ATTACK OF THE TRUE-LIFE DRAMAS
TV shows based on celebs are getting in trouble, explains Boyd Hilton
One of the TV dramas of the year so far – The Assassination Of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story – reaches its finale this week on BBC2, and it’s been a big critical and ratings success.
But Donatella Versace, for one, was not happy. She put out a joint statement with the rest of the Versace family earlier this year, when the show premiered, saying, “The Versace family has neither authorised nor had any involvement whatsoever in the series[...] Since Versace did not authorise the book on which it is partly based nor has it taken part in the writing of the screenplay, this TV series should only be considered as a work of fiction.”
The Versace series is but one example of a massive growth industry in TV dramas telling stories based on notorious true-life characters, many of them still alive. And more often than not, the subjects depicted have major issues with their real lives being exploited for TV entertainment purposes, with lawsuits flying around all over the place. Yet there are more of these series getting green-lit than ever, so how do the makers get away with them?
Murphy magic
The Assassination Of Gianni Versace is just the latest in a long line of vivid dramas based on real celebrities from top showrunner Ryan Murphy, who made his name with shows like Glee and Nip/tuck. The Versace show is series two of his American Crime Story strand, which kicked off two years ago with massive hit The People Vs OJ Simpson. OJ was perturbed by the casting of Cuba Gooding Jr, according to former Nevada prison guard Jeffrey Felix, who wrote a book called Guarding The Juice, and claimed Simpson felt Gooding wasn’t tall enough to play him and that, er, his “head is too small”.
Meanwhile, Khloé Kardashian, whose late father Robert (played by David Schwimmer in the show) was OJ’S best friend and lawyer, complained that the producers were “sensationalising the Kardashian name to bring a younger audience in.”
But these objections were nothing compared to the ire stirred up by another Murphy show – last year’s Feud: Bette
And Joan, which explored the stormy relationship between Hollywood legends Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. While both icons are dead,
one of the major supporting characters in the show, Olivia De Havilland (played by Catherine Zeta-jones), now 101 years old, sued producers for inaccurately portraying her and using her likeness without permission.
Lewinsky shelved
In the end, the Havilland lawsuit was dismissed a few weeks ago by the California Court Of Appeal, a decision hailed by Ryan Murphy. “The reversal is a victory for the creative community,” he said. “Today’s victory gives all creators the breathing room necessary to tell important historical stories inspired by true events.” You can sense how key this judgement was, considering Murphy has other real-life stories on the way, including a new Feud based on Charles and Diana.
Yet Murphy is sensitive to the concerns of the subjects of his shows, to the point of shelving a planned series of American
Crime Story about Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton. Murphy told The Hollywood
Reporter that he ran into Lewinsky at a party and told her, “Nobody should tell your story but you, and it’s kind of gross if they do. If you want to produce it with me, I would love that, but you should be the producer, and you should make all the money.” Lewinsky declined and the project is now dead.
New scandals
Murphy’s slate of based-on-truth epics aren’t the only such series.
Trust, heading to Sky this year, tells the story of the kidnapping of John Paul Getty III, also covered in the Ridley Scott movie All The
Money In The World. It’s a much bolder telling of the story, which seems to suggest young Getty may have colluded in his own kidnapping – and Getty’s sister Ariadne is furious. Her lawyer sent a letter to the FX channel, who commissioned the series, saying it is a “defamatory, wildly sensationalised, false portrayal of the Getty family”. Yet the show is currently airing on US TV unabated.
It seems the US constitution’s enshrining of freedom of speech means the law is usually on the side of the show creators.
In the UK, though, programme makers have to be more careful. Russell T Davies, of Doctor Who fame, has written the script for new BBC drama A Very English
Scandal, which tells the story of Jeremy Thorpe (Hugh Grant), the first MP to stand trial for murder. Davies told Pilot TV magazine of the stringent process he had to follow. “The rules are very strict,” he explained. “We had to re-prove everything – and the lawyers insisted we have at least two sources for every incident shown.”
Luckily, the end product is every bit as gripping as American Crime
Story, Feud and the rest. These true stories are here to stay.
The Assassination Of Gianni
Versace finale airs on BBC2, 25 April. A Very English Scandal comes to BBC1 in May.
‘Lawsuits are flying around all over’