Paul Anthony Kelly is making his Met Gala debut this evening. The Love Story actor, who recently shot to stardom for his recent portrayal of John F. Kennedy Jr., arrived at New York’s Museum of Metropolitan Art in dressed in a dark violet velvet tailcoat by Dior, with a white button-up shirt and black trousers and a gold brooch pinned to his lapel.
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Paul Anthony Kelly at the 2026 Met Gala.
Love Story is already one of the biggest shows of the year; before the season finale even aired, FX declared the drama as its most-watched show ever on both Hulu and Disney+, with more than 25 million hours streamed. The nine-episode limited series covered the relationship and untimely deaths of JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy over the course of the 1990s.
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A closeup of Kelly’s velvet Dior jacket.
The show rejuvenated nostalgia for the ‘90s, including for the decade’s fashion. Although early images from the set initially caught criticism from fans of the couple. “It definitely showed how much people care and how close this story is to people’s hearts,” Kelly told Interview. “They really hold them in high regard, so as hard as that was, it really forced the production value of everything and raised the stakes of my performance.”
Beyond the attire (from the backwards caps to the three-pieces suits JFK Jr. was known for) Kelly described to GQ how he transformed for the role. “I had to beef up a little bit, which was great,” he says. “I was model size before, so I had to go from a 38 US size/48 European to then like a 52—that’s two sizes. Pretty big jump in three weeks, but we did it.” Kelly added that he also worked with a dialect coach and collected back issues of the political magazine Kennedy co-founded, George. “As soon as I got cast, I hit the books as much as I could—in typical John Jr. fashion as well, a cram session.”
Rachel King (she/her) is a news writer at Town & Country. Before joining T&C, she spent nearly a decade as an editor at Fortune. Her work covering travel and lifestyle has appeared in Forbes, Observer, Robb Report, Cruise Critic, and Cool Hunting, among others. Originally from San Francisco, she lives in New York with her wife, their daughter, and a precocious labradoodle. Follow her on Instagram at @rk.passport.
