Daryl Hannah, in a scathing New York Times guest essay published today, excoriates Ryan Murphy‘s highly-rated FX limited series Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette, in particular her depiction as the villainous “adversary” to the titled romance. And a coke-snorting, heirloom-desecrating, funeral-crashing adversary at that.
Hannah, who dated Kennedy off and on for five years in the early 1990s, reportedly to the considerable consternation of Kennedy’s mother Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, writes that the “Daryl Hannah” character in the series, played by Dree Hemingway, is designed to be an “adversary” that threatens the romantic narrative between the two title characters.
Calling Love Story a “tragedy-exploiting television series,” Hannah writes that the “choice to portray [Hannah] as irritating, self-absorbed, whiny and inappropriate was no accident.”
“Storytelling requires tension,” the Splash star writes. “It often requires an obstacle. But a real, living person is not a narrative device. There is also a gendered dimension to this thinking. Popular culture has long elevated certain women by portraying others as rivals, obstacles or villains. Isn’t it textbook misogyny to tear down one woman in order to build up another?”
Hannah says that in the weeks since the series began airing, she has received “many hostile and even threatening messages from viewers who seem to believe the portrayal is factual.”
“When entertainment borrows a real person’s name,” she continues, “it can permanently impact her reputation.”
The Steel Magnolias actor points to certain Love Story plotlines that are particularly egregious.
“The character ‘Daryl Hannah’ portrayed in the series is not even a remotely accurate representation of my life, my conduct or my relationship with John,” she says. “The actions and behaviors attributed to me are untrue. I have never used cocaine in my life or hosted cocaine-fueled parties. I have never pressured anyone into marriage. I have never desecrated any family heirloom or intruded upon anyone’s private memorial. I have never planted any story in the press. I never compared Jacqueline Onassis’ death to a dog’s. It’s appalling to me that I even have to defend myself against a television show. These are not creative embellishments of personality. They are assertions about conduct — and they are false.”
In the series, the Hannah character invites some druggy friends over to the heirloom-filled Tribeca loft she shares with Kennedy, and later shows up uninvited to Kennedy Onassis’ memorial service.
“I know that as an actress I will be in the public eye,” Hannah writes. “I’ve endured a number of outrageous lies, crappy stories and unflattering characterizations before. I chose not to battle them but to focus on my work and respect my loved ones by keeping my private life private. But my silence should not be mistaken for agreement with lies. Apparently, my discretion makes me a target.”
She continues, “The Kennedy family is also notoriously private, and I have always honored their right to privacy. Know that most (if not all) of those claiming to have any intimate knowledge of our personal lives are self-serving sensationalists trading in gossip, innuendo and speculation.
“Many people,” she continues, “believe what they see on TV and do not distinguish between dramatization and documented fact — and the impact is not abstract. In a digital era, entertainment often becomes collective memory. Real names are not fictional tools. They belong to real lives.”
Earlier this week, Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette became FX’s most-watched limited series ever on streaming, raking in more than 25M hours viewed across the first five episodes on Disney+ and Hulu, according to the network. The series premiered on February 12, and is created by Connor Hines and executive produced by Murphy, Nina Jacobson, Brad Simpson, Connor Hines, Eric Kovtun, Nissa Diederich, Scott Robertson, Monica Levinson, Kim Rosenstock, D.V. DeVincentis and Tanase Popa. Max Winkler executive produced and directed the pilot episode. It is produced by 20th Television.
The series stars Paul Anthony Kelly as JFK Jr. and Sarah Pidgeon as Carolyn Bessette. Naomi Watts plays Jackie Kennedy and Alessandro Nivola as Calvin Klein.
