‘Love Story’ Is So Mean to JFK Jr.’s Ex, Daryl Hannah. And She’s Not Happy About It
The conversation around Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette continues… and it is now pulling in one of the show’s real-life subjects.
The show features a fictionalized version of actress and humanitarian Daryl Hannah (played by Dree Hemingway), who dated Kennedy in the 1990s prior to him meeting Bessette. In a recent op-ed for The New York Times titled “How Can ‘Love Story’ Get Away With This?”, the real-life Hannah is pushing back against Love Story‘s depiction of her, which she says is rooted in “lies” and “misogyny.”
“A dramatized portrayal can become, for millions of viewers, the definitive version of a real person’s life,” Hannah says in the piece. “I have generally chosen not to respond to media coverage of me. I have long believed that engaging with distortion often amplifies it. But a recent tragedy-exploiting television series about John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette features a character using my name and presents her as me. The choice to portray her as irritating, self-absorbed, whiny and inappropriate was no accident.”
The article also mentions an interview Love Story producer Nina Jacobson did with Gold Derby, in which she defended not contacting Hannah (or any of the real-life figures who inspire Murphy’s “based on a true story” projects). As Jacobson put it: “We always try to come from a place of compassion. Given how much we’re rooting for John and Carolyn, Daryl Hannah occupies a space where she’s an adversary to what you want narratively in the story. But we still try to really show respect to the fact that she does have a fluency with this world that Carolyn doesn’t have.”
Hannah pushes back against Jacobson’s argument, saying that “a real, living person is not a narrative device” and that “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’s “Real-Life Consequences”
“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,” Hannah continues in the piece. “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.”
Hannah revealed that there have been “real-life consequences” to her Love Story portrayal, as 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, it can permanently impact her reputation.”
Hannah is far from the only real-life figure tied to Love Story to condemn the series, with John and Carolyn’s nephew, Jack Schlossberg, being very critical of it during a recent interview with CBS Sunday Morning.
“If you want to know someone who’s never met anyone in my family, knows nothing about us, talk to Ryan Murphy,” Schlossberg said at the time. “The guy knows nothing about what he’s talking about, and he’s making a ton of money on a grotesque display of someone else’s life.”
“I would hope that Mr. Murphy would donate some of the millions of dollars of profits that he’s making to maybe some of the causes that John championed throughout his life,” Schlossberg continued. “Maybe he would donate some of that money to the JFK library to help keep President Kennedy’s memory alive, but he’s not. He’s making money. This is not a documentary.”
(featured image: FX)
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