‘Versace: ACS’ Continues To Weave A Designer Tale of Men and Murder [RECAP] – Towleroad

One of the big questions surrounding The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story was how the show would translate Andrew Cunanan’s killing spree and the titular designer’s death into episodic drama. While last season’s The People v. O.J. Simpson mined much of its emotional climaxes from re-enactments of hours of courtroom footage, there appeared to be less detailed source material from which the show could spin stories.

As we learned more in this week’s episode, the show borrows inspiration from Vulgar Favors, a book by Maureen Orth. The Versace family dismisses the book (and thus at least parts of the show) as conjecture and rumor. This includes some dramatic license to flesh out history and exploring Versace’s (alleged) HIV-status.

The source material might lend the final product to something more sensational (read: trashy) than what we were treated to, but thankfully even the poetic license is tempered by another collection of stellar performances. Darren Criss continues to defy his teen dream Glee fame with chilling intensity. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Ricky Martin (as Versace’s partner Antonio) is merely serviceable, turning in something more akin to a daytime soap performance. Luckily, many of his scenes are shared with Penelope Cruz, and no one wears tragedy and beauty better than she does (even in her Donatella drag).

Let’s recount the story as told in last night’s episode, “Manhunt.”

1994:
A frail Versace and Antonio make their way through a hospital corridor. Once they’re assured there is no press, the doctor informs Gianni that there is treatment now. The not-so-subtle subtext: He’s HIV-positive, a fact that’s never been confirmed abut Versace and his family denies to this day.

His condition further fractures the relationship between Antonio and Donatella. She blames Antonio for leading Gianni into dalliances with men over the years, thus resulting in the diagnosis. Despite Antonio’s assertions that Gianni was a willing participant in these romps, Donatella refuses to see her brother as anything other than a traditional family man. Antonio is quick to point out, they’re not “allowed” to have that kind of family.

May 1997:
Andrew Cunanan heads down to Florida through Florence, South Carolina in the red pickup truck he lifted from a recent victim. At this point, he’s already wanted by the F.B.I. for four previous murders.

He checks into a seedy seaside motel, and, after sweet talking the woman at the front desk by pretending to be a naive, French fashion student, he meets Ronnie (New Girl’s Max Greenfield).

Ronnie tells Andrew about how he thought his life was over when he found out he was positive, but the new drugs gave him an unexpected new lease on life he wasn’t prepared for.

Andrew tells Ronnie that he had a relationship with Gianni back in San Francisco, much more than we’ve seen so far. He also tells Ronnie that he lost his best friend and love his life to HIV/AIDS.

Meanwhile, the Miami F.B.I. is being briefed about the manhunt for Cunanan. The Miami detective wonders why they hadn’t handed out flyers yet and why they’re not canvassing the popular gay hotspots like nightclubs and the cruising beach. They explain Cunanan works as a sex worker and murders his johns.

And that’s exactly what he’s up to. Ronnie leads Andrew to the cruising beach to pick up a john. He meets an older man who takes him back to his hotel. Once inside, Andrew asks about the man’s business (he manages 5,000 employees), but the man assures him he can be submissive. “You have no idea,” Andrew responds before wrapping the man’s head entirely in duct tape, covering his eyes, nose and mouth.

As the man struggles to breathe, Andrew prances around the room, relishing the power. At the last moment, he punctures a hole over the man’s mouth, allowing him to breathe. Then he makes the man order him lobster.

The man is shaken, even asking the room service attendant to come back for the plates in 30 minutes. Andrew regales him with tales about taking lobster lunches as a child, before leaving. The man puts back on his wedding ring, calls 9-1-1, but can’t tell them the story for fear of outing himself.

Two central themes are at play here. The first is how Andrew is driven to dominate successful men, men he believes were blessed by the good fortune that never smiled on him in the ways it does in his stories. More than the fact the man is closeted, it appears that Cunanan is more interested in punishing him for his power, not his shame.

Not that shame isn’t a factor in this story. While the show doesn’t put shame as a motivator for Andrew’s murder, it does seem to be suggesting that discomfort with the gay community impeded the authorities.

July 1997:
Months later, Gianni and Donatella argue about the direction for their next Versace runway show. She wants emaciated models dressed drab, while Gianni is all about celebrating life. They decide she can dress her models, and he will dress his. Predictably, Gianni’s models steal the show.

Later, Gianni toils over his sketchbook while Antonio busies himself with a pretty young thing. The next morning, Antonio tells Gianni that he’s done with messing around and wants to marry him. “You can say it in the morning, but can you say it in the evening?” Touché.

Elsewhere, Andrew pawns the gold coin we saw in episode one. The shop clerk (Cathy Moriarty) takes a look at him like she knows him from somewhere, glances over at the wanted posters — IF ONLY THE F.B.I. HANDED OUT THOSE FLYERS, Ryan Murphy screams in the audience’s faces — but since there is no poster of him, she gives him the money.

Cunanan’s been casing the Versace compound since he’s been in town. One night, he sees a Donatella drag queen attempt to shout her way in, but Gianni lovingly shoos her away from his balcony. Jackpot.

Andrew rushes home, grabs his gun and gives Ronnie some cash. When Ronnie asks if their friendship was real, Andrew instructs him that should anyone ask, they were never friends.

On his way out, Andrew stops at a sub shop where one of the sandwich artists recognizes him from America’s Most Wanted. Cunanan grabs his tuna sub (gross) and leaves before the cops arrive.

He ends up at a nightclub called Twist, one of the hotspots the Miami F.B.I. suggested flyering earlier in the episode. (IF ONLY THEY— yes, yes, Ryan Murphy, we get it.) Earlier in the evening, Versace and Antonio were there, too. They left before Andrew arrived, but not before Antonio can tell Gianni that, yes, he still only wants him.

Inside the club, Andrew meets a boy and rattles off a list of his occupations: finance, cop, paperback writer and, of course, serial killer.

After Gianni’s Death:
Donatella dresses the corpse before cremation. She packs up the ashes and carries them on a flight without Antonio.

It’s a small scene, but it speaks to another way Versace’s sexuality impacts this case. The series is poised to explore the perceived legitimacy of Gianni and Antonio’s relationship, as two gay men as well as two gay men who also slept with other people. By taking Gianni’s remains, it’s clear Donatella believes Antonio has no claim.

What did you think of this week’s episode?

‘Versace: ACS’ Continues To Weave A Designer Tale of Men and Murder [RECAP] – Towleroad

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American Crime Story Does The Hustle

The show goes back in time with two perspectives on sex and death – and Sarah D. Bunting nerds out on the production design – in our recap of ‘Manhunt.’

American Crime Story Does The Hustle

March 1994, Miami. An unsteady Gianni, wearing sunglasses and with his hoodie up, is helped down a hospital hallway by Antonio. He pauses when he sees the room at the end of the hall, and its inhabitants: two frail-looking men, apparently receiving transfusions. The doctor from the previous episode approaches and murmurs, “There are no journalists here.” Gianni removes his hood and shades as he’s told in VO, “There are drugs; the therapies are complex, difficult. But there are options.”

We cut then to Gianni and Antonio and the doctor in her office, but before Gianni talks about his other sister, let’s…just get into it with The AIDS Rumor, which if I understand correctly is the Versace family’s primary objection to American Crime Story. The show to this point has taken pains not to identify Gianni’s malady, I imagine primarily to avoid a lawsuit, but also possibly in part to create a meta conversation about what viewers might presume is – and what law enforcement did presume was – afflicting a gay man. I think it’s Richard Lawson in last week’s episode of the Still Watching: Versace podcast who notes that the mid- to late nineties marked the end of the period in the culture in which every story about gay men centered around HIV/AIDS, or at least dwelt in the shadow of the disease. And if this is the diagnosis that Gianni received in 1994, we hadn’t quite gotten to the point with the cocktail and various other advances in treatment where we thought of AIDS as a manageable chronic condition; we didn’t quite think of it as an absolute death sentence the way we had even five years prior, but the odds still weren’t great.

Those odds had improved somewhat by the time Gianni was killed – but this was not widely understood, and if I’m not mistaken the family was determined to keep the diagnosis secret, if only for business reasons, so they went with a cover story about a “rare ear cancer” that had a cheerier prognosis and nothing to do with Gianni’s sexuality (and with which the doctor’s bromides above would dovetail), so as not to upset the investor herd before the IPO. The family also made sure to retrieve Gianni’s body extremely quickly from the M.E.’s office, and had it cremated just as quickly, no doubt motivated by the same fear that his actual condition might become public. It can be a little hard to plug into this particular strain of paranoia here in 2018, but if you lived through the eighties…my God, the contortions public figures would go through, felt they had to go through (and were not wrong), to deny that they were ill or that it was AIDS. Freddie Mercury in particular, it just became the only thing anyone had to say about him despite his repeated denials. (I love that he wouldn’t give the press the satisfaction until literally the day before he died. “Fine: it’s AIDS. Happy now? Great. BYE BITCHES.”) And what was his other choice? Admit it, and then on top of facing the end, he’s got to do it in the corner, heaped up with judgment. What a grimy and unjust way for the world to do Freddie after everything he gave it.

This is, then, what the Versace family wanted to avoid, and I get it. I guess I get it still continuing 20 years later, their rigid refusal to engage with this reality, because who knows what clauses lurk in various partnership agreements about transparency or due diligence or whatever. Not that I wouldn’t get behind a “yeah, he had AIDS, and it was ONE THING about the guy so fuck off” attitude, because duh, but: this is where it is right now. Where the show is, I think, is implying as strongly as it possibly can without opening the network to a full-court libel press that Gianni Versace had received an AIDS diagnosis, and because 1) I think this is likely and 2) it speaks to the larger story, to Andrew Cunanan’s story, and to the time in which we find their stories, this is how I will also proceed. End sidebar. “Thank God.” Yeah, wait ‘til I start getting granular about mint marks. You’ll long for the halcyon days of this paragraph.

Okay, so: back to the doctor’s office. Gianni relates that, before Donatella was born, his older sister Tina became very ill with peritonitis. His parents sent him to live with an aunt and uncle, but he got homesick and ran all the way home – to find his sister in an open casket, “surrounded by white flowers.” Nobody told him she had died. “Until that moment I believed that if you get sick, you can also get better,” he says grimly, and: see above. The line makes more sense if you don’t think he’s talking about ear cancer, no?

Back at the manse, Antonio tucks Gianni into a big sleigh bed. Donatella comes in to stroke Gianni’s forehead, and tells Antonio she needs to talk to Gianni. She takes his hands in hers and they look at each other before she quavers, “What is Versace without you?” It will be you, he tells her. “What am Iwithout you?” “You will find out,” he smiles. She lies on his chest and he strokes her hair.

In the hallway outside, as Donatella is rummaging through her handbag for a Morley (hee), Antonio half-asks, half-states, “You blame me?” Next to a pointedly Callipygian statue on the same table as her handbag

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Donatella asks if Gianni wasn’t enough for Antonio – he had to have more men, more fun, and Gianni went along with him. Antonio says Gianni “chose to,” but Donatella corrects him: Gianni chose Antonio, and went along because of Antonio. “I am not a villain,” Antonio sighs, adding that Gianni isn’t a saint. “My brother has a weakness for beauty; he forgives it anything,” Donatella says, putting on her jacket and turning to face Antonio. “But I am not my brother.” No shit, Antonio says, but Donatella isn’t done, asking why Antonio didn’t give Gianni a family when he knew Gianni wanted one. “Because we’re not allowed!” Antonio duhs. Donatella snarks that he could have found a way. She’s heading out when Antonio explodes – fairly quietly; they’re still outside Gianni’s sickroom – that he’s always been there for her; what has she ever done besides belittle him, and Gianni for choosing him? She whirls around: what has Antonio given Gianni – safety? stability? kids? She’d respect him if he’d given Gianni anything, but he’s given him nothing.

Gianni and Antonio walk on the beach. Gianni says that, before, he could channel negative emotions into creating; now, he’s too sick. He starts to have an anxiety attack, saying he just wants to get “out of me.”

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At the villa, Donatella, her arm party of huge gold bracelets, and her pork-roast-sized flip phone are smoking on the steps when the men return. She takes Gianni’s hand; he turns to face them both and announces that he won’t get through this if they can’t be a family. He goes inside. Antonio glares flatly at Donatella from behind his shades. She is chastened enough to look away.

July 16, 1997. It’s nighttime. Rain sprinkles the impromptu shrine that has sprung up outside the villa’s front gates. Donatella watches from inside, weeping. She’s heading further back into the house, past where Antonio is half-lounging in that same anteroom, and Antonio tries to get her to talk to him, but she’s like, Gianni’s dead, we don’t have to pretend anymore, and closes the bedroom door.

A mortician places a picture of Gianni next to him on the slab, and begins filling in the wound in his face and a scrape on his shoulder. As he’s being made up, Donatella comes into the courtyard, sunglasses on, and turns to look at the house, and specifically the balcony of Gianni’s room. Then, shielded by umbrellas, she runs the gantlet of flashbulbs and gets into a car.

At a funeral parlor, Donatella approaches Gianni’s open casket. A crucifix is pointedly affixed to the inside of the lid. She slowly draws her sunglasses off and stares, fear flickering across her face. Penelope Cruz looks very young in this shot. An attendant behind her unzips a suit bag; cut to Donatella carefully zhuzhing the lapels and the necktie on Gianni in the casket. Once he’s ready, Donatella’s face crumples as she looks down at him. She bends down to kiss him and continues to cry, murmuring in Italian.

The casket is pushed into the crematory oven.

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Gianni’s ashes are carefully transferred to a baggie, which is affixed with a golden tag reading “GMV.” The baggie is put in a box and sealed with diplomatic-pouch tape.

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The box is put into a gold ornamental urn, topped with flowers, and carried onto the family’s private jet by Santo, where Donatella sits next to it and says through tears, “After everything he survived – to be killed like this.”

After the title card, we’re in May of 1997. Cunanan is driving the red pickup through Florence, SC. He pulls into a mall to find some South Carolina plates to steal, and as he’s affixing them to the truck, he notices a girl watching him. He arranges his face into what he thinks is a cheery smile. The girl isn’t having it.

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He lets the smile melt off, chucks the old plates in the truckbed, and pulls out, powering up with some Oreos and milk and dialing around on the radio. After sampling some country tunes and a bulletin about the murder of Lee Miglin – in which he is named as a suspect – he comes upon Laura Branigan’s “Gloria,” which is just the thing, especially the line “If everybody wants you / why isn’t anybody callin’.” He bellows that one out the window, and as my esteemed colleague Tara Ariano noted on The Blotter Presents last week, this is quite a performance of mediocre car-singing from an actor known for his, you know, singing. But he’s really feeling himself as he bellows along, past a sign reading “Miami 650"…

…and Ms. Branigan carries us into a helicopter shot of the Miami beachfront, the Versace villa, and Cunanan speeding into town in the pickup. At the Normandy Plaza hotel, Cunanan walks past Ronnie – the guy they found in his room at the end of the premiere – smoking sketchily on the front lanai and into the lobby, where a tacko portrait of Marilyn over a fake mantel seems to tell him he’s in the right place. When a desk clerk finally appears, Cunanan makes a big show of saying he doesn’t have a reservation, but maybe they might have a room for him anyway? She’s like, it’s an SRO, Blanche; chill. Cunanan gives her a French passport as ID that says he’s Kurt DuMarrs, and starts blathering on about how he was born in Nice and she should visit sometime, and he came all the way to Miami to talk to Gianni Versace because he’s a poor fashion student, and blah blah some outfit of Carla Bruni’s with a gold belt, I don’t even know. But somewhere in there he charms the desk clerk.

Less charming: the room itself. The common areas of the motel don’t look so bad, but the interior hallways and the rooms: Wayne Grotsky.

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Literally nothing is going to show dirt and fingerprint grease like that institutional pink. But Cunanan seems unbothered, and starts unloading his backpack right onto the jizzfest that is the room’s comforter, like, did we not all know not to do that yet by 1997? I feel like we did. Mostly this is so we see the gun again, which is pointless telegraphing of something that…already happened, but Cunanan heads over to the villa and marches up to the front gate and tries the front door. It’s locked, doy, but Cunanan looks a little angry, and also a little confused, like he expected his imaginary future friend Gianni to have left it open for him.

The next morning, Cunanan buys a disposable camera (kids, ask your parents) and a ball cap and sunglasses at a kiosk, which is also displaying the "MADMAN!” cover of Sports Illustrated devoted to Mike Tyson chomping Evander Holyfield’s ear. Cute – and it places us around the Fourth of July, 1997, as the coverline on that issue is 7/7/97. Cunanan heads back to the front gates and snaps several pictures of them and the house, then stares creepily into the eyes of the Medusa on the front door. Later, he carefully lays the developed pictures out in front of him in a grid, the same way he did the magazines last time, but the spell is broken when he reaches for his wallet and finds only three dollars inside.

The FBI agents are briefing Dets. Luke and Bitchface on Cunanan’s greatest hits (as it were). Bitchface isn’t clear on why they assume he’s in Miami, versus L.A. or San Diego; Agent Stan non-answers that they working under the assumption that he’s headed to the 305. Bitchface justifies her moniker:

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But I’m calling her Det. Lori from now on because WTF, FBI. Luke gives her a “fuckin’ feds” brow pop, but they try to help, as Lori runs down the local gay hotspots on a city map and offers to give the Fibbies a tour. What she gets in return is some Agent Stansplaining, as he condescendingly tells her that she hasn’t read the case file, but Cunanan isn’t going to follow a pattern she can predict; he’s a “predatory escort,” so he’ll be targeting older, closeted guys – who tend to hang in Fort Lauderdale, not Miami. Lori’s like, okaaaaay so but don’t you want to even canvass South Beach, hand out some flyers? The agents shrug that they only have ten flyers printed right now, and anyway, they “aren’t a priority for us.” “That’s certainly clear,” Lori mutters, and starts making black-and-white photocopies her own self. She pins one to the middle of the bulletin board.

Cunanan returns to his room and, despairing of the crappy side-alley view from his window, rehearses his pitch to Desk Clerk to switch rooms to an ocean view. Naturally, it’s obnoxiously glib and contains a reference to Cap Ferrat, but the mojo he worked on her earlier sustains itself, and soon he’s sauntering out onto his balcony and surveying his domain, Gianni-style. He locks eyes with Ronnie, kibitzing down on the sidewalk…

…then too-casually cruises down to the front lanai and introduces himself as Andy.

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Max Greenfield’s whatever face here is everything, hee. Ronnie overheard the clerk call “Andy” “Kurt.” Cunanan snappishly asks what she calls Ronnie, then. But despite this bitchy beginning, when Cunanan asks if Ronnie knows where to score, Ronnie seems to oblige. They walk down the street, Ronnie sighing that he doesn’t “do this kind of work” anymore: “Look at me.” Greenfield looks fairly fit here, but thin, and is styled scruffily and moving somewhat listlessly, so the inference we’re supposed to draw is apparently the same one Cunanan does, as he launches into a monologue about how he used to work at an AIDS outreach center in San Diego. He denies being sick himself, but he might admit it to Ronnie if he were; Ronnie doesn’t tell most people, because they freak out. He came close to dying a few years back, he goes on, but then they “handed [him] these magic pills,” and he had his life back…but he didn’t know what to do with it, so he came to Miami, to be by the ocean. Cunanan’s witty-repartee face has fallen by the time Ronnie asks if he has lost anyone. “Lost my best friend. And the love of my life,” Cunanan says, failing to clarify that he killed them, but we’ll get to it. “Recently?” Ronnie asks. “This year.” “Both of them?” Ronnie presses, likely thinking that in eighty-seven, to lose two of your closest people to the virus would track, but in ninety-seven it’s a little more unusual, particularly given that Cunanan says he’s not HIV+.

Ronnie doesn’t push it, but as Cunanan takes a whore bath at a beachside shower station and brags about knowing Versace – with a name-droppy reference to an It restaurant in San Fran clearly memorized from a Vanity Fair or similar – Ronnie makes a series of “…k” faces. There’s been some discussion on the forums about Criss’s choices here – that you don’t really see the charm the real Cunanan was evidently famous for. But you also don’t see the somewhat squashy physical presentation of the real Cunanan, for which the charm was supposed to make up in a world that prized a hyper-toned physique; what you do see is the way the social contract tends to paper over outré or awkwardly meretricious behavior like Cunanan’s, which in the larger context of “how was this ‘allowed’ to happen” is effective.

Anyway, Ronnie does manage not to burst out laughing at the idea that a guy who’s one step up from homeless was proposed to by Gianni Versace at any point, as Cunanan claims. Ronnie says Gianni’s very popular “out here,” very friendly, though Ronnie’s not into his clothes. “That’s because you don’t know him,” Cunanan snips. Ronnie’s like, well, I can look at the shop windows and form an opinion, but Cunanan isn’t having it and takes Ronnie to school on Gianni’s invention of Oroton. That is pretty cool, but Cunanan is way too intense about it for get-to-know-you small talk with a guy he just met: “I see the man behind it. A great creator. The man I coulda been.” Ronnie cocks a brow: “Been with.” That seems to snap Cunanan out of it somewhat, but then he lifts his face to the spray while the piano does a V.C. Andrews kind of a thing, like, we get it.

On the beach, Cunanan locks eyes with an older gent, then gets up, telling Ronnie that he shouldn’t worry about money, he’ll split “this” with Ronnie fifty-fifty. He emphasizes that he takes care of his friends: “That’s always been important to me.” Ronnie doesn’t know what to say, and I have a couple of suggestions, but Ronnie’s Spidey sense probably kiboshed “we just met, Galahad, settle down” as possibly triggering Braggy Carmichael. Cunanan heads over to the gent and completes the pick-up. Ronnie watches speculatively.

Back at the gent’s room, Cunanan gets kind of weird about how many times the guy’s “done this before – two, three?” and then asks how many people work for him, “in business.” Five thousand worldwide, he’s told, and makes this face

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but apparently that’s the gent’s kink, as he breathes that he can be submissive. “You have no idea,” Cunanan informs him, and then we’re hearing “Easy Lover” as Cunanan straddles the guy and carefully swathes his entire head in duct tape. Once the last airway is covered, he leans in with that Starman look of scientifically curious remove: “You’re helpless. Accept it.” He dismounts, cranks the music, and fondles various items on the dresser as the gent struggles. “Accept it,” he says. “Accept it!” He fan-dances around the room as the taped-up gent gets more and more agitated, and the music seems to get steadily louder; this is shot very effectively, as I also began to get agitated on the guy’s behalf.

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Cunanan approaches the bed, holding a pair of surgical scissors and regarding the guy with a mixture of curiosity and lust, then hops onto him, whispers, “Last chance,” and finally plunges the scissors through the tape over the gent’s mouth when the gent follows his direction and submits.

Later, Cunanan tucks into some expensive room-service filet and lobster. At the door, the gent whispers to the waiter to come back in half an hour, “for the trays,” then backs away from the door and the end of the bed where Cunanan is perched, stuffing his piehole and making up some story about his mom packing lobster in his school lunches. All the other kids had PB&J, and “there I was with my little sachet of cracked pepper, all wrapped up like a gram of cocaine.” Cool story, bro. He polishes off a glass of champagne, locks eyes with the gent, drops the flute on the floor with a clunk, and departs without another word. The gent can’t wait to throw the bolt, fish his ring out of the ashtray, and call 9-1-1, but when he’s asked what his emergency is, the gent is too weighed down by his wedding band to go through with it and hangs up.

Back from commercial, it’s “back to life, back to reality” with the opening strains of the Soul II Soul hit, and wow, I actually missed this song. Like, it was ehhhhhh-verywhere for a while and I never thought I would feel “oh yeah, you!” about it, but I do. Pity about the context, which is July 6, 1997, and we’re backstage at a fashion show, where Gianni is complaining that the models Antonio hired “look ill.” This seems like an anachronism to me, so if Gianni actually was at the forefront of pulling back from anorexic waifs, hit me in the comments. Certainly Donatella has taken some shelling in the not-at-all-distant past for using runway talent who looked dangerously underweight. And here she is now, cutting past the models standing around outside smoking and into the dressing room, where she asks them to give her the room: “I need to talk to my brother.” Maybe take him aside, then? It’s…the dressing room and they’re working?

Donatella tries to head him off all “you agreed to try them,” but Gianni’s like, my models should look like they eat, have cocktails, fuck, enjoy life – “What do these girls enjoy?” “Front covers?” Donatella says pointedly, going on that “everyone” is talking about Galliano and McQueen and what they’re doing next. Gianni, standing next to a carefully hung card with Shalom Harlow’s name on it,

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doesn’t want to guess trends. His designs have to come from his heart first. The debate continues, Donatella saying he’s gotten too predictable, too “known,” blah blah blah. Like they’d really get into this 1) minutes before the walking starts, 2) in English instead of Italian. Point is, Gianni’s celebrating the miracle of his return to health, and doesn’t want to do the “stark and morbid” runway Donatella prefers. Donatella freshens her contouring and rolls her eyes as Gianni describes the “Versace bride” who is not dainty and pure, but proud to have loved many before choosing the one man for her. She’s kind of won over by his enthusiasm by the end, though, only correcting him that it’s their show, not his.

Backstage, Donatella peeks out and looks worried as the runway looks – proceeding down what looks like a ramp placed over Gianni’s own pool – are greeted with polite applause. The applause gathers in strength, and when the bride comes out, the response is what Gianni predicted. Donatella shakes her head and throws him a “yeah, okay” thumbs-up.

Cut to Ronnie procuring drugs for himself and Cunanan. They smoke crack together as a breeze stirs the vertical blinds, and Ronnie gets the high giggles, but Cunanan is broody, and goes into the bathroom to start wrapping his own head in duct tape. Outside the door, Ronnie says he used to be a florist, and he was thinking of starting a little flower pop-up, a two-man operation: “You and me.” They get along well enough, no? And anything’s better than working that beach, right? “…Andy?”

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“I’m gonna take a shower,” Cunanan says affectlessly. “Me too, with lye, in a different time zone,” Ronnie does not say, going with “Yeah, a-a shower, why not?” He perches worriedly on the end of the bed, smoking and staring at the bathroom door. I would say it’s a good thing he can’t see the other side,

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but if nothing else about Cunanan has moved the needle to Hell No for Ronnie, I doubt a crazy wall would do it either. Cunanan unwraps his head, somehow pulling out zero hair in the process, and stares at himself in the mirror.

When he emerges, apparently not having showered after all, he starts dressing silently. After a moment, Ronnie asks as gently as possible, “Andrew? What’d you do?” “Nothing,” he says, still staring at himself, but in the mirror over the chest of drawers this time. “I’ve done nothing my whole life. And that’s the truth.” Ronnie looks sad for him and holds up the pipe: “We’re out.” “I’ll get more,” Cunanan says, going for “soothing half-smile” and landing on “nauseated volcano.”

Gianni is lost in sketching thought in his bedroom as, on the bed, Antonio canoodles with a third guy. He hops out to tell Gianni to join them. Distractedly Gianni says he’ll be right there. Antonio strips off his undies and hops back into bed with the guy. Gianni looks at them making out with an expression of contentment, then returns to sketching.

The next day, Gianni finishes a lap and fetches up on Antonio’s legs at the end of the pool. Antonio muses that he doesn’t “want this” anymore; he wants Gianni, to marry Gianni. Gianni smiles that Antonio says it in the morning: “Can you say it in the evening?” He swims away. Antonio bites his lip and wisely doesn’t argue the point.

Cunanan heads into the pawn shop to hock the gold coin. Pawn Star Cathy asks where he got it. He says it’s a remarkable story. Good save. I’ll spare you the coin-nerd background, but I wonder if a pawnbroker with any experience shouldn’t have known based on the coin in question that said story involved a felony; it’s a Saint-Gaudens double eagle – one of those coins that will look familiar even to people who don’t know anything about coins, which is basically everyone. The prop here has a “mint mark” that says “COPY,” which I also find amusing. …Right, nobody cares, sorry! Anyway, as she’s weighing the coin, she checks her most-wanted posters; Cunanan, who’s filling out the forms with his real name and address, isn’t among them.

He’s out walking later when he sees a queen serving Donatella realness rattling the front gates of the estate and begging “Johnny” to let her in. A security guard notes that the real Donatella has a key, and Gianni comes out on the balcony all “enough already, kid” – “big kiss for you, but I cannot let you in, one is enough.” Hee. Cunanan watches the drama unfold, then jogs back to his room; fishes the gun out from under the mattress (ew) and loads it; rips down his crazy wall; and bids Ronnie adieu. “Will I see you again?” Ronnie asks. “I’m sure of it,” Cunanan double-meanings, and is peaceing out when Ronnie snarls down the hall after him, “You don’t have that money, do you.” Cunanan stops, comes back, and counts out the money, holding it up to Ronnie, at which time Scrip Dork McGee over here notes that, at least as far as the fifty is concerned, Props found an old one from before the 1997 printi– “Buntsy. We agreed that nobody cares.” Right, you are so right, sorry again. Ronnie is also chastened, but takes the money, then asks gravely if they were friends. “That was real, right?” But Cunanan is in full infamy-groundwork-laying mode and responds, “When someone asks you if we were friends? You’ll say no.” He hurries away; Ronnie ruefully watches him go.

Lori’s leaving the cop shop and sees that the Cunanan Most Wanted poster is mostly covered over with other flyers already.

The man himself is reading his Condé Nast book in a park across the street from the estate when Gianni and Antonio emerge. When we cut back across the street, Cunanan is gone…

…to get some stakeout grub. The guy at the sandwich shop immediately spots him and skives off into the back to call 9-1-1; the “white guy who killed four white guys” whom he saw on America’s Most Wanted is in the shop, ordering a tuna combo. The cops show up shortly thereafter, but Cunanan’s gone again.

At Twist, Gianni and Antonio cut the line and head into the club, greeting various friends and other regulars. They settle in at a table to watch a go-go boy with angel wings working it for tips.

Cunanan fetches up back at the estate. He doesn’t seem like he’s in a hurry or fleeing. He finds the bedroom windows dark, and his eyes darken in turn. He heads into Twist – with his backpack, which made me want to smack the bouncer upside the head. I forget we didn’t always live in this after-the-events-of world. Somewhere, Det. Lori gets a stabbing pain in her ass because Cunanan is right where Agent Stan told her not to bother looking, searching the dance-floor crowd for Gianni while La Bouche’s “Be My Lover” blares down. Cunanan checks the bathroom…

…but Gianni and Antonio are already outside, heading home. Gianni hangs back, seemingly to let Antonio pick up, but Antonio frowns and repeats that he doesn’t want that anymore; he wants Gianni. They nuzzle. It’s a bittersweet moment, knowing what happens, and also knowing that the actors know each other well IRL and wondering what it’s like for them in the scene, when of course they also know what happens. Gianni gives him a vaguely sad “if you’re sure” look, and off they go.

Inside, Andrew roams the dance floor, deflating, as Lisa Stansfield tells the assembled that “this is the right time / to believe in love.” A cutie named Brad locks onto Cunanan and close-dances up to him and asks what he does. “I’m a serial killer,” Cunanan chirps. Brad: “Whuh-it?” Cunanan, giggling: “I’m a banker!” He’s a stockbroker. He’s a cop! He builds movie sets and skyscrapers! Imports pineapples! Brad begins to draw away, concerned, as Cunanan tells Brad, but mostly himself, “I’m the person least likely to be forgotten. …I’m Andrew Cunanan.”

American Crime Story Does The Hustle

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ episode 2 recap: Death’s a beach

Warning: This recap of the “Manhunt” episode of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story contains spoilers.

From the beginning we’ve known that Andrew Cunanan fancied himself a man of finer tastes. Even while on the run for a murder spree, he still took the time to purchase just the right Wayfarer knock-offs or order a surf ‘n’ turf meal from a wealthy john. Did Cunanan wear just any old bathing suit? Nope, it was magenta Speedo all the way. And when it came to rat-infested, crumbling junkie motels, you better believe Cunanan asked for an ocean view. Yes, even the lowest of human existences can leave room for glamour.

“Manhunt” continued last week’s premiere with even more backstory of where both Versace and Cunanan had been in their respective lives before the titular assassination. And like last week, it took what everyone knew about the case (from sensationalized tabloid coverage mostly) and filled in the gaps with new facts, genuine insight, and arresting beauty. Let’s talk about it!

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We began with an unrecognizable, anonymous man in disguise.

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Underneath this ingenious, identity-concealing ensemble was none other than famous fashion designer Gianni Versace. But this costumed ruse would be for neither heist nor romp. No, he was at a clinic receiving bad news about a blood test he’d recently taken. And while this episode was careful to keep things vague, this scene, added to a later scene in which he could barely walk unassisted, was meant to suggest that Versace’s life had once been threatened long before Andrew Cunanan ever pointed a gun at him. You can probably guess what the illness was. But as a reminder, the ’90s were an especially bad time for a specific group of people.

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Versace’s diagnosis played heavily into this episode’s central concept. That he’d been able to fight off his illness using state-of-the-art medicines, he’d slapped the grim reaper across its tacky face, and he’d begun to embrace life as only a formerly dead man walking could. Which, as Donatella Versace noted, made his later murder all the more devastating.

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But death comes for us all, even those who can afford to have their facial bullet wounds spackled over and their cremains laid to rest so fabulously.

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Even when reduced to several ounces of ash, Versace still flew first class. Honestly touching.

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We then cut over to Andrew Cunanan, who was currently speeding on the freeway scream-singing “Gloria.” Which, we’ve all done that, and in my case nearly every day. “Gloria” is one of the greatest songs of all time. As we quickly discovered, Cunanan was only just arriving in Miami, so this act of free-wheelin’ joy came after he’d murdered his first four victims. Yep, he was now murder-jazzed, and it was time to spread his brand of awful in a beach community!

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Cunanan showed up at the dingiest motel with the most beautiful oceanfront view in Miami. It was clearly a faded stucco hell pit of junkies and, well, other serial killers I’m guessing. Between the presence of a junkie Max Greenfield and a duct-tape gimp mask, this was like if American Horror Story: Hotel had been crossed with Miami Vice. Into it.

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Meanwhile the FBI had arrived in town around the same time, but this local Miami detective lady quickly realized they were terrible at their jobs and had not tried particularly hard to catch this gay spree-killer yet. They hadn’t even made any copies of his “Wanted” poster! And as we’d learn later, citizens were ready and willing to report a Cunanan sighting, which made it all the more frustrating that the FBI had been so slow to spread the word. (Thank God for America’s Most Wanted.)

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As you can imagine, Andrew Cunanan made fast friends with junkie Max Greenfield, and after a heartfelt scene in which Greenfield’s character talked about his HIV diagnosis, the two schemed openly about how to make quick cash and/or buy some junk to smoke. An enterprising liar and conman, it was almost charming that Cunanan still resorted to turning tricks sometimes. I guess that was easier than, like, check fraud or whatever.

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So, sex work for local lonely hearts was now on the menu! Congratulations, Miami fellas!

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Except, whoops … there was the pesky fact that Andrew Cunanan was a total psychopath. Which meant that this john’s simple request to be dominated led him to finding himself suffocating under a face full of duct tape and terrorized within an inch of his life while Andrew Cunanan danced around the room in a pink Speedo.

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Yeah this was one of the most disturbing scenes I’ve seen in a Ryan Murphy joint, but the terror was effective. The disturbing vibe continued even afterward, as the terrified john sat watching Cunanan finish a lobster meal, waited until Cunanan left, and then debated whether to call 911 and report the assault. Alas, the wedding ring he placed back on his finger suggested why the crime ultimately went unreported. Again: The ’90s really sucked.

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But enough darkness, it was time to remember what made Versace famous! In this scene, Donatella urged Versace to change things up and compete with his more goth-inspired competitors Galliano and McQueen, but Versace made clear that he was in the business of joy and beauty and life, especially now that he had his health back. Donatalla couldn’t help but see his point.

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And credit to this show for not only producing a convincing fashion show (with convincingly Versace-ish looks) but also even casting a runway model who resembled Shalom Harlow to play Shalom Harlow! Miss her. Come back, Shalom.

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As though we needed more evidence that Andrew Cunanan was unhinged, we got this cute scene where he smoked tons of drugs, then went to the bathroom for some quiet time. In this case quiet time involved wrapping his head and face in duct tape and also admiring the intensely insane serial killer wall he’d created in the bathroom:

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Yeah, I think we’d recalled Cunanan as being an out-of-control party boy or whatever, but this series has done a lot to prove he was insane in a scary and singular way. Just a bad-time-guy lookin’ for trouble.

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We also got glimpses into the romantic life shared by Versace and his lover, Ricky Martin (as himself, jk). And though their lifestyle of hooking up with men together and going to the clubs was nothing they were ashamed of in their private life, we could sense that the straight world would never understand their situation. Versace himself doubted that his partner truly loved him enough to want to be married (which … gay marriage? What a futuristic concept in 1997!), yet they still were clearly everything to each other. It would be romantic if we didn’t know where this was all heading.

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We then got another classic Cathy Moriarty appearance, in which we saw the incident when Cunanan sold a stolen coin to her at her pawn shop and she remembered it enough to contact the police after the shooting. And again, she’d even glanced at her collection of “Wanted” posters before making the sale, underscoring again that the authorities’ slow-to-act tendencies toward gay crime had almost directly led to Versace’s murder. But at least we can all continue to count on Cathy Moriarty when we need her!

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I loved this brief scene when a drag impersonator of Donatella showed up at Versace’s manor and demanded to come in and hang out. He was polite enough about it, noting that one Donatella in his life was enough, but still. She DID look fun to hang out with. I probably would’ve let her up.

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That night, Versace and his lover went out to the local dance club Twist, and Andrew Cunanan followed them there, presumably to shoot him right there in the club. But Versace ended up ducking out before the encounter happened but not before his lover informed him that even at night, even amid opportunities to be around other men … he still chose Versace and wanted to marry him. Again, except for the line of strangers behind them and the bad ’90s techno wafting in the air, this was an incredibly touching and romantic moment. These two.

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Inside, a clearly dejected Cunanan was approached by a random hottie, and he responded by having a borderline meltdown in which he listed all the different fake occupations he’d ever pretended to be. Including, of course, serial killer. But while the random hottie had no reason to think Cunanan was being serious about any of them, it was a chilling notion that someone who had spent a lifetime lying about his accomplishments was now going to try to make a name for himself in a more tragic and gruesome way. Ugh, he was the worst.

“Manhunt” functioned best as a continuation of last week’s introduction to the story and setting. And like last week, it relied on visuals and physical performance more than written dialogue, and was just as spellbinding. Tense, funny, emotional, and troubling all at once, this is a fascinating world to explore and I can’t get enough. Obviously it’s a dark story and doesn’t promise to get any lighter by the end of it, but I can’t help myself. That this is even on the air (and executed so perfectly) is enough to give someone a new lease on life. How very Versace.

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ episode 2 recap: Death’s a beach

https://ia601509.us.archive.org/34/items/PVRMACSS02E02/PVRM_ACS_S02E02.mp3?plead=please-dont-download-this-or-our-lawyers-wont-let-us-host-audio
https://acsversace-news.tumblr.com/post/170133599549/audio_player_iframe/acsversace-news/tumblr_p352nqTzs21wcyxsb?audio_file=https%3A%2F%2Fia601509.us.archive.org%2F34%2Fitems%2FPVRMACSS02E02%2FPVRM_ACS_S02E02.mp3

ACS S2E2 – “Manhunt”

The People are … liking ACS: Versace. Andrew Cunanan has captured our …hearts? From his creepy charm to his American Psycho tendencies, this extra-extra performance is bringing out the “Darren Criss fan” in all of us. Join Natalie and Maren as they read your comments on the episode, and get into the ongoing Versace/HIV debacle, sub sandwich heroes, and “the other sister.” (Not the 1999 Juliette Lewis movie)

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story Review: Manhunt (Season 2 Episode 2)

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story Season 2 Episode 2 “Manhunt” is disturbing, emotional, and compelling. It still is struggling with time jumps, but overall, “Manhunt” is really starting to show us who these characters are—for better or for worse.

On the premiere episode, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story “The Man Who Would be Vogue” (Season 2 Episode 1), I didn’t feel much of a connection with Donatella. However, on “Manhunt,” we see their close bond as well as some points of contention.

Donatella: What is Versace without you?

Gianni: It is you.

Donatella: And what am I without you?

Gianni: You will find out.

The look on Donatella’s face as she sees Gianni in the casket—wow. Seeing Donatella lose her composure is just heartbreaking.

On “Manhunt,” we get a glimpse into Gianni and Antonio’s relationship and see that American Crime Story is going with the theory that Gianni was HIV Positive. Donatella thinks that Antonio is to blame for her brother’s illness. These scenes provide more insight as to why Donatella has been so dismissive of him after Gianni’s death.

As Antonio points out, Gianni is not a saint. However, Antonio is enough for Gianni but is Gianni enough for Antonio?

The question is answered with a particularly sweet moment at the end of the episode where Gianni and Antonio kiss outside the nightclub and go home together. It’s also bittersweet because it won’t be long before Gianni is gunned down.

Meanwhile, we see Andrew in May 1997 as he hits the road towards Miami after stealing license plates in South Carolina. He is jubilant as he sings to “Gloria” and it’s hard to imagine that he has already killed four men.

In Miami, Andrew’s lies continue, and he makes a friend in Ronnie, an HIV positive addict who is also staying at the Normandy Hotel.

I find the scenes between Ronnie and Andrew to be really interesting. Andrew loves an audience and spinning tales of his life but Ronnie doesn’t completely buy it.

I also may have a tiny crush on Max Greenfield with his handlebar mustache.

There are a few scenes with Miami detectives and the FBI and we see how the FBI has already bungled up the investigation of Cunanan in Miami. They don’t distribute flyers, which is a huge mistake as pointed out when Andrew goes to the pawn shop and uses his own identification.

The pawn shop owner actually looks at a bulletin board of wanted men in the area.

Andrew Cunanan is not one of them.

They also don’t listen to Detective Lori Wieder who says that they should look at all the gay nightclubs, including Twist, which is where Andy ends up at the end of the episode. The FBI say that Andrew is probably hitting up old men in Fort Lauderdale.

That isn’t entirely inaccurate as Andrew goes back to an older man’s hotel room after meeting him on the beach. He’s a married CEO of a company and tells Andrew he can be submissive.

The following scene is incredibly disturbing as Andrew wraps the man’s face with duct tape and restricts his breathing and then dances around in the hotel room before straddling the man with a pair of scissors.

Darren Criss as Andrew Cunanan continues to amaze me.

The weakest part of “Manhunt” is the time jumps. The episode starts in 1994 with Versace being very sick. I didn’t mind this flashback because it shows the close relationship between Donatella and Gianni and then explains why Donatella doesn’t like Antonio.

It also shows that Gianni was once close to death but then managed to survive. It’s sad to know that he’ll be dead only a few years later.

The episode then jumps to May 1997, the day after Gianni’s murder in July 1997, a fashion show a few weeks before his death, and then some time in the months/weeks leading up to the murder while Andrew’s in Miami.

What was the point of seeing Andrew in South Carolina? It only showed us how strangely calm he is after he’s already committed a few murders.

And the Versace fashion show? It does show Donatella and Gianni butting heads, but I kind of think it’s purely so Gianni can talk about how life is beautiful.

It makes it all the sadder when his life ends so violently.

Overall, “Manhunt” is a riveting episode and I can tell how much I enjoyed it because I simply didn’t want it to end. The acting is incredible, the music is upbeat but oddly unsettling, and the subject matter is compelling.

Now, if The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story could only get their act together when it comes to timelines and flashbacks.

Reviewer Rating: 4½ / 5 Stars

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story Review: Manhunt (Season 2 Episode 2)

How Well Did This Show Re-create Versace Looks?

There was a lot of fashion to soak up in episode two of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, which aired Wednesday night on FX. In addition to seeing Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss) in a custom-made, teeny-tiny hot-pink Speedo, the costume department re-created eight nearly identical looks from Gianni Versace’s final runway show before his death, since Versace wouldn’t lend any vintage pieces for the filming.

Below, costume designer Lou Eyrich breaks down all the standout scenes.

THAT Hot-Pink Speedo

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The world first got a glimpse of Andrew Cunanan’s hot-pink Speedo bathing suit when actor Darren Criss shared a racy photo of it it on his personal Instagram account. But here it is in action. “We custom-made those,” said Eyrich. “Ryan [Murphy] wanted hot-pink Speedos. He’s very specific.”

Versace’s Last Runway Show

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The costume department’s team of tailors re-created eight looks from Atelier Versace’s fall 1997 show, which was Gianni’s last. In the episode, Gianni and Donatella get in an argument about casting models. Donatella, who is worried about the brand keeping up with names like Alexander McQueen and John Galliano, wants stick-thin girls in all-black. Meanwhile, Gianni wants to continue using his favorite supermodels like Naomi Campbell, dressing them in his now-signature color and shine.

“I want my models to look like they enjoy life,” says Gianni. “Like they eat, at least! Like they laugh; like they dance; like they make love. What do those girls enjoy?”

“Front covers?” Donatella retorts.

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“The script specified a distinction,” explained Eyrich, so they showed five looks of Donatella’s liking, and three of Gianni’s. Naomi Campbell closed the show as a shimmering bride in a scandalously short silver dress.

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This woman is “not a virgin bride” but a “Versace bride,” says Gianni. “She will be a woman who’s loved many men before. A woman who’s finally found her equal — a match for her passions. She won’t be dainty or timid; she will be proud and strong.”

In the end, Times critic Amy M. Spindler gave the collection a positive review.

In Da Club

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Gianni walks into Twist, a popular Miami club wearing an incredible, see-through lace shirt. “Less is more,” said Eyrich of the ’90s Miami nightlife look. “It was a lot of tank tops. A lot of shirtless men. Very sweaty, but also Ryan really wanted to show those Miami colors — that sizzle. It’s hot, hot heat. So there were a lot of short shorts and white jeans and flip-flops. Just very carefree, free-spirited lightness. A lot of skin and hot bodies.”

Cunanan was also at a Miami nightclub that night. When his dance partner asks what he does for a living, he replies, “I’m a serial killer,” with a smile.

How Well Did This Show Re-create Versace Looks?

THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE Review: “Manhunt”

“They say people who don’t have much more living to do come to live by the beach.“

Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss) arrived in Miami Beach, Florida in early May ‘97, having already murdered four people in the five weeks preceding his move. At the time, there was a nationwide manhunt for the twenty-seven-year-old spree killer, and a month later he made the FBI’s Most Wanted List. Upon arriving, he struck up a friendship with a local hustler, Ronnie (Max Greenfield), who was suffering from AIDS. Andrew began tricking – targeting older, wealthy men, while free-basing with his new partner in crime at a rundown roach motel. All the while, Andrew would buy disposable cameras and snap photos of Gianni Versace’s (Edgar Ramírez) mansion, telling Ronnie he knew the famous fashion mogul, and that they were even partners in San Francisco at one point (to which Ronnie would just shrug, knowing the kid was full of shit).

There were numerous instances where Cunanan was almost caught before putting two bullets in Versace on July 15, 1997. The FBI knew the shooter was headed to Miami Beach, and even alerted local authorities. However, when detectives offered to take FBI Agents Evans (Jay R. Ferguson) and Gruber (Christine Horn) on a tour of local gay night spots, and even help hang their B&W Most Wanted fliers, Evans waved off the invitation, instead wanting to canvas Ft. Lauderdale beaches for potential targets. Cunanan pawned a gold coin he took from the home of one of his victims using his real name and Miami address a week before murdering Gianni, but the shop owner (Cathy Moriarty) didn’t know it was him, because there was no photo hanging on her usual board of potentially suspicious clients. A deli cashier (Bobby Ray Cauley Jr.) called the cops when Cunanan ordered a soda, stating he’d seen the killer on America’s Most Wanted, but by the time patrolmen arrived on scene, Andrew was gone – disappeared into a local disco to dance the night away, a backpack with a pistol over his shoulder.

The Assassination of Gianni Versace’s second episode – playfully gifted the double entendre title "Manhunt” – goes to painstaking lengths to recreate, embellish and invent these scenarios, as Criss’ wide-eyed, hyper-focused performance continues to be the main focal point of American Crime Story Season Two. It wants us to know that this infamous murder could’ve easily been prevented if the FBI’s bumbling (or was it homophobia?) hadn’t been so blatant. Yet it also wants us to feel a deep sense of empathy for Cunanan, who is really nothing more than a lost boy in a great big world, trying to deal with the fact that nobody’s ever wanted him, and that his invented identity will always be preferable to the “faggot” the rest of society views him as. To be honest, if it weren’t for Criss – who truly is phenomenal and walks a fine line balancing both the sympathetic and sociopathic – the whole thing would collapse into a rather embarrassing set of stereotypes: the self-loathing queer who lies and kills because he just can’t stand himself.

Ryan Murphy being Ryan Murphy, there’s some grand exploitation thrown in, ostensibly just for good measure. “Manhunt” truly lives up to its name in a scene where Cunanan picks up a john (Robert Catrini) – a straight, white, rich businessman at the beach – who takes the killer back to his lavish hotel room for submissive sex. Cunanan duct tapes the man’s face closed – creating a sort of silver homemade gimp mask – and then dances around the room in a pink Speedo-style bathing suit to Phil Collins and Philip Bailey’s “Easy Lover” while his “client” writhes on the bed, unable to breathe. Just as it seems he’s about to suffocate, creating victim number five, the gigolo cuts a hole and allows his john to suck in some air. It’s a grotesque, harrowing scene reminiscent of Buffalo Bill tucking it back in The Silence of the Lambs(’91) before prancing about to Q Lazzarus’ “Goodbye Horses”.

Thankfully, this trashy, scandalous scene is made a bit more digestible by everything involving Gianni and his partner Antonio (Ricky Martin) that’s featured in this episode’s numerous flashbacks to ‘94, where Versace is receiving treatment for HIV. As salacious as the sexual content in The Assassination of Gianni Versace is, this melancholy portrait of a famous artist struggling with terminal illness is probably going to be the biggest point of contention for most viewers. The Versace family has long denied that Gianni was HIV positive when he was murdered in ’97, so using this possibly invented moment in his life as a jumping off point to explore both his sexual history with Antonio, along with his companion’s contentious relationship with Gianni’s sister Donatella (Penélope Cruz) is a brazen narrative conceit. Donatella views Antonio as just another pretty clinger sucking her beloved sibling dry while bringing nothing to the table, while the man passionately confesses his love for the mogul in private, and would seemingly do anything – including introducing multiple sexual partners into their bedroom – to please him.

So, why introduce the AIDS narrative if the Versaces deny it to be true? For starters, it plays into American Crime Story’s brand of both indulging the myths that surround these famous ’90s atrocities (see: nearly everything about Cuba Gooding Jr.’s performance as OJ Simpson in Season One), while simultaneously debunking them. One of the great falsehoods about Andrew Cunanan was that he too had AIDS, becoming part of his primary motivation for violently taking life. Writer Tom Rob Smith – working off Maureen Orth’s book Vulgar Favors – is also playing up the tragic resurgence of Versace, as he roared back to health after falling ill in ’94 and ’95, trying to reclaim his seat as the world’s most inspired designer (a throne that had been stolen by Alexander McQueen). The last six months of Gianni’s life saw him vigorously combating whatever was ailing him and espousing the notion of living life to its fullest while ceaselessly creating – an idea that’s channeled through a fictionalized backstage bit of bickering between Gianni and Donatella regarding the rather vapidly skinny texture of the models wearing his latest line. He doesn’t want sickly waifs, but women who look like they embrace existence.

This rather melodramatic mix of truth and provocation is what makes The Assassination of Gianni Versace so compelling (not to mention the show’s usually lush production design). The concoction is proving to be a rather potent mixture, creating this swooning, swirling air of unfortunate destiny in which these doomed figures all collide, storylines revolving around sex, violence and AIDS proving that the difference between fact and fiction is irrelevant when it’s all so goddamn gripping.

THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE Review: “Manhunt”

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story Episode 2 “Manhunt” Review

Episode 2, “Manhunt”, of FX’s ‘American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ from creator Ryan Murphy aired last night starring Edgar Ramirez, Penelope Cruz, Darren Criss and Ricky Martin. This is Murphy’s second foray into a true crime story fresh on the heels of the success of ‘American Crime Story: The People vs O.J. Simpson’. The show focuses on the murder of Gianni Versace as it turns the eyes of the world onto Miami Beach. | 25 January 2018