Actress Dree Hemingway expressed admiration and sympathy on Sunday for the real-life Daryl Hannah, whom she is portraying in the “Love Story” series, after Hannah blasted how she was portrayed in the show.
The FX limited series “Love Story” dramatizes the 1990s romance between John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette before their deaths in 1999. The show depicts the couple’s relationship alongside Kennedy’s earlier romance with actress Hannah, who dated him on and off for years before he met Bessette.
Hannah, however, insisted the version of her depicted in the series is “not even a remotely accurate representation” of her life or her relationship with Kennedy, calling the conduct portrayed “untrue.”
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“In the weeks since the series aired, I have received many hostile and even threatening messages from viewers who seem to believe the portrayal is factual,” Hannah wrote in a piece for The New York Times. “When entertainment borrows a real person’s name, it can permanently impact her reputation.”
At Vanity Fair’s Oscar Party on Sunday in Los Angeles, Hemingway was asked for her thoughts about the blistering essay criticizing the show and her portrayal in it.
“I mean, I respect her and it’s really – it’s a sensitive thing to play somebody, a real person,” Hemingway said about playing Hannah. “I mean, all I can speak to is me as an actress, but I love her. I love her.”
Entertainment news outlet The Wrap summarized that the series “intentionally positions Hannah as a foil for the budding romance between JFK Jr. (Paul Anthony Kelly) and Carolyn Bessette (Sarah Pidgeon).”
The article added further that “In doing so, the FX series features scenes in which the ‘Splash’ and ‘Kill Bill’ star not only invites friends of questionable character over to her and Kennedy’s apartment, but also crashes the memorial service for Kennedy’s late mother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (Naomi Watts).”
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Critics of the show have been outspoken about the way it portrays events involving real people.
“‘Love Story’s’ portrayal of Hannah as a whiny, coke-obsessed prima donna doesn’t quite ring true,” an opinion piece published by Vogue read. “Indeed, if I were Hannah, I’d consider suing.”
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New York congressional candidate and grandson of President John F. Kennedy, Jack Schlossberg, has also criticized the series and the producer.
“Well, if you want to know someone who’s never met anyone in my family, knows nothing about us, talk to Ryan Murphy. I would just want people who do watch the show to watch it with one letter in mind, and that’s a capital F for fiction,” Schlossberg told CBS News’ Mo Rocca.
“The guy knows nothing about what he’s talking about, and he’s making a ton of money on a grotesque display of someone else’s life,” Schlossberg continued. “I would hope that Mr. Murphy would donate some of the millions of dollars of profits that he’s making to maybe some of the causes that John championed throughout his life — justice, maybe he would donate some of that money to the JFK Library to help keep President Kennedy’s memory alive. But he’s not, he’s making money. This is not a documentary, and I’ll leave it at that.”
Fox News Digital reached out to FX for comment about the “Love Story” series.
