Overview
- Novak told The Times she would never have approved Sweeney playing her and argued the role risks reducing her story to sex.
- Variety reported that representatives for Sweeney did not immediately comment on Novak’s criticism.
- The Independent reported that progress on Scandalous! appears to have stalled, a project announced in 2024 with Sweeney as Novak and David Jonsson as Sammy Davis Jr.
- Director Colman Domingo has described the planned film as a gentle story about privacy, humanity, and the possibility of love.
- The film draws on Novak’s late-1950s relationship with Sammy Davis Jr., which unfolded under Jim Crow and reported studio pressure from Columbia Pictures chief Harry Cohn.