Daryl Hannah is not in love with “Love Story.”
In a New York Times op-ed titled “How Can ‘Love Story’ Get Away With This?,” the actor-director denounces Ryan Murphy’s popular FX series — about the romance between John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette — for its “lies” and “misogyny.” Hannah, who dated JFK Jr. prior to Bessette, is a central character in the show played by Dree Hemingway. The makers of the show did not consult with Hannah, and, as she points out in the op-ed, one producer has referred to her character as an “adversary” in the story.
“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,” Hannah writes.
She opens the essay with advice she once received from none other than Jacqueline Onassis — who is portrayed by Naomi Watts in the series. “She told me that while tabloids, magazines and newspapers often sold ridiculous lies, they were nothing more than bird cage liner by the next day,” Hannah writes. “At the time, I found great comfort and consolation in those words. But today they no longer hold true.”
Now, Hannah argues, “lies live online forever,” and “a dramatized portrayal can become, for millions of viewers, the definitive version of a real person’s life.”
Dree Hemingway as Daryl Hannah in FX’s “Love Story”
FX
In making Hannah a spiteful obstacle to the coupling of JFK Jr. and Bessette, “Love Story” has turned “a real, living person” into a “narrative device,” Hannah writes. “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?”
She adds, “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. 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.”
Since “Love Story” premiered on Feb. 12 on FX and Hulu, Hannah says she has “received many hostile and even threatening messages from viewers who seem to believe the portrayal is factual.”
“I know that as an actress I will be in the public eye. I’ve endured a number of outrageous lies, crappy stories and unflattering characterizations before,” Hannah writes. “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 adds that she has always “honored” the Kennedy family’s right to privacy, and people “claiming to have any intimate knowledge of our personal lives are self-serving sensationalists trading in gossip, innuendo and speculation.” Hannah concludes the op-ed with: “May love and truth prevail.”
Hannah is not the only public figure connected to the Kennedys who has spoken out about the show. Jack Schlossberg, JFK Jr.’s nephew who is running for Congress, recently slammed the series as a “grotesque display of someone else’s life.”
“Love Story” creator and showrunner Connor Hines previously told Variety that he did not consult the Kennedy family while making the series because “as a writer, it’s more healthy and effective to have some distance from the subject matter.”
Separately, Hemingway told Variety that she wrote Hannah a “note” detailing “how much I loved her, and what an honor it was to play her.” Hemingway added, “This whole project was made with so much love, and it is a love story that isn’t supposed to be factual.”
Hannah did not write her back.
