Hell hath no fury like a Wellesley College graduate scorned.
That is the message alumnae of the women's college have bombarded the makers of the Julia Roberts film "Mona Lisa Smile" with since the movie's release last month.
The most noteworthy part of the film, a fictional tale set at Wellesley College during the 1950s, is how much it apparently got wrong about student life of that period, according to a growing phalanx of former students.
In fact, beyond capturing the beauty of the college campus, there doesn't seem to be much the filmmakers got right, say the women who have mobilized in national formation onto newspaper pages and graduate Web sites in recent weeks.
"It was an intellectually challenging place," said Libby Franck, a 1964 Wellesley College graduate. "A lot of the questions debated (in the film) are not representative of the era.
"The campus looks absolutely gorgeous, but the characters, as written, are totally unbelievable."
Franck is heading up the latest -- and perhaps most creative -- alumnae installment in correcting the erroneous impressions of Wellesley College life suggested in "Mona Lisa Smile."
Franck, along with Wellesley College senior Alison Buchbinder and Class of 1958 alum Leslie Holmes and Ellen Schmidt, a member of the Class of 1959, will present their side of the case Wednesday at The Center for Arts in Natick as part of TCAN's Outspoken Word series.
During the show, which is titled "The Truth About Wellesley: What 'Mona Lisa Smile' Didn't Tell You," the four women will recount their experiences on campus, point out some of the errors in the film, and perform some humorous songs from past Wellesley College "Junior Shows," satiric productions traditionally written and performed by members of the college's junior class.
Buchbinder -- an American and theater studies major who worked as an extra on the film -- will also talk about some of what went on behind the scenes of the movie, according to Franck.
And, as is the tradition with the "Outspoken Word" series, there will be an open-mike session for audience members who want to contribute their own college memories.
"I hope to make it a really fun evening," said Franck. "It's not just for people who went to Wellesley. I want to make it fun for people, not just about how bad the movie was."
"I think the evening is kind of way to tell it like it was," said Holmes, who said she plans to dress in the style of her college years and bring along recordings of popular artists from the day such as Nat King Cole. "We're not dumping on the school; we're defending the school, but not in any way that is belligerent. It's going to be an evening of entertainment."
Franck, Holmes and Schmidt concede that some of their non-alumnae family members who saw "Mona Lisa Smile" came away with a more favorable impression of the film. They realize that because it is a work of fiction, the filmmakers can -- and in some cases should -- employ a certain poetic license in telling the story. They also doubt that any of the misperceptions advanced by the movie will affect applications to, or enrollment at, the college.
Still, there is a desire to set the record straight, said Holmes, because for many of the alumni watching the movie is "like hearing someone telling a bad story about you that you never did. You don't want people to think that way about you."
Mary Ann Hill, a spokeswoman for Wellesley College, said the college did receive a location fee from producers of "Mona Lisa Smile" in return for allowing the filmmakers to shoot scenes on the campus. She declined to disclose the amount of the payment, saying it was industry practice to keep such fees confidential.
Hill said the film has generated a lot of comment on alumnae electronic bulletin boards.
"Not all the comments have been negative," she said. "It has certainly spawned very interesting discussions, cross-generational responses, about women's choices."
She said the consensus among alumni with teenage daughters -- prospective students at the college -- is the movie has had little effect on their children's thinking about present-day Wellesley.
"While they may think Wellesley was like that 50 years ago, they certainly don't think it is an accurate picture of the college today," said Hill. "The admission staff doesn't think it has hurt us at all."
In fact, she said, applications to the college are up from last year, and last year's total, she said, was the highest in almost 30 years.
Franck said the idea of using "Mona Lisa Smile" as a talking point for hers and others' college experiences came to her more than a year ago and long before the flap over the movie's inaccuracies.
"I heard they were filming at Wellesley and I thought it would be interesting to do a program," she said.
She broached the idea with Holmes and Schmidt, both accomplished singers as well as Wellesley College graduates, and they signed on. Later, through contacts at Wellesley College's Shakespeare Society, she met Buchbinder and the senior agreed to join in.
"We set a date, started to do some research on the film, and both Ellen and I read the book, which was based on the film," said Franck.
Asked about the movie, she said, "We've all seen it and we're not thrilled."
In "Mona Lisa Smile," Julia Roberts plays an art history professor who arrives at Wellesley College in the fall of 1953 on a mission to shake up traditional views of education as well as female identity. The new professor finds trouble from the start -- both fictionally and factually.
A scene early on in the movie, showing Roberts' character delivering a lecture in an Art 100 class and growing increasingly exasperated by the students' unsolicited remarks, is off base on several points, according to the alums.
"You could only take that course in your freshman or sophom*ore year," said Holmes, who minored in art history. "Most of the girls in the film -- and it's not that important -- but they are seniors. They would not be allowed to take Art 100."
What is important, said Holmes and the others, is the inaccurate portrayal of student behavior, beginning right at the start with them shouting out comments about the art slides during the lecture and trying to show up the teacher.
"That just didn't happen," said Holmes, "and at the end, when the professor asked how many had read the book...and every hand in the class shot up, that was ridiculous."
Franck, who was an art history major, points out the fictional professor's chief credentials as an academic radical -- that she was introducing the study of modern art at the school -- is even more ridiculous.
"The movie implies she was introducing the whole concept. That was being taught there in the 1920s," she said.
The three graduates also say the typical garb for most Wellesley students during the week was more jeans and sweatshirts than the pearls and cashmere sweaters that adorn the film's young stars.
Franck said the nice clothes and jewelry would come out sometimes during the students' "weekend transformation." But in general, she said, the students "were schlepping around campus" during the week in a decidedly untransformed state.
What seems to irk the graduates even more than inaccuracies in the classroom and the dressing room is the film's depiction of Wellesley College in the 1950s as more of a finishing school for the wealthy than a learning institution for intelligent, independent and often ambitious women.
"It was never at all like that," said Franck. "It was an intellectually challenging place."
Franck, Holmes and Schmidt are all professional performers.
Franck, who hosts the Outspoken Word series, a showcase for poets, storytellers, and musicians held twice a month at TCAN, is a storyteller who performs at schools, museums, historical societies and folk festivals.
Holmes, who hosts a classical radio program on WCRB, has performed as a soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops, the Opera Company of Boston, Chorus Pro Musica and the Wellesley Symphony, among others. She is also president of the Wellesley Symphony Orchestra and hosts the Cabaret Open Mike at TCAN.
Schmidt, who hosts an open mike for acoustic musicians at the Colonial Inn in Concord, is one-half of the folk duo Two for the Show and has released several CDs.
They say there was never a sense during their time at the college that they were being groomed for anything other than a degree from a prestigious college.
"The film made out that there was such pressure to get married even while they were in college," said Schmidt, whose mother Norma Farber, a 1930 graduate, was a poet, singer and author or more than 20 children's books. "Students hoped to get married, but they were appreciative of the skills they were learning in college and hoped to develop themselves."
The three Wellesley graduates are hoping for a strong turnout at Monday's show.
"It has certainly been an interesting journey back in time," said Schmidt.
"I think it is going to be a fun time," said Holmes. "We have all done a lot of work for this because we're Wellesley students and that's what Wellesley students do."
"The Truth about Wellesley: What 'Mona Lisa Smile' Didn't Tell You," takes place at the Center for Arts in Natick, 14 Summer St., at 7:30 p.m., on Wednesday, Jan. 21, as part of the Outspoken Word story and poetry series. A donation of $5, $4 for members, is requested. For more information, call 508-647-0097 or check out www.natickarts.org.
Philip Maddocks can be reached at 508-626-4437 or by e-mail at pmaddock@cnc.com.
