Earlier this week, FX/Hulu released the first trailer for Ryan Murphy’s long-gestating project on John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. I thought the trailer was interesting, and I admit, I’m going to watch this (at least the first few episodes, before the quality falls off a cliff). This was originally called “American Love Story,” but now it’s called Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. Paul Anthony Kelly plays John and Sarah Pidgeon plays Carolyn. Naomi Watts plays Jackie Kennedy, and Grace Gummer plays Caroline Kennedy. I just saw that the series will include Michael Bergin, who was Carolyn’s on-and-off lover/ex/friend. Bergin is played by Noah Fernley.
Anyway, they had the big premiere event last night in New York. While I think the “dressing up in character or on-theme for the promotional tour” bit is tired, I would have welcomed it for this series. It’s jarring to see Sarah Pidgeon promote a project where she’s playing one of THE style icons of the 1990s and Pidgeon just looks so… unlike Bessette. Carolyn would have hated this dress/ensemble, that’s all I’m saying. Sarah wore fresh-off-the-runway Chanel, part of Matthieu Blazy’s debut with Chanel. Technically, it’s a giant “waistcoat” with feathers, all over a pair of trousers. Meh. Naomi Watts wore Balenciaga.
Sarah also spoke to Vogue ahead of the premiere, as she was selecting her Chanel ensemble. She spoke a lot about how Ryan Murphy’s team was able to pull a lot of vintage ‘90s looks to recreate Bessette’s closet – they got access to a lot of Yohji Yamamoto, Prada, Hermès, Valentino, etc. They also tailored Levi’s jeans to look like specific pairs owned by Carolyn.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
