‘Feud’ Star Catherine Zeta-Jones Shares Her Record-Breaking Oscar Cleavage

Catherine Zeta-Jones is back on television, this time as Olivia de Havilland in Ryan Murphy’s Feud, and while she was promoting that new role as a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live! this past Wednesday, Ms. Zeta-Jones was compelled to discuss her considerable cleavage at the 2003 Academy Awards. Host Jimmy Kimmel happened to dig up a photo of Catherine and husband Michael Douglas entering the Oscars with a pregnant Zeta-Jones flaunting her larger-than-usual chest size. The Feud actress shares her thoughts on the experience, suggesting she may have broken a record for bearing the biggest cleavage at an Oscar event.

Feud Star Catherine Zeta-Jones Reminisces About Her Oscar Bounty

In reporting Catherine’s appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Fix reports that the Feud actress had been pregnant with daughter Carys in 2003 and, in fact, had been 10 days from delivering on the night of the Academy Awards. As a result, Ms. Zeta-Jones shares that her breasts were abnormally large and were therefore bursting out of the top of her black evening gown.

“I think I hold the record of carrying the biggest jugs to the Oscars,” jokes the Feud actress.

Catherine also shared that she had agreed to sing with Queen Latifah for the 2003 Academy Awards, a decision she made before her pregnancy had progressed, but, when the time came, the performance proved almost too daunting. Zeta-Jones says the act required her to be raised up on a hydraulic lift and she confesses to feeling unnerved by the entire situation, even though she did manage to come through it okay.

Even though her pregnancy almost interfered with the event, Catherine recalls that performing with Queen Latifah had been a “real honor,” making an already magical evening feel that much more special.

Michael Douglas And Catherine Zeta-Jones Are Proud To Have Raised Two More Actors

Together with Michael, Catherine has two teenage children, Dylan Douglas, 16, and 13-year-old Carys Douglas, and, as E! News reports, they both have caught the acting bug from their parents. Much like any doting mother, the Feud star is both worried and proud that her children want to follow in the family’s tradition of acting and filmmaking. She says she worries for Dylan and Carys, primarily because they have some big shoes to fill, falling in line behind Kirk Douglas and Michael Douglas.

“You know, I know it’s going to be hard for them, because they’ve got their grandfather, Kirk [Douglas], they’ve got me, they have Michael, but they so inherently love it and they’re good!”

Catherine says she’s tried to give her kids a realistic idea about what it takes to make it in show business, adding that she knows not everyone succeeds in tackling the Hollywood dream. Even so, Zeta-Jones thinks Carys and Dylan have a leg up, coming from a line of experienced actors. The Feud star reveals that her teen son and daughter are already getting practical experience in the summers.

“They go to summer camp every year—they do like three musicals and straight plays—and they love it.”

When Catherine was cast to play Feud‘s Olivia de Havilland, she went directly to an invaluable source, asking her father-in-law about classic Hollywood and what it was like to work with Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. Kirk told Catherine that Bette “was a real broad” who “didn’t give a hoot what people thought,” adding that Joan was crazy. To be more precise, the eldest Douglas described Crawford as being “f***ing out of her mind.”

Ms. Zeta-Jones suggests the two rivals should be cut some slack, as history remembers them, because things were much harsher for women in Hollywood of that era.

“All those women—and men; it was tough for Kirk—were thrown into this stable. They’re all pitted against each other to see who would get the role of the season,” recalled Catherine Zeta-Jones. “You did what you were told. There were strict rules. Sometimes you dated who they said because you had to feed the gossip columnists. It was tough. These women were tough.”

Feud: Bette and Joan is set to premiere on March 5 on FX.

[Featured Image by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images]