Becoming JFK Jr and Daryl Hannah

There was all kinds of bitching a few weeks ago (we did it here too) when the first photos of Paul Kelly and Sarah Pidgeon in costume as John F Kennedy Jr and Carolyn Bessette were released with the start of production on Ryan Murphy’s series, Love Story. 

The consensus was that the styling for Carolyn was all wrong, from the outfits to the hair colour. I wondered how Ryan would respond. And he did, almost immediately, speaking to Variety, calling the reaction to the photos “inflammatory” and explained that those test shots were only released to offset the imminent paparazzi interest. Also, the styling on that test shoot was not the actual styling that will be seen in the show. They borrowed the pieces from another sound stage because they were just doing lighting and colour that day. As for the hair, he says it was a wig and he’s pissed at Vogue for making it into a whole thing with Carolyn’s colourist. 

Ryan Murphy is no stranger to controversy though. In fact, some might argue that he courts it. He went into this knowing how people feel about JFK Jr and Carolyn, Carolyn especially. He knows that she’s an icon, he understands the depth of the obsession. This series was never going to be unprovocative. And as much as the internet rages about the clothes and the hair and whatever, they will also watch the sh-t out of this show. 

Here's Paul Kelly as John, on set in NYC this week with Dree Hemingway and it’s obvious from the costuming here and the body language that she’s playing Daryl Hannah. It’ll be interesting to see how much of Daryl we’ll get in the series since the “love story” is supposed to be John and Carolyn. But there was overlap between them because John and Carolyn met while he was still off-and-on with Daryl. This was a tumultuous relationship, Daryl clashed with his mother, Jacqueline. There was a whole drama over Daryl’s dog dying and then Jackie dying and John resenting Daryl for trying to guilt him over the dog while he was grieving his mother’s imminent and then subsequent death. 

But anyway, John and Carolyn met and dated during one of the “off” periods between him and Daryl and he actually broke up with Carolyn to get back together with Daryl before they ended it for good. Some people have said that Carolyn was jealous of Daryl. Curious if this will make it into the storyline. 

Ryan claims he has a ten-person “style advisory board” consulting on the project. There are no members of the Kennedy family involved. Not sure where the other parts of the script, beyond the looks, are coming from. But every Ryan Murphy production is dishy and c-nty. What will that look like when it’s applied to John and Carolyn?