What is there to say about John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette at this point? They passed away nearly three decades ago. They were the It Couple of the 1990s – America’s most eligible bachelor settling down with a beautiful, elusive blonde. She moved into his Tribeca loft and quit her job at Calvin Klein. They vacationed at Hyannisport and Martha’s Vineyard. He never introduced Carolyn to his mother, and he only proposed to Carolyn after Jackie died. Some claimed that Carolyn and John would have ended up divorced, or that their marriage was very much on the rocks when they died that summer. I don’t know what to believe. I think she was mercurial and he adored her. He loved that she wasn’t interested in appearing on Vogue or modeling the latest Ralph Lauren gown. In turn, I think she got a kick out of “landing” the most eligible bachelor.
Will Ryan Murphy’s Love Story capture this complicated, passionate totally-’90s romance? Probably not. But I have to admit, I sort of got a kick out of the first trailer. Last year, style people and Bessette-defenders ripped Murphy to shreds when he released the “screen test” photos of Sarah Pidgeon and Paul Anthony Kelly “in character” as Carolyn and John. The clothes were wrong, the wigs were busted and people were FURIOUS. Ryan Murphy got defensive, but he ended up hiring outside consultants to make the show look more true-to-life. They didn’t quite get Pidgeon’s hair right, but it’s much better. Pigeon is giving me serious Natascha McElhone vibes rather than Carolyn Bessette vibes. Here’s the trailer:
This series is based on a gentler, more sanitized version of John and Carolyn’s love story, but it’s still Ryan Murphy, you know? Which means… I think we’ll probably see some drug use, don’t you think? And I enjoy that they’re dramatizing some of John and Carolyn’s epic public fights too, like the one they had in Central Park. The paparazzi got ALL of the fight, even the make up. Ted Kennedy is in it too? Okay. And Naomi Watts as Jackie is… a choice. Sigh. I’ll watch it.
Photos courtesy of FX/Hulu.
Yes Natascha thats who she resembles though i couldn’t remember her name. Welp it would have been a closer match for Gwyneth 20 years ago.
I feel even Gwyneth doesn’t look like that Carolyn Bessette that much. Bessette had an unusual face.
I think more of that waspy aspect and Gwyneth was alleged to have been a bootlegged version.
To be honest, I do think Gwyneth was the inferior version (despite Gwyneth being attractive).
This actress doesn’t look in the least like Carolyn. The hair is wrong and Carolyn had a very big nose.
Uma Thurman could have played Carolyn Bassett very successfully, but 25 years earlier as, unfortunately, she’s mid-50s now.
I see maybe a young cameron diaz? Its in the eyes…They would have been the same height also ( posture, long neck)
He was still dating Daryl Hannah when his mother was still alive.
Yes, she attended the funeral with him.
The trailer doesn’t show the scenes in order. This may have been an early scene before their meeting, or a memory. Or Ryan being Ryan and taking liberties lol
Was he dating them at the same time? That part of the story always confuses me.
They did overlap—he had Carolyn up at the Vineyard at one point and then got back together with Hannah, then he and Carolyn later got back together for good.
FWIW, I don’t think Carolyn Bassette was mercurial but struggled with the nonstop attention and criticism and that struggle presented as being mercurial. By most accounts, especially those not trying to make a profit off either of them, she was smart, worked hard, and enjoyed her life. I also don’t think Caroline Kennedy and her husband, nor many of the Kennedy’s, were particularly kind or welcoming to her. They wouldn’t have been to any woman he wanted to marry.
Had they lived I would imagine, hope, the attention would have calmed down and they would stay together.
And lastly, I was lucky enough to meet JFK, Jr once. He was nice, charming and good Lord he was handsome!
😳
I will skip this one. Being a grown adult during the 90’s I didn’t think they were some great love story. I also thought they were kind of boring.
I was very young when they were the hot topic but I do remember seeing then in the tabloids and they truly always seemed miserable. Not because of the paparazzi but just chronicly unhappy.
They would have absolutely gone their separate ways.
And given how their families felt about each other………..
Caroline and Carolyn were not friendly.
Ann Freeman was against the relationship.
It might have been a rather ugly split.
I was an adult in the 90s and really wasn’t interested in either of them but I did like their wedding photos. I’m going to pass to.
It looks ok. I’ll get around to watching it at some point.
The only thing interesting about Carolyn was her unusual beauty, which this film fails to capture. She had that “Lady Di with a secret” vibe, and Lady Di’s strong, beautiful nose that made both their faces so very interesting.
This actress just seems like a pretty blonde lady.
Well put
CBK’s hair was darker in the courting JFK years.
That’s what made her azure blue eyes pop.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B8L4hOIHSDw/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CZ2NEwdFBC4/?img_index=1
Couldn’t even get that right when Her transformation from ‘bronde party girl’ to ‘platinum blonde ice queen’ has always been a huge part of the CBK narrative.
Why and how her aesthetics did such a 180 in the JFK years?
I think it might have been a lot of pressure to be married to a man who was considered an Adonis. She probably felt the pressure to keep up.
In theory, I think it’s nice to be partnered with a very handsome man. But maybe the reality is also a lot of pressure from
people comparing whether you’re worthy of his looks. Ick.
Ugh, yeah. “Never too rich or too thin” raised to infinitely toxic levels…
Carolyn’s substitute sister in law was Carole Radziwill, who was married to John’s cousin, Antony, whose mother was Jackie’s sister Lee. She wrote a very lucid, authentic memoir of their brief sisterhood, if you like, in which she recorded Carolyn’s observation that John was “the family f*ckup” in his sister’s eyes, and perhaps his mother’s also, which is an impression he internalised. He also suffered from AD/HD and was just one of those children who was not typically well-behaved whereas Caroline was cast in the mold of her mother, type A, if not control freak, exactly, just…. Nothing left to chance. Witnessing serial murders of immediate family members could leave you a bit guarded. Really. It sounds like Carolyn never really bonded with his family, despite them offering her any number of precious gifts, and drawing her into what was their hard-earned kind of intimacy. But…. She wasn’t really cut out for it, I guess. Also? Carolyn’s mother opined, in one instance, at a public event where they were mobbed, “even if you love him, it’s just not worth it.” She wasn’t impressed. She said that in audible hearing of the public that was gaga for JFK, jr.
I will absolutely watch this!!! I was in my late teens during all this and we thought they were just this golden couple. From a grown up perspective, I can see where the attention, fame, and pressure got to her. Has anyone read Candace Bushnell’s “Four Blondes?” I always thought one of the novelas was based on Carolyn. I still can’t believe it’s been almost 30 years.
Did the book elaborate as to why Caroline thought John Jr. was a “f—- up”? I find that fascinating since he presented as a generally nice person who was well-mannered and no one really said bad things about him (before he crashed the plane).
It wasn’t that the book talked unkindly about “the Prince” as they called him in the book. It was just he lived in such a fish bowl and had his whole life, and had an ease and comfort with the press and cameras that most people would struggle with, and the Prince tried to relate but really couldn’t.
He was known not to be too bright, which is why he failed the bar exam a few times. He never cut it as a lawyer so instead he started George magazine, which again didn’t do too well. And he was always a foolish daredevil.
I remember reading Jackie may have exerted some influence for his brief tenure as NYC Asst DA, which included paying the backlog of parking tickets he had amassed / ignored over the years.
I also read Carole Radziwill’s book. Her background as a journalist shaped the interesting insight she provided. I recall she wrote that John had blinders about basic realities that would concern those around him; the ugly side of the paparazzi inflicted on his wife, or the cancer that was waging battle on his best friend/ cousin.
There’s also the VanityFair article, Love on the Edge, where former gf Christina Haag recounted how he dismissed her concerns about kayaking on open water, which nearly turned deadly for them both — they had to be rescued & he just shrugged it off.
It sounds like introverts had a horrible time as Kennedys. Bessette was outgoing, but you’d need a Swift/Gaga level personality to join this crew.
I hope it doesn’t trash CBK like a lot of stories written about them does. I also hope the actress playing Lauren is good. Ill watch it, albeit with a heavy heart because the ending 💔.
You can’t really do a biopic about 90s women as the actresses today don’t really have noses. Elizabeth Debicki can’t play them all. I wonder if she turned Murphy down.
I am surprised Sarah Paulson wasn’t Jackie Kennedy, Murphy uses her to death.
I was hoping Ryan would cast Brittany Snow as CBK. I think they look uncannily similar. For sure Debicki would have been amazing, too. I may watch this if I hear it’s good. Otherwise it’s probably a pass.
Snow’s height of 5’4″ would probably nixed her casting. But the eyes definitely favor the look of CBK.
Before she met JFK Jr. I think Carolyn Bessette Kennedy had the type of life that every influencer today would probably envy. The real deal city girl life with glamour and beauty…
I don’t blame her for falling for him though. Most women who met him wanted him so I wouldn’t expect her to have self-control in that regard. I always think it’s funny when people question why she married him. He was alluring looking (even not counting the wealth and status he had) so most women would probably be inclined to want to marry him, even knowing the risks.
I actually met him. He was handsome and that’s it. Not very bright and extremely arrogant. He wanted me as an editor for George and I knew that magazine wasn’t gonna last and he would throw me aside without a second thought.
I also grew up with parents who loathed the Kennedys despite being Dems. They were annoyed Teddy face no consequences for Chappaquiddick. Also my dad said Jackie was a dog. Jackie was a horrible precious snob so I don’t know why people idolize her.
Hmm, I figured George didn’t have a strong or coherent vision to justify existing. JFK, jr needed a Clay Felker or even an early Tina Brown to pull it off.
@Deering24: yes. Really, the subject would have been almost impossible to pull off and Junior was not smart enough.
Besides you are talking two opposing aims: an irreverent/rebellious look at politics….but you live or die in that field by keeping sources happy. Even mild satire/rebellion requires holding your nerve, and compromises would rendered this toothless. A very tough needle to thread…
The press’s brutal treatment of Carolyn was heartbreaking – she seemed to want so badly to live her life with her husband and meet expectations. John, a superstar with charisma oozing from every pore, had the weight of great expectations on his shoulders just because of his name. Sadly, they’re gone, along with her sister Lauren, and we’ll never know if they would’ve gone the distance.
As for the film, the casting choices were fine – the actors are good-looking and seem capable, but I think they could’ve done better. My fan cast for Carolyn would’ve been Therica Wilson (from The Witcher) – she resembles her so much, though maybe her height (5’3″) ruled her out. Alternatively, Dianna Agron could’ve been great – she’d just need some colored contacts to capture Carolyn’s eyes. And for John, I’d have chosen Bryan Greenberg – he’s got the hair, height, and acting chops (with hair dye, of course.) Regardless. I hope this story treats both of them with respect doesn’t vilify Carolyn.
I always felt the press was furious that they were denied access to the wedding — more pics would have put a small fortune in a lot of people’s pockets. And the freelance shutter rats went HAM on HER (never him) for that.
The guy doesn’t look like JFK Jr either. Maybe he can act? But that’s all we truly know about JFK Jr. — that he was good looking beyond what would be considered normal.
Remembering their exhaustively covered relationship from the time, it was both tedious and alarming to see how they were treated like not particularly well cared for zoo animals. I’ll skip it, as I’m already pissed about how the PR is already going around the fact that John-John, in true Kennedy fashion, killed those two women through a combination of unbelievable hubris and stupidity. He couldn’t even read his instruments but decided to put his wife and sister-in-law in a plane, flying through a notoriously tricky area to navigate? Spare me the hagiography of this idiot.
He wasn’t certified to fly at night either.
Plus he had an injured foot which also should have grounded him.
Poor Carolyn didn’t want to go but John and Lauren talked her into it.
Two vapid people.
How do you know?
I don’t think they were vapid, but I don’t think they lived long enough to stretch out their love story over 10 episodes. Their relationship was about 5 years long and that could easily make just a 2 hour movie. .
Maybe the Central Park fight will be dissected in one full episode.
Another point;Ryan Murphys biopics are a hit and miss for me. I loved his OJ Simpson mini series but hated the Versace and Impeachment was a joke(sometimes the subject really make for poor executive producers). Hope this is the same quality as OJ.
Totally agree.
I’ll watch this, but with some trepidation. Their relationship was so relatively and tragically brief that I’m not sure how they’ll make this into a series. The OJ series, however, contained a multitude of angles.
Apparently the problems started very early, probably with the press crushing them into that loft in TriBeCa and panting for anyone to emerge. She seems to have become agoraphobic, to a degree, and I always wondered why the didn’t just move out of the city. They had flown under the radar until the wedding, even the wedding was secret, miraculously, and then it just hit the fan. But it got so bad, at one point, they were overheard on a plane (not his) arguing about divorce, with him saying, we might as well get divorced, we talk about it enough, and her snapping back, “we waited for your mother to die to get married, we’re waiting for my mother to die to get a divorce.” ….not great.
Who is that singing the Tears for Fears song Head Over Heels? It’s a very effective use of the song for the trailer.
I’m right in between the two of them, age-wise, so I remember it all: his exhaustively covered dating life before her, their wedding (that wedding being so undercover, those photos landed like a bomb let me tell you), the relentless press coverage during their marriage, and of course like millions of others I was glued to the TV when they were searching for the plane. It was very similar to Diana’s passing in many ways. All that to say, judging from the trailer they did an ok job casting John, but in no way am I getting Carolyn. None whatsoever. She had a look that was like no one I’ve seen since (Gwyneth wishes she had even 1/4 of her look/aesthetic) and her overall features would be hard to replicate. I can’t explain it but she had a very singular beauty. Not at all surprised he fell for her, even for being the “catch” and the extremely handsome man that he was.
I am surprised the actor isn’t half bad in the resemblance. But this actress playing Carolyn is a massive no. If you can’t get the eyes, it’s a miss. This show should not have been made.
The young Uma Thurman could have been a passable Carolyn. From today’s actresses, only possibly Jennifer Lawrence?
I wish we could have an actual American play Jackie, not to mention a true brunette. Naomi, no.
Japanese Breakfast for the trailer score! Love it! I’m definitely watching this. Looks better than I thought it would be.
Maybe Saoirse Ronan could’ve played a striking Carolyn Bessette (but why would she want to). Anya Taylor Joy is also striking in appearance (maybe too much with the extreme shape of her face now) but the main thing about Carolyn was her unique beauty and style. I don’t see anything near it in the trailer.