As he and famed producer Ryan Murphy feud over the upcoming JFK Jr. series American Love Story, Jack Schlossberg reflects on the earliest memories he has of his late uncle.
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During his appearance on California Governor Gavin Newsom’s This is Gavin Newsom podcast, Murphy discussed the negative responses to the series. He referenced Schlossberg.
“I thought it was an odd choice to be made about your relative that you really don’t remember,” Murphy said. “The days of civil discourse are over, and it’s very hard. And you kind of either get into the muck or you try to rise above it.”
Schlossberg, who has been vocal about his opposition to Murphy’s upcoming show, took to Instagram to call out the producer for his comments and also some memories he has of his uncle.
“My earliest memories are of John calling me Jackolatern and ‘the nudist,’ picking me up from school, his Pontiac convertible,” Schlossberg wrote in the post’s caption. “I remember being the ring bearer at his wedding and the day he died.”
He further wrote, “I remember Wyclef singing at his funeral. More memories are passed down from stories —like the time he locked himself out of a car in an intersection and asked the guy screaming at him if he could borrow a golf club to smash the window to get the keys, and then did it.”
Schlossberg then slammed Murphy. “You’re making millions off John, making a public spectacle of it,” he pointed out. “But won’t contribute any of your riches to the causes he championed, or the legacy of public service he represented.
Seemingly calling out, Paul Kelly, the actor set to portray JFK Jr in the series, Jack Schlossberg wrote, “Also odd that the actor playing the sexiest man alive is bloated!”
Ryan Murphy’s American Love Story Will Explore the Story Behind the Relationship Between JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette
According to IMDb, American Love Story will explore the story of the “courtship” and marriage between John F. Kennedy and Carolyn Bessette.
The couple met in 1992 and were married in 1996. Unfortunately, both of them perished in a July 1999 plane crash. JFK Jr. was piloting the aircraft at the time while Bessette-Kennedy and her sister, Lauren, were passengers. Lauren also died in the crash.
Just after photos of Kelly as JFK Jr. and Sarah Pidgeon as Bessette-Kennedy became viral, Schlossberg, who is the son of JFK Jr.’s sister Caroline, criticized the project.
“There’s really not much we can do,” Schlossberg. He also said the Kennedy family was not consulted for the show.
In an Instagram Story post, he wrote, “For the record, I think admiration for my Uncle John is great. What I don’t think is great is profiting off of it in a grotesque way.”
Murphy explained the series is based on the book Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy. He described the show as being “very sympathetic” to JFK Jr.
“The thing I was not prepared for was the Kennedy firestorm,” Murphy told Newsom. “Which I thought was very strange because they’re… nobody’s reading anything. It’s very sympathetic, by the way. It’s a love story.”
He also noted, “It’s not a take down, right? It’s a story about youth taken too soon and idealism, things that we need more in politics.”