Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr & Carolyn Bessette Season 1, Episode 7: Obsession

Hindsight is always 20/20 – you can see the error of your ways clearly when you look back. The things that you should have done differently always scream at you. In the 90’s I may have thought differently about the magazines that I would buy, the media that I would consume, and what I thought a celebrity’s job was. I never thought that I’d be sitting in my bed one day and watching a television show and want to apologize to every celebrity that was hounded by the paparazzi. Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr & Carolyn Bessette may be just inspired by their relationship, but tonights episode made me cry my eyes out just thinking about what Carolyn Bessette went through.

Because even though this is inspired by – just the idea that she could have gone through this makes me absolutely regretful and sad.

I don’t know about you all, but I really began to understand what the paparazzi did when Princess Diana died. My consumption of media wasn’t the same, but I realize how dangerous they got. I didn’t realize how they impacted a famous persons life.

I think that when it comes to CBK we can all agree that she didn’t want to be famous on the level she was. Looking back through pictures of her on the internet, she genuinely seems scared in most of them. Knowing that they called her the B word and labeled her a c-u-next-tuesday is diabolical to me. It’s gross. But here we are and its been over two decades since her untimely death and we’re just now realizing the level that she was mistreated.

I do understand that some have realized it before. I just feel like it is on a bigger scale now because – in part – to this show. Not everyone knows her story, as not everyone knows Johns. We can read all the books, we can watch all the television shows, but we’ll never be inside of their minds and living their memories.

What we can do is honor them.

This weeks Love Story had me crying my eyes out and thinking, but also wondering how wrong we are on so many different relationships and things.

BACK FROM THE HONEYMOON

JFK and CBK are now married. Their wedding may have given me anxiety because of how late Carolyn was, but I can remember when the picture of the two of them walking out of the small chapel was released. I was young, but all I could remember thinking was she looks like a princess.

I don’t remember where they went on their honeymoon and I am not going to google it. We open this episode with them returning and the front steps of their home seemingly having every reporter and pap outside, waiting for the first picture of them. The sheer fear on Carolyn’s face says everything, but as does the look on John’s face. He truly believes that he can protect her from her fear of the media.

He thinks if they give a few pictures, they will leave her alone. He’s convinced that he knows how to deal with them and he can teach her how to deal with them. She wants to believe in him so much that she just agrees and doesn’t say anything.

This entire episode, Sarah Pidgeon owns every scene. Even the ones that she’s not in. The way she brings CBK to life is one that makes you stop and think – did she really have to go through all this? Even the fictionalized version of CBK makes those of us who lived through that time stop and take notice of our actions and our relationship with the media. Every moment of this episode is a powerful one and a lesson in allowing privacy – the one thing that we all would want in our lives – even if we don’t admit it.

EVERYONE WANTS TO

JFK Jr had a relationship with the press that I don’t think that many of us ever understood or will ever understand. New York was his playground and it was his kingdom. He didn’t ever seem to act like he was Americas prince, but he seemed to know that the world wanted a piece of him. It felt like he just gave and gave – not knowing any different.

But, he didn’t want to cross a line when it came to Carolyn. He didn’t seem to understand that his relationship with the press opened a door to anyone that he was with. The paps seemed to feel like Carolyn owed them the same access that JFK Jr gave them.

He came face to face with his relationship a lot after they got married. His wife was unable to live her life – even after she had told him from the beginning that she wanted nothing more than a simple life. While watching this series it became clear that John’s idea of what the press was to him was naive. You can’t blame him per say – as he’s never known anything different.

But Carolyn has and therefore the changes that she experienced when they got married would have sent anyone into a panic attack. He didn’t understand, though I genuinely believe that he wanted to. She couldn’t even work, because the paps were everywhere.

And they were not kind to her.

Carolyn turned down everyone who wanted to talk to her. She wanted to remain a private citizen, regardless of being married to John. Watching Pidgeon portray how hard the articles and the lies were to Carolyn was heartbreaking. It was this level of vulnerability that Pidgeon brought to life in a way that you couldn’t look away.

GEORGE

I do believe that John gave everything that he could to George. He wanted it to succeed. Some thought that from the beginning he was out of his league with this magazine, yet he believed in himself.

However the way that he is portrayed seemed as though JFK Jr didn’t give all that he could. I am not sure of that though, because it also seemed like his role was being a pretty face and lending his name.

George’s team wanted Carolyn on the cover, but he said no. He wanted to protect his wife and said he wouldn’t ask her/have her do it. John valued Carolyn’s opinion above all, but it felt as though he protected her from moments that she was supposed to have a say in. Maybe she would have helped George. Who knows.

Paul Anthony Kelly manages to bring a lot of different layers to John in all of the episodes but in this one particular you see so many layers to John that you both love him and are angered by him. Kelly allows you to see John the man, the brother, and the husband. As a viewer you can not help but be drawn into his portrayal, finding so much strength in it. He was American royalty – yes. However, I do think that we forgot the John was at his very core – a human male with feelings.

DINNER AND AN ATTITUDE

Caroline and Ed threw a dinner party for those that were not at the wedding. We hear about a documentary on JFK and how John had learned on a meeting that he would be the one narrating it. However, no one had asked him and he was tired of people using his name, so he had it shut down.

It was a documentary that Ed was producing.

Caroline confronted John then on a tongue in cheek cover of Marilyn Monroe. The two were throwing jabs back and forth to each other, ending up in a fight between the two. I think that Caroline – the way she was able to command her privacy – should be studied. She has been able to keep her children shielded from the press.

There was then an argument with Carolyn after she took one of Caroline’s daughters to the lobby without asking.

That dinner party seemed like hell. Changes in relationships happen over and over again at this party. Ones that took a long time to heal. John and Caroline had a relationship that was unbreakable, but it was in part that the two were able to be honest with each other. Honesty sometimes has consequences though. Then again so do lies.

When the two were reunited at a lunch – John and Caroline make up. He counts on his sister and I think she counts on him too.

SHE IS BROKEN

As we get to the end of this episode – Carolyn is hiding under a window reading the paper. The lies that are being made up about her are a lot. There was no integrity to what people were writing – it was just about selling papers.

Pidgeon gives a performane that is one of the most powerful of the entire series. Carolyn is falling apart and she’s trying to hold herself together. Only it is not easy. She didn’t want to bother John with her feelings and her breaking down was such a vulnerable moment. She was in pain and holding it all together the best she could.

But Pidgeons performance is so moving that I couldn’t help but tear up. The way that she managed to portray Carolyn and make the viewer see pain coming out of every pore of her body. Her eyes were in anguish, the way that her bottom lip curled into her mouth, the way she started to slump over – all the physicality of her performance is sharp and moving.

Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr & Carolyn Bessette isn’t what I expected it to be and I am also not sure what it was that I was expecting.

OTHER THOUGHTS

The old ladies at the party made me LOL
John finding out his cousins cancer had returned – that broke me
Carolyn and Anthony at the party – I loved them talking. It was just such a human moment
All those flashes – hard pass
I really can’t talk about the cancer but like it hurts
Carolyns sister lunch – I felt for her and her sister
The interview at Ralph Lauren – that was so messed up what they did to her