Mhip 3 episodes at the end of Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessettestreaming on Disney+ with weekly releases on Thursdays. Abbreviated to Love Story Kennedythis series on the love story and death of John John and the enigmatic Carolyn – branded as a disaster announced when the first official photos were released – it is today the title to be seen, or talked about, in the thoughtful and fashionable middle class. And you listen (the soundtrack is pandering but amazing).
The merit is not only because it was adjusted during the work, revising the wardrobe and hair color of Sarah Pidgeon/Carolyn. In fact, the indignation of those who specialize in Bessette mythology is too great. What is certain is that a lot (if not all) of the attention that Love Story receives comes precisely from its fashion exhumation. Finally, after the 90s in which his consumption was paper, the girl symbol of cultured minimalism you can see it act live.
See how he chooses jeans from a jumbled pile on a chair, loafers, turtleneck, and how this easily replicable uniform was/is/will always look better on her. Trying to extract, beyond the couple photos of her brief adventure with John and the individual paparazzi shots, all epochal, some details of her essence. Get to know her. The books succeeded a little, including the generous and fundamental biography of style CBK; but do you want to put moving images, apartments seen from the inside, life inside?
Sarah Pidgeon (Carolyn Bessette Kennedy) and Paul Kelly (John F. Kennedy Jr.). (Kurt Iswarienko/FX)
From announced flop to top, the revenge of Love Story Kennedy Bessette
The series, slavishly and at times almost exclusively nominal, all this apparatus Bessetteiantogether with that of the handsome John (another natural born stylishand cool), sets it up with glossy grace. And an irresistible – yet bland – depth. A result thatconsidering the massacres at the launch of the two semi-unknown actors taken to remake the myths, and the fact that Ryan Murphy is executive producer, has for the most part of the miraculous.
Everything runs like clockwork in the story that, like Sarah, also Paul Anthony Kelly/Johnan actor in his first real writing, is now in Paris for the fashion shows. Both pampered by people who only a few months ago perculated them. Like social media, previously hostile and now, from week to week, we have to deal with how much we can scratch off on the web of the two: old newspaper pages, photos, polaroids, Instagram accounts that have always been there but never looked at carefully, with a generation discovering Carolyn and – were it not already harmful on other fronts – of nostalgia for that pre-smartphone era seen as El Dorado.
You understand them. Today, when everything is advertising, courtesy, sponsored by, someone who seems to have understood at least her own clothing, it seems like a revolutionary achievement. The way out of problems, as fashion often superficially promises: choose this and it will truly be you. Except Bessette’s signatures they seem to be made for her and her alone, and this authenticity cannot be bought. We are born in accordance with the times, if we are lucky. And it seems like magic: «Everything she wears becomes fabulous on her»reads the shriek of a page of who knows what magazine.
Carolyn Bessette and the invention of cool bride
Sarah Pidgeon – already similar – replicates this identity with excessive use of cigarettes and movement of her hair (once to the right, once to the left, again to the right, looking bored: a delight that has become the excuse for office reels). It is Carolyn by resemblance and gestures, even if there is very little video evidence. But those that emerged from the Calvin Klein archivewith Bessette fiddling with a Polaroid while moving her hair, are carbon paper.
Witnessing the clamor of Love Story – wisely streamed weekly – there are also statements from those who were there at the time. The latest is that of Narciso Rodriguez, released in relation to the wedding dress he designed for his friend in 1996, inventing the novelty of cool bride (the episode on marriage has been online since yesterday).
A dress slip dress of ingenious sartorial simplicityso famous, but so famous, that perhaps the measure of its glory lies in the fact that, in order to be able to wear or copy it, you need to be very thin and chic. And if there is an unattainable extraordinaryness, unity with youth, there is usually also eternity.
What does Narcissus say? That what you see in the episode is not true (but you think). The dress wasn’t delivered late, nor was there the problem of putting it on over your head with Carolyn already wearing makeup. Everything went smoothly. The moment in which Bessette makes an impression on Calvin with the proposal of a men’s jacket to enhance Annette Bening’s red carpet look is also not true (raise your hand if you haven’t looked for the photo online). Interviewed by ABC, the actress admitted that she had met Carolyn, but that at the time of the premiere of Bugsy era pregnant.
Daryl Hannah’s reply: «How can he Love Story get away with it like this”
However, not everything works in the cast. Naomi Watts as Jackie Kennedy Onassis is quite embarrassing (although, compared to the girl cast for the same role in the series Mrs Playmenat least attempt multi-layered similarity). Having died in 1994, Jackie cannot reply (he did it for her – and for John and Carolyn – and for the entire Kennedy family, Jack Schlossbergthe nephew: «A grotesque series»).
Daryl Hannah and John F. Kennedy Jr. at Edward Kennedy Jr.’s wedding, 1993. (Getty Images)
Daryl Hannah is alive instead, and today he had his say in the press (on the online of New York Times). The actress – married to Neil Young since 2018 after a long relationship – was John’s girlfriend immediately before Carolyn. A relationship well documented by the paparazzi and opposed by Jackie (like his son’s flirtations with Madonna and Sarah Jessica Parker). In Love Story Daryl is played by Dree Hemingway in an annoyingly childish way.
«I have a reputation, and this time I chose to defend it»
In the piece, entitled «How can he Love Story get away with it like this”Hannah contests the fact that a distorted interpretation can become, for millions of people, a definitive version of the real person. Of course – he writes – it is for reasons of contrast with the main character if my portrait appears deliberately unbearable, “but, beyond pitting women against each other, I have never used cocaine, nor have I organized drug parties.”
And again: “I never pushed John to marry me, I never desecrated a family heirloom, nor did I ever break into a private funeral ceremony.” But above all, Daryl points out, he never compared Jackie’s death to that of a dog (his in the series). Still active in cinema, Hannah is now involved mostly in documentaries, environmental defense and other humanitarian activities: “I have a reputation, and this time I chose to defend it.”
It is not the first time that a Ryan Murphy production has been accused of being defamatory. In 2018, the great Olivia de Havilland by Gone with the wind 101 years old sued the production company and the FX channel for his portrayal in Feud: Bette and Joan: Catherine Zeta Jones played her. A proceeding stopped by the Supreme Court the following year because the fact did not exist.
Olivia had quite a temper. Daryl, who instead would have all the elements for a good cause, seems to have – for now – just righteous indignation.
