Daryl Hannah: How Can ‘Love Story’ Get Away With This?

Ms. Hannah is an actress, filmmaker and philanthropist.

Jacqueline Onassis once gave me some wise advice: She told me that while tabloids, magazines and newspapers often sold ridiculous lies, they were nothing more than bird cage liner by the next day. At the time, I found great comfort and consolation in those words.

But today they no longer hold true.

In the digital age, stories do not disappear, yesterday’s news isn’t tossed out with the morning paper, and lies live online forever. They are archived, streamed, clipped, memed and resurfaced endlessly. A dramatized portrayal can become, for millions of viewers, the definitive version of a real person’s life.

I have generally chosen not to respond to media coverage of me. I have long believed that engaging with distortion often amplifies it. But a recent tragedy-exploiting television series about John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette features a character using my name and presents her as me. The choice to portray her as irritating, self-absorbed, whiny and inappropriate was no accident.

In discussing the show, “Love Story,” one of its producers explained: “Given how much we’re rooting for John and Carolyn, Daryl Hannah occupies a space where she’s an adversary to what you want narratively in the story.”

Storytelling requires tension. It often requires an obstacle. But a real, living person is not a narrative device. There is also a gendered dimension to this thinking. Popular culture has long elevated certain women by portraying others as rivals, obstacles or villains. Isn’t it textbook misogyny to tear down one woman in order to build up another?

The character “Daryl Hannah” portrayed in the series is not even a remotely accurate representation of my life, my conduct or my relationship with John. The actions and behaviors attributed to me are untrue. I have never used cocaine in my life or hosted cocaine-fueled parties. I have never pressured anyone into marriage. I have never desecrated any family heirloom or intruded upon anyone’s private memorial. I have never planted any story in the press. I never compared Jacqueline Onassis’ death to a dog’s. It’s appalling to me that I even have to defend myself against a television show. These are not creative embellishments of personality. They are assertions about conduct — and they are false.

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