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Like every other gay person with a Hulu account, I’ve been absolutely locked in on the first three episodes of Love Story, Connor Hines’s Ryan Murphy-produced drama about JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. Stars Sarah Pidgeon and Paul Anthony Kelly do a kind of eerie justice to their larger-than-life characters that I wouldn’t have thought possible before watching the show. But there’s one small yet significant detail of Love Story that keeps bothering me: Why, exactly, are we doing Daryl Hannah so dirty?
I’ve watched enough TV (and, for that matter, written enough bad spec scripts) to know that a show needs conflict to survive, and I don’t blame the Love Story writers for trying with Kennedy’s real-life on-and-off girlfriend. (Hannah is played by another great D.H., Dree Hemingway, in the series.) The likeness is decent enough, and I like the poetry of Kelly’s character being torn between two iconic blondes—but does Hannah really need to come off so, well, loopy, annoying, and actress-y on the show?
To be fair, Hannah and Kennedy’s roughly five-year-long relationship was, by all accounts, messy as hell. They were constant tabloid fodder, and Kennedy really did first meet Bessette at a party while he was still with Hannah. That said, Love Story’s portrayal of Hannah as a whiny, coke-obsessed prima donna (who… somehow equates losing her beloved pet dog with Kennedy losing his mother… at Jackie Kennedy’s wake) doesn’t quite ring true. Indeed, if I were Hannah, I’d consider suing.
Apparently, Hemingway wrote Hannah a love note before playing her on Love Story. (No word at this time on whether Hannah responded, or whether she’s been tuning in to the show to watch a fictionalized version of herself basically beg her ex to stay with her.) But I feel like I’d buy the slow-burn meet-cute between CBK and JFK Jr. even if we didn’t have quite a romantic villain to root against in Hannah. That’s Elle Driver to you, Ryan Murphy et al.! Put some respect on her good name!
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