Daryl Hannah doesn’t care how much audiences love “Love Story.”
In a new op-ed, published by the New York Times Friday, March 6, Hannah panned the show, which dramatized the romance and death of John F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy. The FX show, from controversial producer Ryan Murphy, has captivated audiences but ruffled the feathers of some in the Kennedy clan who claim it is not only false, but a gross glamorization of a personal tragedy.
On Friday, Hannah, a onetime romantic partner of JFK Jr., counted herself among the critics, blasting a character named after her in the show, and deriding the choice to make it at all as “tragedy-exploiting.”
“The choice to portray her as irritating, self-absorbed, whiny and inappropriate was no accident,” Hannah, 65, wrote of her character in the show. “Storytelling requires tension. It often requires an obstacle. But a real, living person is not a narrative device.”
Actress Daryl Hannah, a friend of John F. Kennedy Jr., and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, husband of Maria Shriver, arrive at St. Ignatius Catholic Church to attend funeral services for Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
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Hannah went on to accuse the show of misogyny, claiming it pitted women against one another for the sake of dramatic tension, and unequivocally denied many of the actions her character partook in onscreen.
“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,” she wrote. “These are not creative embellishments of personality. They are assertions about conduct — and they are false.”
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The actress and current environmental activist said her choice to speak out now had less to do with ego and more to do with a desire to keep doing the work she loves without having to face a tarnished reputation. Despite decades of dogged interest in the Kennedy family, Hannah, who dated JFK Jr. for several years, said most of what exists in popular media is false.
“The Kennedy family is also notoriously private, and I have always honored their right to privacy,” she wrote. “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.”
“Love Story” has revived interest in the tabloid-hounded connection shared by Kennedy and Bessette, and their untimely deaths in a 1999 plane crash. In a conversation with USA TODAY at the premiere of the show, series creator Connor Hines explained his decision not to consult with the family.
“From a writing perspective, I think it’s more effective to have distance … because I think it allows you to be more objective when you can operate off of extensive research. When you talk to somebody, you then feel obligated to talk to everybody, and then you often end up with conflicting narratives,” he said. “I think you also feel a sense of responsibility of relaying what every single person is telling you, and I think that the narrative can get very muddled that way because everybody remembers things differently.”
Contributing: Brendan Morrow, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Daryl Hannah blasts ‘Love Story,’ calls her portrayal ‘untrue’
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