We know they met a tragic end, but John F. Kennedy and Carolyn Bessette’s romance got off to a swoon-worthy start, judging by the premiere of FX’s “Love Story.”
Thursday’s premiere actually opens on the day of the fateful plane crash that killed John and Carolyn, with Carolyn (Sarah Pidgeon) fighting off paparazzi and John (Paul Anthony Kelly) angrily noting how late she is when she arrives. But they mend fences, sharing a tender kiss before John climbs into the cockpit. Then we flash back seven years to when Carolyn is working as a lowly sales associate at Calvin Klein and gossiping with her friend Grace about their wild nights out. Meanwhile, John is working as an assistant D.A. — and trying not to look at the tabloid headlines about him failing the bar exam: “The Hunk Flunks… Again.”
Carolyn impresses Calvin Klein (Alessandro Nivola) during a fitting with Annette Bening — side note: Megan Channell is an absolute dead ringer for the “Bugsy” star — but Carolyn’s boss Tanya later puts her in her place: “You’re a saleswoman, Carolyn. That’s it.” John visits with his family, where his mother Jackie Kennedy Onassis (Naomi Watts) warns him not to bring his latest “flavor of the month” to a family wedding. He defends his latest girlfriend, Hollywood actress Daryl Hannah, as an artist, but Jackie just scoffs.
At a swanky fundraiser, though, Calvin Klein introduces Carolyn to John, calling her his “VIP whisperer”… and we can see the sparks flying already. John and Carolyn engage in flirty banter, and she plays hard to get. (She won’t even give him her phone number!) She also has steamy sex with Michael Bergin (Noah Fernley), an aspiring model her friends call “the sexy doorman,” so she’s not exactly pining for John-John. But John shows up at Calvin Klein, leaving every salesgirl’s jaw on the floor as he asks Carolyn to fit him for a new suit, and the sparks continue to fly as she takes his measurements. When he asks if he can take her to dinner, she finally says yes.
John and Carolyn hit it off right away, but it’s not an easy road
Their first date doesn’t get off to a great start after John leaves Carolyn waiting in a tiny Indian restaurant. But he catches her just as she’s leaving and convinces her to stay. He tells her about when he went backpacking through India, and she giggles at his privileged upbringing. When she asks him what he’d be doing if he weren’t a Kennedy, he says he loved doing theater. But when he tried doing a play in New York, his mother banned the critics from attending. She tells him how she started working at a Calvin Klein store at the mall and was invited to apply for a corporate job in New York. She was up against polished Manhattan girls, but she got the job. “I can see why Calvin sings your praises,” he tells her.
When they leave the restaurant, John realizes his bike was stolen — and he didn’t even bother to lock it up. (Bless his heart.) They share a romantic walk home, and they end up kissing in the street. He asks Carolyn if he can see her again… but she just tells him she had a nice time. When John returns home, though, he finds Daryl Hannah (Dree Hemingway) waiting for him, blasting Sophie B. Hawkins’ “Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover” and telling him how much she missed him. John ends up inviting Daryl to the family wedding — even though Jackie refuses to speak to her.
As Carolyn scores another victory at work, pointing Calvin towards an unknown model named Kate Moss, John has a heart-to-heart with his mother, telling her Daryl wants to marry him. (“Of course she does,” Jackie sneers.) Jackie doesn’t want John to marry a celebrity. He needs “someone who’ll love you in spite of your last name,” she declares. That sure sounds like Carolyn… but then Carolyn spots John and Daryl on the cover of all the tabloids, with the headlines blaring that they’re back together.
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