Warning: SPOILERS for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 4, Episode 6 – “Maisel vs. Lennon: The Cut Contest”
The identity of Midge Maisel’s (Rachel Brosnahan) gossip columnist enemy was revealed in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 4, episode 6, and it’s not Gilmore Girls actors Kelly Bishop or Milo Ventimiglia – it’s better. Ever since Midge was fired by Shy Baldwin (LeRoy McClain), a Daily News gossip hound named Elroy Dunham has written numerous hit pieces about Mrs. Maisel. It was theorized that Elroy Dunham would be played by one of the Gilmore Girls actors guest starring in Mrs. Maisel season 4, but episode 6’s unveilings of who Elroy Dunham is and who Kelly Bishop is playing is even more ingenious.
John Waters was the other major name guest-starring in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 4 who could potentially have played Elroy Dunham. However, Waters’ cameo occurred in Mrs. Maisel season 4, episode 4, “Interesting People on Christopher Street.” Waters played Lazarus, a gay man Midge met on Christopher Street who pointed her to a lesbian bar Miriam wanted to take her manager, Susie Myerson (Alex Borstein). Elroy Dunham’s newspaper attacks on Mrs. Maisel’s stand-up career took a back seat for a couple of episodes as Midge took a job at a strip club called Wolford, where she became the emcee and in-house comic. However, Elroy Dunham found Mrs. Maisel’s new gig and wrote another hit piece, which provoked Midge to finally meet her tormentor face-to-face.
Another theory about Elroy Dunham in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 4 was that the gossip columnist was actually a woman using a pseudonym, and it was proven partially true when Midge met the real reporter, L. Roy Dunham (Hari Nef), who turned out to be a woman. Cleverly, Dunham is almost an anti-Midge Maisel. Both are women fiercely trying to carve out a place for themselves in professions dominated by men where they aren’t taken seriously. But L. Roy targeted Midge in her gossip column because she’s a woman trying to do stand-up, and Mrs. Maisel has proven to be reliably good copy. As such, Dunham isn’t remotely apologetic about her repeated takedowns of Mrs. Maisel. Rather than another man in Midge’s life opposing and angering her, making L. Roy Dunham a woman who has a similar motivation but has no issues tearing Mrs. Maisel down to build her own career up is smart writing.
Meanwhile, Kelly Bishop also debuted in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 4, episode 6, and it was a savvy move to not make her character another enemy of Midge’s, but rather, someone leading the charge against Midge’s mother, Rose Weissman (Marin Hinkel). Rose has been trying to find her own purpose by starting a business as a matchmaker and she’s found encouraging success, even while Rose had to watch Susie after Jackie’s (Brian Tarantina) death. Rose even landed a millionaire client, and she was delighted to receive an invitation to join what she thought was the Small Business Women’s Council at Brighton Beach. Instead, it was a setup and Rose learned she’s in the crosshairs of Benedetta, played by Kelly Bishop, the leader of a cabal of matchmakers who want to put Rose out of business.
Rose has been an invaluable supporting character in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel but much of her story has been reacting to the seismic moods and life-altering decisions of her husband, Abe (Tony Shalhoub). Mrs. Maisel season 4 giving Rose her own storyline as an independent businesswoman, only to encounter an opposing force that wants to take her down just as she was gaining momentum, is a brilliant echo of Midge’s tumultuous stand-up career. Since Midge already has too many of her own enemies, including L. Roy Dunham and Sophie Lennon (Jane Lynch), it was a very sharp move to cast Kelly Bishop as Rose’s new rival Benedetta. L. Roy Dunham and Benedetta are both fantastic new additions to The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 4 who are sure to make Midge and Rose’s lives comically difficult.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 4 streams Fridays on Amazon Prime Video.
