
Welcome back to the Shiny Sheet’s recap of “Palm Royale,” our rundown of the hit Apple TV+ series set in Palm Beach.
Each week, we look at five Palm Beach-related or key moments in that week’s episode of the series, which is now in its second season.
This week is Episode Five, “Maxine Is Ready to Single Mingle.” The Apple TV+ description for this episode says, “Evelyn and Maxine must strike a deal with a powerful socialite to finance their plan. Maxine clicks with the charismatic Dr. Dusty Magic.”
Watch out: There are spoilers ahead, so if you don’t want to know, stop reading right now and come back after you’ve watched.
Two words: Patti LuPone. This week, the actress and singer brings a bombshell performance as iconic Palm Beach socialite and cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post.
After last week’s episode, Norma (Carol Burnett) is on the run somewhere east of the Atlantic Ocean while Virginia (Amber Chardae Robinson) and Ann (Mindy Cohn) continue their investigation into her alleged crimes. Maxine (Kristen Wiig) is exploring her romantic options while also working with Evelyn (Allison Janney) to take control of the Palm Royale. Robert (Ricky Martin) is navigating his affair with FBI agent Tom (Rick Cosnett) while also holding onto his ties with Norma. Douglas (Josh Lucas) and Mitzi (Kaia Gerber) are now married and were settling into their new roles — until Douglas was kidnapped. Dinah (Leslie Bibb) and Perry (Jordan Bridges) are making a play for power in Palm Beach politics.
Let’s get into it.
1. Did Marjorie Merriweather Post love square dancing?
She sure did.
Post hosted countless lavish events at her Mar-a-Lago estate after she completed it in 1927, and added a square-dancing pavilion in 1961 to accommodate her popular parties. That pavilion featured a 30-foot-by-50-foot dance floor and was designed by noted architect Marion Sims Wyeth, who originally drew up the plans for Mar-a-Lago with fellow designer Joseph Urban.
Today, of course, Post’s estate is the home of President Donald Trump and the site of his private Mar-a-Lago Club.
Post also enjoyed dancing the tango. She loved to dance so much that when a new dance rose in popularity, she hired instructors to teach her the steps. Her events frequently featured professional dancers and entertainers.
Her square dances made the society pages of The Miami News in 1956: “Palm Beach has a new rage — square dancing! Mrs. Marjorie Merriweather Post, the beautiful former wife of our ex-ambassador to Russia, is responsible for this new vogue which she also started in Washington a couple of years ago.”
Her square-dancing parties “have caused such a sensation among smart set leaders that the swank Everglades Club has hopped on the band wagon and help their first square dance party this week,” that paper proclaimed.
Now, did Post yodel during her square dances? There’s no historical record of it. But who wouldn’t want to give LuPone an opportunity to stretch her vocal cords? In a song-and-dance number, LuPone yodels and sings “I Want to be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart” by Patsy Montana.
“I guess when you cast me, I’m expected to sing,” the actress told Town & Country of her appearance on “Palm Royale.” “So I’m on a horse singing a country-and-western song with a bunch of fantastic dancers that can lasso around me. It’s a big scene!”
The square dance is central to this episode. It’s the highlight of Maxine’s second date with Dr. Dusty Magic (John Stamos). And Dinah, Perry and Mitzi head there to confront Pinky (Roberto Sanchez) and Raquel (Claudia Ferri), who they believe kidnapped Douglas.
But “Madge,” as they call her, steals the show. LuPone plays Post as a tough-as-nails broad who wants control over money, business and politics in Palm Beach.
Which leads to the next item …
2. Was Marjorie Merriweather Post a Republican?
No. She was a Democrat, as explained to the Republican National Finance Committee in a 1966 letter. Post hosted gatherings and fundraisers for politicians and both political parties at Mar-a-Lago through the years. That included a meeting of the Republican Executive Committee in 1970, with attendees such as a Florida Gov. Claude Kirk. (It’s unclear if Post was at that event.)
Post deeded Mar-a-Lago to the National Park Service after her death in 1973. She hoped it would be used as a “Camp David of the South” by the president and visiting dignitaries.
That didn’t work out. Instead, the government returned Mar-a-Lago to the Marjorie Merriweather Post Foundation in 1981, citing concerns about the costs of upkeep and security vulnerabilities.
President Richard Nixon visited Mar-a-Lago in 1974 — a month before his resignation — “to determine its potential use for U.S. presidents for foreign dignitaries,” according to Nixon’s official presidential diary entry from that day.
3. Maxine is ready to dance
This episode is a big one for Maxine. She’s finally ready to move past Douglas with Dr. Dusty, who first takes Maxine to a movie before planning a second date that includes the square dance at Mar-a-Lago.
Maxine’s plans get complicated — as always — by Mary (Julia Duffy). She arrives with a message from Linda (Laura Dern). At the beginning of this episode, viewers get a Wes Anderson-esque montage of Linda’s adventures since Douglas helped her escape to Cuba. Now, Linda needs money from the Rollins estate to help her in her hands-on philanthropic work. She says that a courier will arrive and say the code word “banana slug,” at which point Maxine — Linda’s conservator — needs to hand over $100,000 from the Rollins estate.
But Maxine and Evelyn plan to use that money to buy the Palm Royale. When their plan to pay for the club using gold bars falls through, Maxine and Evelyn decide to sell the gold to Madge at her square dance.
Before Maxine puts on her dancing boots, she and Dr. Dusty head to dinner at “the Fang and Tail, Loxahatchee’s preeminent and gourmet alligator dining experience.” They really seem to click, and Dr. Dusty tells her that he appreciates how Maxine takes charge.
Maxine also confides in him that she has to unload gold and get money for Linda. He offers to go with Evelyn and Maxine to Mar-a-Lago.
Later, after Madge pressures Evelyn and Maxine into taking a bargain-basement price for the gold bars, Dr. Dusty turns to Maxine and says, “Banana slug.” He’s the courier! Gasp.
Maxine invites Dr. Dusty back to the Dellacorte mansion poolhouse, but Douglas shows up, as he does, and Dr. Dusty gets the wrong idea. Hopefully this won’t be the last we see of Stamos. He really added a certain charm to the show.
Meanwhile, Evelyn deduces that Maxine is setting aside money for Linda. She realizes that Maxine helped Linda to escape, and Evelyn tells Maxine that she is going to take sole ownership of the Palm Royale, where Maxine will not be welcome.
4. Will Perry and Dinah sink their political ship before it even sails?
After inheriting the position as lead Democratic power broker in Palm Beach from her late fiancée, Dinah launches Perry’s bid for Palm Beach mayor as a Democrat — at the behest of Republican President Nixon.
At the beginning of this episode, Dinah gets her marching orders from Nixon during what sounds like a very apolitical phone call.
Dinah tells Perry, then Raquel and then Madge that Nixon’s plan is for Dinah to set up a slate of Democratic losers so Republicans can sweep elections. That all begins with Perry, a notion that he rejects. If this is supposed to be a secret plan, Dinah isn’t doing a very good job of keeping things quiet.
An interesting clash is shaping up between Dinah and Madge, who tells the undercover Republican that her dead betrothed had the final Fabergé egg that would complete a collection of 12 that Madge has amassed over the years. Dinah insists she doesn’t know what Madge is talking about. This seems like a moment to remember.
Town Council elections in the real Palm Beach are nonpartisan.
5. What is the fate of the Dellacorte mansion?
At the end of Episode Four, Robert received a letter from Norma instructing him to send her paintings to Switzerland and to protect the Dellacorte mansion.
We can confidently say he did one of those things.
When Douglas goes missing, Perry, Dinah and Mitzi suspect Pinky is behind the disappearance. A visit by Dinah to talk with Raquel seems to confirm their suspicions. They decide to go to the square dance for Mitzi to use her “wiles” to convince Perry to release Douglas. When Mitzi says they need to just go to the police, Perry downplays her concerns and insists they will handle it at Mar-a-Lago.
During the square dance, Perry tells Mitzi that he will use the event as cover to break into Pinky and Raquel’s house and find Douglas. Mitzi panics and goes to the FBI, where she eats some charcuterie while telling Tom that Douglas is being held hostage at Pinky’s mansion.
But at Pinky’s house, Perry doesn’t find Douglas. Instead, he finds a pig that Pinky and Raquel planned to cook and eat. The pig chases Perry just as Tom pulls into the driveway.
So what does the Dellacorte mansion have to do with all of this?
When Maxine hears from Robert that Pinky kidnapped Douglas, she offers them the mansion in exchange for Douglas’ freedom. It’s only after she shakes hands with Pinky to seal the deal that she finds out they didn’t have Douglas.
So who did have Douglas? Secret Service agents who knew that Douglas helped Linda escape to Cuba and wanted to know where she went next.
The episode ends with Robert running into the fake prince from last season, with whom Robert was ready to run off into the sunset.
Bonus: Mar-a-Lago did, indeed, have a bunker
In fact, it has three bomb shelters, which Post had built during the Korean War. The bomb shelters were no secret: They were included in nearly every Palm Beach Post report on the sale of Mar-a-Lago to Trump in the mid-1980s, long before he won two presidential elections.
Chances are pretty good that the real Post did not hoard the spoils of government auctions in her bunkers.
It presents a great place for this villainous, campy depiction of a fictional Post, surrounded by her spoils and offering half the value for gold bars.
And let’s not forget that among those spoils are the contents of the Rollins mansion.
Maxine only seems to be half-joking when she tells Madge that she dreams of someday having a vault in her basement.
“When this world blows sky high, and it will, I’ll be ready,” Madge tells her. “Will you?”
Kristina Webb is a reporter for Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at kwebb@pbdailynews.com. Subscribe today to support our journalism.
