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Following his American Horror Story, American Crime Story, and American Sports Story franchises, prolific producer Ryan Murphy is returning with American Love Story, a new spin-off anthology series centered on romances that captured the world’s attention. The first installment’s focus? Eternal style icon Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and her husband, John F. Kennedy Jr.
So, who will play Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy in American Love Story?
Sarah Pidgeon, the American actor and rapidly rising star whom you might recognize from Prime Video’s The Wilds, or as the younger version of Kathryn Hahn’s character in Hulu’s Tiny Beautiful Things, is taking the lead as the impossibly glamorous Bessette-Kennedy. It’s sure to be the 28-year-old’s splashiest onscreen part to date, though she did recently earn a Tony nomination for her Broadway debut in David Adjmi’s Stereophonic, and is also due to star in the I Know What You Did Last Summer reboot alongside returning favorites Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jennifer Love Hewitt. With her stellar acting chops, immaculate style, and the uncanny resemblance between the pair, this certainly looks like impeccable casting.
And who will play Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in American Love Story?
The same is true for the part of Jackie, Bessette-Kennedy’s mother-in-law, which will be taken by none other than Naomi Watts. (Coincidentally, Watts and Pidgeon have already worked together on Scott McGehee and David Siegel’s 2024 drama The Friend.) A veteran of the Ryan Murphy televisual universe, who starred in Netflix’s The Watcher and received both Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for her recent portrayal of Babe Paley in Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, Watts is a natural fit to play Paley’s fellow socialite and New York stalwart. She joins a long list of famous faces who have taken on different eras of the former first lady’s life, from Katie Holmes in the 2011 miniseries The Kennedys to Natalie Portman in 2016’s Jackie.
It may be a little while yet before we see Watts in Jackie’s signature pearls and pillbox hats, but before then, make sure to look out for the double Oscar nominee in another breathlessly awaited Murphy-helmed project: All’s Fair, the glossy legal drama in which she’ll co-star with Kim Kardashian, Glenn Close, Sarah Paulson, Niecy Nash, and Teyana Taylor.
Who else will be in the cast of American Love Story?
The show’s central trio was completed with newcomer Paul Kelly, who’ll be taking the part of John F. Kennedy Jr, the son of JFK and Jackie and the husband of Carolyn. Murphy and his casting team reportedly auditioned more than 1,000 actors before selecting Kelly, and despite his lack of major credits, the handsome actor undoubtedly looks the part.
Deadline broke more casting news in June, revealing that Grace Gummer would play JFK Jr.’s older sister, Caroline Kennedy; Sydney Lemmon, known for her roles on television (in Helstrom and Fear the Walking Dead) as well as on Broadway (in Max Wolf Friedlich’s Job), would play Carolyn’s sister, Lauren Bessette, who was aboard the same plane that claimed her sibling and brother-in-law’s lives; and Alessandro Nivola would play Carolyn’s longtim employer, Calvin Klein.
What will be the plot of American Love Story?
Carolyn Bessette, born in upstate New York and raised in Connecticut, was a fashion publicist who worked at Calvin Klein, and met John F. Kennedy Jr., then an attorney and prominent publisher, in 1992, when he was still dating Splash star Daryl Hannah. He and Bessette got together two years later, were engaged by 1995, and for their secret 1996 wedding, she chose a minimalist white slip dress by Narciso Rodriguez, her friend and colleague at Calvin Klein, making the designer a household name overnight.
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