Ryan Murphy’s Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy Doesn’t Look Exactly Right. Here’s Why That’s OK
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When I logged on to Twitter last week, I was expecting to see outrage; I always do, it’s the whole point of the app. After I got past Tucker Carlson embarrassing Ted Cruz with an inquiry about the population of Iran, I ran across a more passionate and vocal group using their manicured fingers (nude or red) to protect the internet’s long-standing and beloved icon Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, or CBK, as some like to call her. Kennedy has been a moodboard staple since the beginning of time, and for good reason. Her style is elegant and minimal and has aged perfectly. Long before HBO’s Succession and the obnoxious “quiet luxury” trend, she strolled through Tribeca wearing Yohji Yamamoto, Jil Sander, Prada, Helmut Lang, and perfectly-tailored Levi’s. No one has ever looked cooler while being papped during a public screaming match with their husband in a New York City public park.
A few months ago, it was announced that Hollywood’s current king of camp, Ryan Murphy, who has brought us Nip/Tuck, Glee, American Horror Story, and Pose, would be directing American Love Story for FX—a television show about Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and her husband John F. Kennedy, Jr., an oft-referenced style icon in his own right. Murphy makes hit television shows, but doesn’t have an ounce of taste. The network released the first images of the couple, played by Paul Kelly, who is virtually unknown but a dead ringer for John-John, and Sarah Pidgeon, who has been in a few things that I have never heard of. The images were simple and didn’t reveal much besides actors in costume, but people lost their fucking minds, accusing Murphy and the show of dishonoring CBK’s memory by cheaping out on Pidgeon’s wardrobe. (“I feel like I’m looking at Mango and Zara,” wrote The Cut’s Danya Issawi, in one of the kinder takedowns. “There is no life, there is no story, there is no familiarity with these pieces. I can practically smell the silica gel packets that were shipped with them.”)
Murphy later clarified in a Q&A with Variety that these were merely test shots, and didn’t reflect the way the actors would be costumed in the show itself. Fans and CBK worshippers were still appalled, disgusted, and convinced that Murphy had done them dirty. Every influencer who had ever reposted a picture of CBK leaving the Calvin Klein offices on 39th Street to their Pinterest page acted like they had been personally attacked.
Why do people feel so much ownership over celebrities and how they are presented? CBK and John-John tragically passed away in a private plane crash near Martha’s Vineyard in 1999, which is a very long time ago. The pictures of the couple, mainly taken by the paparazzi who constantly hounded them, will always be iconic. They are two beautiful people dressed well in the coolest city in the world, before the prying eyes of an iPhone captured every moment. It felt like we were seeing something we shouldn’t. This show—whatever happens with the styling—isn’t for the people who find her and her chic wardrobe to be endlessly inspiring.
Does she, in fact, look like a Karla Otto intern wearing Zara in these shots? She does! Could all the junior copywriters and project coordinators who have strong opinions on social media do a better job of styling the character? Maybe! But this is Hollywood, baby—it’s meant to be a little corny, a little smoothed-out. A show like this is intended for the masses who plop down after work and want to be entertained. This is not for people who know that CBK’s signature headbands came from C.O. Bigelow on 6th Avenue or can tell a No. 35 Birkin from a 40. This is a modern soap opera with all the familiar trappings.
People loved Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan. The first trailer for the Bruce Springsteen movie starring Jeremy Allen White seems promising. But these are exceptions. Most of the time, Hollywood doesn’t get our favorites exactly right. It’s OK to hold them close, but you can’t let poor interpretations affect your heart rate and blood pressure. The photos on your desktop will still be there, and that Prada skirt on The RealReal is still in your cart.
