Paul Kelly is nailing it

As you know by now, Ryan Murphy is my nemesis. I rarely make it all the way through his series, some, usually the true crime ones, I can’t even watch at all. But I was a kid in the Nineties, images of Carolyn Bessette Kennedy are seared into my brain—the Narcisco Rodriguez wedding dress, striking in its simplicity; the white button downs, crisp and cool; the leopard print coat and black turtleneck, the right kind of tacky. She WAS Nineties fashion. And I remember counselors crying at camp because she and “John-John” died. I am going to watch the sh-t out of American Love Story no matter how bad it may be. 

But maybe it won’t be bad? I am growing cautiously optimistic because Murphy & Co. are clearly putting a lot of effort into the aesthetics of the Nineties It Couple. As Lainey said, Sarah Pidgeon has an unfairly steep hill to climb, but for me it’s less about nailing the exact right look of Carolyn and more about getting her essence right. Keep in mind, I like Kristen Stewart’s free interpretation of Princess Diana, but if Sarah Pidgeon gets the coolness of Carolyn right, I don’t care if her hair is slightly the wrong shade of blonde.

You know who is kind of nailing it, though? Paul Kelly. He looks more and more like JFK Jr every time I see him. This might be the most compelling similarity so far:

Kelly was filming yesterday with who I am pretty sure is Nathan Kohnen playing Billy Noonan, who went on to write Forever Young about his friendship with JFK Jr (exploitative!). I am very curious about how Ryan Murphy portrays the people around John and Carolyn. Part of the reason their story remains so indelible in pop culture is the mini-industry that developed after their deaths, the memoirs and exclusives and tell-alls that inevitably came in the wake of their loss. Will Murphy offer any commentary on that ecosystem of exploitation, even as ensconced within it as he is? Or will he completely ignore it, and thus his own role in it? I know which one I suspect, how about you?