The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story | First impressions

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Coming after the second season after the highly praised first year, titled The People vs. OJ Simpson, American Crime Story back in 2016 became one of the best shows ever shown on TV. Created by Ryan Murphy, the series is produced in an anthology format, that is, each season ACS has a major crime that has caused shock to American society.

For these new episodes titled The Assassination of Gianni Versace, Murphy and his team assembled a well-known cast of Hollywood stars to tell a series of the events related to the death of the well-known stylist that happened in the 90’s. And the new season of ACS is based in the book Vulgar Favors, written by journalist of the magazine Vanity Fair, Maureen Orth . Tom Rob Smith (Hidden Crimes, 2015) writes the script for the first two episodes of the season, and we watched along with FOX Channel and we leave our first impressions here.

Known in the midst of fashion for his daring bets and of course for his parties at his Mansion, Gianni Versace was a well-known figure in Miami and the LGBT world. All this fame and notoriety attracted the attention of Andrew Cunanan , a serial killer who was already being chased by the FBI for the deaths of other people. And as previously announced, the plot already starts with the murder itself and The Murder of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story could not start in a more explosive way.

With a dazzling look and a really neat era characterization, ACS: Versace draws attention in its opening minutes for the glamor, the bright colors and the grandeur that Versace Mansion shows us. And of course the house represents well the figure of its owner and the image he wants to pass. And this is all the more accurate when the production manages to make a direct relation of how Cunanan lived and different from the life of his victim he had a much more modest.

As much as Edgar Ramirez succeeds in representing a Versace, with his head in the clouds, floating and vibrating basically at a different pace than other people, the actor manages to create a character who basically knows that Miami is his feet. Ramirez set the tone for Versace, but who really steals the scene is Darren Criss,like Cunanan. The representation of the serial killer is magnetic, impressive and really charming as the psychopath. Coming from Glee (also from Murphy), Criss shows off his seduction skills and engages everyone in his network of lies and the moment that actor opens his mouth to speak, the viewer is captured by the great job of characterizing the actor who actually shows for what came.

Penelope Cruz as Donatella Versace also manages to create a unique aura of the stylist’s sister and even with a loaded accent passes the feeling of loss, struggle but without such ferocity. When Cruz enters the scene, it seems that world stops and holds its breath to let the blonde character with her sunglasses dominate the environment. Ricky Martin, incredible as it may seem, is very much like Antonio D’Amico, Versace’s long-time partner, and his role has many more layers than we could imagine.

The Assassination of Gianni Versace shows in its first episodes that this new season will work much more on the issue of the psychology and motivations the events that united Gianni and Andrew on that quiet July morning in their tragic outcome. Darren Criss gives an engaging and powerful performance that promises to steal the scenes this season and in the next seasons of awards.

American Crime Story returns with full force to create a dramatic season and a more intense and detailed narrative. A great (and dangerous) adventure inside one of the most striking events of recent years and a series that can not be missed.

American Crime Story | Primeiras impressões de The Assassination of Gianni Versace

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After the first season of American Crime Story won nine Emmys and two Golden Globes for Ryan Murphy, the announcement of the second installment, titled The Assassination of Gianni Versace, came surrounded by the highest expectations. To the relief of fans, the first two chapters of the new phase of the anthology series are a good testament that the quality seen in the adaptation of the OJ Simpson trial will be maintained throughout the season, although significant narrative changes have been made. The plot, this time, follows the events that culminated in the death of fashion designer Gianni Versace by the hands of serial killer Andrew Cunanan in 1997 – the new episodes will debut on January 17th on FX .

There is a tone of grandeur throughout the first chapter: the scenes shot with drones inside the mansion where Gianni Versace actually lived, and where he was shot to death, conveys the feel of an established empire: the stylist is a king within his own Castle. There is luxury and priceless detail – Ryan Murphy was concerned with being faithful to the aesthetics of the second half of the 1990s, paying attention to points ranging from magazine covers to the period’s characteristic color palette. For those curious about the facts behind the production, the aerial scenes of the Versace mansion in Miami Beach show the property from every imaginable angle, highlighting the luxurious standard in which the stylist lived until the last days.

Early in the first two episodes, one thing becomes clear: Penelope Cruz is the best thing about The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. There was much anticipation about the work of the 2008 Oscar-winning actress by Vicky Cristina Barcelona in her first television performance. In the Murphy series, Cruz embodies Donatella Versace and the version created by the actress is as faithful as possible to what the world knows of the famous Italian stylist. In addition to the external adaptations such as makeup, hair and costumes – all impeccable – the most surprising is the body work and the strong, sometimes unintelligible accent employed in the scenes: Penélope Cruz speaks and walks like the most perfect copy of Donatella Versace.

The characterization work, in general, is exquisite. It is difficult to see Edgar Ramirez as the already tired Gianni Versace; Darren Criss physically resembles as much as possible the face of the young killer Andrew Cunanan. Even Ricky Martin’s version for Antonio D’Amico, Gianni’s longtime boyfriend, is convincing despite the huge aesthetic difference between the two. About the performances, the latter is more irregular. While Ramirez is handling the message, Puerto Rican star Ricky Martin sounds a little more apathetic than he should on some occasions that call for more energy. About Criss, the former Glee star has in his hands his most challenging role ever and seems to have everything in control: there are at least two moments in the two early chapters in which he dominates the scene, giving life to the disturbing psychopath.

To understand, of course, the reasons why the Versace family chose to try to reduce Murphy’s literary adaptation to a work of fiction – learn more – in all the interviews given on the subject: the first episodes already introduce some problematic dynamics within the family. It was never a secret, for example, that Donatella Versace and Antonio D’Amico had a troubled relationship and this, as was obviously expected, will be addressed by the series – the stylist has already said in an interview with the NY Times two years after the death of his brother who never liked D’Amico that she only respected him as Gianni’s boyfriend. Another point that the series touches throughout the season critically, in addition, of course, to homophobia, is the speculation of the death of a media icon: there are occasional criticisms of collective hysteria and the search to monetize situations such as of the base murder of the plot already in the initial episodes.

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story begins with the impact the series deserves. The second season probably will not make as much noise of the first, but it is quite likely that it will come back to signs of major television awards – Penelope Cruz has great potential to be a Sarah Paulson of the time, which led Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG Awards for Best Actress in a Miniseries or TV Movie for her performance in the first year of the series. There are considerable narrative differences that distance the first and second seasons, but instead of being harmful, they open new doors to attraction. In its second year, by all indications, American Crime Story will remain the icing on the cake of Ryan Murphy.

The Assassination of Gianni Versace will feature 10 episodes and premiere on January 17th on FX paid channel .

American Crime Story | Primeiras impressões de The Assassination of Gianni Versace

“The Assassination of Gianni Versace” Review: Darren Criss Kills It As Gay Serial Killer Andrew Cunanan

Let’s just get this out of the way upfront, since the comparison is inevitable: The Assassination of Gianni Versace doesn’t quite reach the heights of The People vs. O.J. Simpson. But so what?

The second season of FX’s American Crime Story was never going to be as richly textured as the first, if only because Simpson’s “trial of the century” was so much more significant as a cultural event. The verdict was a defining American moment, the kind where you remember where you were when you heard it. So through no fault of its own, Versace never really stood a chance against its Emmy-winning ACS sibling. And yet, on its own merits, Versace makes for addictive, phenomenal television. I was hooked from the opening scene, in which director Ryan Murphy and series writer Tom Rob Smith dispense with the titular murder, getting it out of the way early before working their way backwards, tracing how this tragic crime came to pass.

Much like how the first season of ACS wasn’t really about O.J. Simpson, neither is the second season really about Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace. Instead, it inverts the first season’s formula and shifts its focus from the courtroom to the crime spree and the man behind it, Andrew Cunanan. This creative choice isn’t necessarily what I was expecting given Versace‘s marketing materials, which from the very start, have trumpeted the casting of Edgar Ramirez as Gianni and Penelope Cruz as Donatella. And yet it proves to be a wise decision, since to be honest, the power struggle within the House of Versace isn’t half as interesting as the walking question mark that is Cunanan.

So let’s talk about the actual star of the show, Darren Criss. I know Criss is a big TV star thanks to Murphy’s earlier hit Glee, and he has two million Twitter followers and he’s a very famous guy. But I’m a professional entertainment consumer and I’d never seen him in anything before (though I almost rented Girl Most Likely once), so as far as I was concerned, he felt completely new to me, as I imagine he will to a lot of people who didn’t watch Glee. I suspect that those who did watch it won’t recognize ‘Blaine’ once they see Criss covered in blood, a crazed look in his empty eyes. He’s simply excellent here as Cunanan, a gay serial killer in the vein of Matt Damon’s talented Mr. Ripley, but of course, this manipulative sociopath with a 147 IQ is hardly a work of fiction. Criss is absolutely chilling here, and there’s a haunting sadness to his carefully calibrated breakout performance. I can’t say enough about Criss’ work, which will force you to look at the actor in a completely different light.

As for Versace, he’s reduced to a supporting character in his own story, not that I’m arguing, given how satisfying all of the Cunanan scenes are. In fact, the episodes that solely focus on Andrew are the best of the bunch, and the Versace thread tends to interrupt their momentum. Ramirez is magnetic as the formidable fashion designer, but he also plays Versace with a certain softness that serves as a nice antidote to Cunanan’s craziness. You really believe Ramirez and Cruz could be siblings when Gianni and Donatella spar over her role in his budding empire. You can see Donatella is tired of living in her brother’s shadow and eager to carve out her own identity within the fashion world, and Gianni sees this as well, offering her up to the cameras in an attempt to placate her ego. Ricky Martin plays the third wheel of this co-dependent relationship, Gianni’s longtime partner Antonio D’Amico, and while the pop singer does a fine job, their relationship is just dressing on the Cunanan salad.

The series endeavors to depict Versace and Cunanan as two men on opposite ends of a spectrum. Versace came from nothing and built his life into something of meaning. Cunanan had a reasonably happy childhood, and yet, his life quickly fell apart once he struck out on his own. That parallel is reflected in one of the episode titles, “Creator/Destroyer,” which presents the men as two sides of the same ruthlessly ambitious coin. The difference between them is that while Cunanan desperately wanted to lead the life of luxury that Versace enjoyed and most people only read about in magazines, he wasn’t willing to put in any of the hard work to actually earn it.

Cunanan may have been added to the FBI’s Most Wanted list prior to the Versace murder, but he didn’t become infamous until he killed the fashion designer, relegating the rest of his victims to “other” status. That’s how they’re initially presented, too, since we don’t get to know what these people meant to Andrew until after we’ve learned he’s killed them, so it’s not until later that we come to understand how and why Cunanan could’ve done what he did. That’s if you can understand the killer’s warped thinking to begin with, given his knack for telling tall tales. The more lies Cunanan tells his friends, the more we realize he’s lying to himself, and he has no idea of who he really is anymore. He has lost his own sense of identity, drifting from one to the next as he zigzags his way across the country towards Versace’s opulent home in South Beach. For Cunanan, the greatest sin is to be boring and forgotten. Told all his life that he’s someone special, he’s stunned when others don’t see it, and Criss plays those moments of rejection quite beautifully.

The fourth episode of the season introduces Cunanan’s former lover, David Madson (hugely talented Australian actor Cody Fern, a real find) and David’s current beau, Jeffrey Trail (AHS alum Finn Wittrock), and you can’t underestimate their roles in this story, as the latter was Andrew’s first victim, the one who launched his multi-state crime spree. Trail gets his own half-episode (pointedly titled “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”) dedicated to the (mis)treatment of gays in the military, and while this statement of a subplot adds some context to how authorities (including the cops chasing Cunanan) regarded homosexuals 25 years ago, it also feels a bit shoehorned in. Like, what does this really have to do with Versace or Cunanan? ACS tries to make that connection, using cultural homophobia to explain law enforcement’s delayed search for Cunanan, but it feels a bit forced, though it’s clearly something that interested Murphy in the first place.

Versace is much more successful when it drills down into who Cunanan is, at least as much as one can, given the fact that the guy was a complete cypher of an human being — a gifted chameleon, if you will. A people pleaser, he could be whatever, and whoever, his friends/lovers/targets wanted him to be. That was his skill, if you will. The ability to adapt to any situation… though he also had a need for control. He cared how things looked to other people, and what they thought of him. Of course, to fully understand a man, you have to know where he comes from, and the series soars when it turns its lens on Andrew’s family, particularly his father, Modesto. Filipino actor Jon Jon Briones is utterly fantastic as Andrew’s father, who doted on his precocious child, whom he considered more special than his other kids. You can also see where Andrew might’ve learned his smooth-talking criminal behavior, as Modesto was a stockbroker who bilked people out of their money and abandoned his family when the feds came calling, fleeing back to the Philippines.

The rest of the cast is uniformly excellent from top to bottom. Mike Farrell and Judith Light are both incredible as slain Chicago real estate developer Lee Miglin and his wife, Marilyn. When Miglin’s body is discovered, no one has to tell her what happened — she knows right away, her worst fears confirmed. Edouard Holdener also deserves praise as young Andrew, and Max Greenfield is unrecognizable in the second episode, which offers a reminder of what he can do with the right part.

This disturbing character study is based on Maureen Orth’s book Vulgar Favors, and in addition to Murphy, its directors include Gwyneth Horder-Payton, Nelson Cragg, Daniel Minahan (check out his directorial debut Series 7: The Contenders) and Matt Bomer, though costumer designer Lou Eyrich and production designer Judy Becker deserve equal praise for their lavish contributions.

I might as well use this space to address the recent controversy surrounding the series, which according to the Versace family, is unauthorized and full of inaccuracies.

“The Versace family has neither authorized nor had any involvement whatsoever in the forthcoming TV series about the death of Mr. Gianni Versace,” the family said in a statement. “Since Versace did not authorize the book on which it is partly based nor has it taken part in the writing of the screenplay, this TV series should only be considered as a work of fiction.”

I completely appreciate why they would be concerned about the series’ depiction of Gianni, and particularly his health, I wouldn’t describe the series as a work of fiction, though I’d acknowledge that surely, there must be small fictions within the show. Still, I didn’t watch FX’s Simpson series like it was Ezra Edelman’s O.J. documentary, and I’m not taking The Assassination of Gianni Versace as gospel, either. Yes, it’s based on a bestselling non-fiction book, but as a regular viewer of crime shows, I’m fully aware that Tom Rob Smith is allowed some degree of artistic license in bringing that book to the small screen.

I imagine that can be hard to comprehend when you’re as close to the story as the Versace family is, but if they take a step back — and I don’t even know if they’ve actually seen the series they’ve been so quick to criticize — they’d see there’s really no reason to be concerned. Gianni is depicted as a strong leader, one aware of his mortality and a better man for it. The producers, and Ramirez especially, treat him with the utmost respect, and once the Versace family sees the full series, I think their biggest issue will be with how the show sort of manipulates the audience into having sympathy for Andrew, more than it will be about the depiction of Gianni, which is generous and loving.

“There’s always this question of when you’re making and writing this kind of material – you feel like you want to support the fundamental truths. And you are going to get some of the details wrong, or you’re going to have to fill in a gap at some point, where you don’t have access to the reality. I think the only way you are allowed to do that is if you’re supporting the bigger truth… I’m sure there are points where they could correct some of the smaller details, but I think the bigger picture is that this is a figure that we’re celebrating and a figure that we all fell in love with,” Smith said at FX’s TCA panel, noting that that ultimately, “the show is full of love for him.”

He isn’t lying, nor is trying to justify why Cunanan killed, as the fact that he was gay is ultimately besides the point. This show is about a guy who wanted what another man had but didn’t have the skills or tools to get it, so he figured the only way to achieve the immortality he craved was by robbing one of his icons of his mortality, thus ensuring both would live forever, together, in the annals of history. I don’t care how much of this actually happened and how much is artistic license on Smith’s part. All I care about is whether or not it’s entertaining, and on that front, Versace delivers.

This is a fascinating story about the making of a serial killer. A murderer finding his voice. It marks Tom Rob Smith as a major writer to watch, and Darren Criss as a force to be reckoned with. He delivers one of the most terrifying serial killer performance since Christian Bale starred in American Psycho, though Cunanan also reminded me, at times, of The Tooth Fairy from Manhunter and the serial killer in Copycat.

“You know, disgrace isn’t that bad, once you’ve settled into it,” Andrew tells one of his victims. Well Andrew Cunanan may go down in infamy as a disgrace, but The Assassination of Gianni Versace is anything but.

TB gives it an A.

“The Assassination of Gianni Versace” Review: Darren Criss Kills It As Gay Serial Killer Andrew Cunanan

TV Review: ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story’ on FX

Quite fittingly, “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” begins with a sequence that feels timeless. The opening scenes of the first episode, “The Man Who Would Be Vogue,” are nearly devoid of dialogue, scored instead with a lush, operatic adagio that is reminiscent of an opulent, bygone age. The characters are introduced in ways that feel particularly timeless too: Gianni Versace (Edgar Ramírez), lord of his domain, wakes up in his sumptuous Miami Beach mansion — an Italian, baroque confection of luxury, staffed by dozens of uniformed servants and tanned, handsome men. Versace is the type of guy who takes his morning OJ on a silver tray, before reclining by the pool for a pre-lunch constitutional. His life is an incarnation of Italianate decadence, in a way that transcends his own time — the ’90s — to borrow, effortlessly, from luxury of yore.

Outside his haven, though, another story is unfolding. Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss), a skinny, bespectacled kid with a nervous, wiry energy, is pacing on the beach, opening up his backpack to look at the weapon nestled inside. He wades into the ocean and screams into the waves — his struggle pitched at a level of drama that only strings in a minor key can deliver. In between the elements of sand and sea he is reduced to his most essential state: a man on the edge of the world. And then the inevitable happens, in a scene that is shot by director Ryan Murphy like a fateful collision: Cunanan shoots Versace right outside the gates of the mansion.

The piece is the Adagio in G Minor, as arranged by show composer Mac Quayle. That the work is a well-known piece of musical chicanery seems especially fitting — a work passed off as an early-18th-century fragment that mimics baroque composition but was instead written in the middle of the 20th. “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” tells the story of homophobia in the late ’90s through a modern-day lens, but like so much of creator Murphy’s work, it is also interested in erasing the boundaries between the present and the past, often by heightening the drama of both.

From the moment of Versace’s murder, “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” spools not forward but backward. In a brilliant device imperfectly rendered, every new episode of the show happens chronologically before the previous, in a “Memento”-style telling that is chasing some essential truth about its shapeshifting, mysterious killer. And for a show that has Gianni Versace’s name in the title, Ramírez’s (excellent) performance takes up much less real estate than the story of Andrew Cunanan — pathological liar, spree killer and terrifyingly effective con man, who killed himself before ever fully explaining his motives to the police. The FX series is based on Maureen Orth’s book “Vulgar Favors” — which emphasizes not just Cunanan’s path to the steps of Versace’s mansion but also how his manhunt was botched by the authorities, partly because of the simple fact that Cunanan was gay. But despite the law-and-order mechanics of the first season of “American Crime Story,” “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” opts for a story that emphasizes a titanic struggle of gay identity, ranging between the creative warmth of Versace, the corrosive shame of Cunanan’s earlier closeted victims and Cunanan’s own desperate striving. This isn’t a narrative about the mechanics of a trial, or even much about Versace himself, despite “American Crime Story’s” successful pedigree and this season’s subtitle. Rather, it takes the absence of details about Cunanan’s motivations and interprets a character from Orth’s framework.

The bulk of interpreting that character falls to writer Tom Rob Smith and actor Darren Criss, with mixed results. It’s hard to fault Criss for what is the most committed and impressive performance of his career, or Smith for assembling the facts about Cunanan into a narrative about the particular anxieties of gay identity in the ’90s. (Criss is practically born for this role: The actor, like Cunanan, is half Filipino.) It’s more that a murderer — particularly a murderer devoid of suspense, because we see him kill his most famous victim in the first scene — is a hard subject to extract eight hours of material from. That a creepy man will continue to be creepy — or that a scary man will continue to be scary — has a chilling effect for an audience investing in story. By the second time that Cunanan kills — which is, chronologically, the fourth time he kills — his presence in the home of Lee Miglin (Mike Farrell) has the heightened-strings suspense of a horror flick, complete with some of that genre’s fear-inducing editing. Criss may be doing the very best job he is capable of, but it’s hard to take the narrative of a budding murderer as anything more than suspense played for shock value when his sudden presence in a doorway, accompanied by sliding chords, has all the nuance of a jump scare.

More saliently, the heavy-handedness slows down the story — or belies the fact that compared to “The People v. O.J. Simpson,” “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” has much less story to tell. Where “The People v. O.J. Simpson” was a dense, fast-paced story unpacking several characters, “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” is fully Cunanan’s character drama, with meaningful but limited forays into the lives of his victims. And though this second installment is pursuing different goals, the difference between the two seasons is stark. Even their relationship to the truth is different: In the first, meticulous reporting still left the interpretation of the evidence to the audience, as the consumption of the murder trial became entertainment. In the second, the crime’s nature and perpetrator are known almost immediately, and though space is given to the investigation and the sensationalism around Versace’s death, it’s all secondary to the story’s interest in Cunanan’s development. Even the Versace family — including an impeccable Penélope Cruz as Donatella Versace and a strong performance from singer Ricky Martin as Versace’s boyfriend Antonio D’Amico — are sidelined to follow Cunanan’s journey. It’s difficult to swallow the bait-and-switch of the premise, if you’re not ready for it. Ramírez, Cruz and Martin are so compelling together that when the narrative veers steadily away from them — and their lush, high-fashion lives — it’s hard not to feel disappointed.

That being said, the inverted narrative presents a fascinating opportunity to examine Cunanan’s life as one that progresses into the closet, instead of emerging from it — and at its sharpest moments, the show is able to demonstrate how the spectrum of Criss, like other muses of creator Murphy, is coaxed to a career-defining performance in this role: Slippery, fabulating and mercurial, he’s a ’90s-era “Talented Mr. Ripley.” As we move backward through his life, we discover where his stories came from and how he built his worldview of resentment and entitlement. By the end of the season, our journey accelerates; we meet his broken mother, Mary Ann (Joanna Adler), and his unstable father, Modesto (Jon Jon Briones), which goes a long way toward explaining what Cunanan became. It’s worth noting that practically every performer in “American Crime Story” is stunning — whether that is Briones, Cruz, Judith Light (who plays Miglin’s widow, Marilyn) or Max Greenfield (who plays a Miami addict named Ronnie). Victims David Madson (Cody Fern) and Jeff Trail (Finn Wittrock) have some of the most tragic material to work with, and both in very different ways express a deeply rooted ambivalence toward their own homosexuality.

In the show’s interpretation, Cunanan and Versace are each other’s doppelgängers; the eighth (and penultimate) episode, “Creator/Destroyer,” presents the show’s implications in the title. In the duality between the two characters, “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” finds an externalization of the struggle of the gay identity: fabulous creation versus destructive shame. But the exploration of themes is hampered a bit by how little time Cunanan and Versace ever spend in the same space; one of their few scenes together in “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” takes place during a heroin dream. And because of the need to relate information comprehensively, several scenes in this season are not, actually, in reverse chronological order — which is a little unmooring, if you’re not paying close attention, and unravels some of the significance of the structure.

On the whole, “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” is not quite one for the history books like the first season of “American Crime Story” — if only because, perplexingly, all of its Italian characters are played by Latinx actors. The second installment of this anthology series hopes to do for homophobia what the first season did for racism — a lofty goal that is left unrealized, in the eight episodes sent to critics. But with an array of fantastic performances and an eye to exploring the complexity of contemporary queerness, “American Crime Story” has produced another interesting history play to chew on — one with a lingering, intriguing aftertaste.

TV Review: ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story’ on FX

As Controversy Mounts Over Versace Crime Story, Is it Legal?

Gianni Versace was gunned down on the steps of his Miami Beach mansion in July 1997 by serial killer Andrew Cunanan. Now, just over 20 years after the shocking tragedy, FX is building upon its award-winning American Crime Story series with “The Assassination of Gianni Versace,” a 9-episode take on “the takedown of the day’s most famous fashion designer.” While the network states that the series is “inspired by actual events,” the Versace family has unequivocally called foul … more than once.

A statement from the Italian clan released on Monday reads, “The Versace family has neither authorized nor had any involvement whatsoever in the forthcoming TV series about the death of Mr. Gianni Versace.“

The family, which clearly wants nothing to do with the impending series, further stated that since it did not authorize the book from which the FX series is partly drawn or participate in the writing of the screenplay, “This TV series should only be considered as a work of fiction.”

A subsequent declaration from the Versaces, released on Wednesday, proclaims: "Gianni Versace was a brave and honest man. Of all the possible portrayals of his life and legacy, it is sad and reprehensible that the producers have chosen to present the distorted and bogus version ”

Regardless of an absence of Versace-authorization for the book upon which the series is based – Maureen Orth’s 2000 title Vulgar Favors: Andrew Cunanan, Gianni Versace, and the Largest Failed Manhunt in U.S. History – and in lieu of cooperation from the Versaces for the FX series (as indicated by their not one – but two – statements on the matter), the much-anticipated series has a fast-approaching debut date: January 17.

Much has been made of the series thus far; from the casting (Edgar Ramirez as Versace, Darren Criss as Cunanan and Penelope Cruz as Donatella Versace; Cruz says she had a “had a long conversation” with Ms. Versace prior to accepting the role) to the lack of casting (Donatella’s daughter Allegra will not be depicted; she was reportedly removed after demands from Donatella).

However, what has not been discussed, particularly in light of what appears to be increasing animosity from the Versace camp, is the legality of such an unauthorized rendition of the life and death of Gianni Versace.

Is This Legal?

Given the family’s bold statements distancing itself from the soon-to-air series, you may be asking, how – exactly – were writer and executive producer Tom Rob Smith and director/producer Ryan Murphy able to pull this off, legally? How were they able to avoid anticipatory litigation from the Versace family in an attempt to block the making of the series? And how are they not facing a lawsuit now after the series has been preliminarily viewed and reviewed by the press?

The answer is relatively simple (or as simple as the law can ever really be): The First Amendment, the constitutional doctrine that declares that “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.”

In much the same way as authorized or unauthorized biographies enjoy strong First Amendment protections in the U.S., so, too, do biographic television or film works. These protections provide a publisher (or television network) with the ability to disseminate “newsworthy” material, including“entertainment materials concerning interesting aspects of a well-known individual’s identity,” as long as there is a reasonable relationship between the person’s identity and the subject of the story. First Amendment protections tend to be so strong that even “the famous Vietnam-era Pentagon Papers case failed though the government asserted that publication of the Defense Department’s documents jeopardized national security,” per the Chicago Tribune.

While we do not have a U.S. military-level case on our hands, of course, we have matter of “public interest,” since the late Mr. Versace was certainly a public figure, and as professor Brian L. Frye of the UK College of Law in Kentucky tells TFL, “Even a quasi-news docudrama is the kind of factual reporting that states cannot prohibit without running afoul of the First amendment.”

Frye notes that “the fact that the series is ‘unauthorized’ is just irrelevant. While people like to talk about acquiring ‘life rights’ [to portray someone in film or television], there is really no such thing.“ This is really just "an agreement not to sue for defamation,” per Frye, which is also irrelevant here since “you cannot defame a dead person.”

In any case, Frye says, “Gianni Versace was surely a public figure, especially in this context, so [the Versace family] would have to show knowing falsehood [on behalf of FX to prevail on such a claim].” The likelihood of that? Slim at best, given to “heavily researched and authenticated” nature of Orth’s book, according to a joint statement from producers Fox 21 Television Studios and FX Productions.

Right of Publicity?

Where the Versace family could fins some luck in toppling the FX series is in a right of publicity claim, according to Frye. The right of publicity is a legal doctrine that gives individuals – or their estates, in some states (such as Florida), if the individual at issue is deceased – considerable exclusive control over the commercial use of their name, likeness and other identity attributes. As for how strong of a case the Versace clan has here, it is probably slim, at best.

First of all, in order to make a case for a right of publicity violation, the use at issue must be “commercial” – i.e. an effort solely to sell a product or a service. This is distinct from an “editorial” or “literary” use. As a result, "writers can write, and film makers are free to make movies about historical figures and events without violating the publicity rights of the subjects,” states First Amendment/media attorney Jack Greiner.

And this is exactly what is at play here. As Frye points out, “Versace is the subject of this series, not a vehicle for endorsing it,” which is relevant because one of the core aims of right of publicity laws (which vary by state) is to guard famous individuals from having their identities or likenesses used to sell or promote a product or service without their authorization.

With this in mind, FindLaw aptly notes that even these publicity rights are trumped by the First Amendment. “Unauthorized biographies [and their on-screen counterparts] are protected by the First Amendment because the right of publicity cannot be used to stifle undesired discussion and legitimate commentary on the lives of public persons.”

After all, without such protections, Greiner posits, "How would anyone write a book or a film in any way critical of anyone if the author had to obtain the subject’s permission before publication?”

This is all to say that if the Versace family does not like the theme – or treatment – of the subject of its latest installation of the American Crime Story series, they do not have to watch it.

As Controversy Mounts Over Versace Crime Story, Is it Legal?

The Men at the Assassination of Gianni Versace Premiere Were as Ridiculously Well-Dressed as You’d Expect

If January’s relentless cold has you feeling like staying in every night, the silver lining is that there is plenty of irresistible TV to consume right now—like the The Bachelor, Black Mirror, and soon enough, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. The cast attended the premiere of the show in Los Angeles yesterday and while none actually wore Versace (the family doesn’t approve), they certainly nodded in that direction with their clothes. Penelope Cruz wore a red velvet number by Stella McCartney that was very high on drama, and the men? Well, they brought just as much going-out flavor to the table. But it worked. Really well, in fact. It’s almost enough to make you want to start going out again. Almost. Here’s what they wore and why we liked it.

Jewel Tones

Edgar Ramirez and Finn Wittrock doubled down on deep, dark, slightly mysterious color, and wisely kept their accessories to a minimum. And they did this in two different, equally sound ways. Ramirez stuck with one color, varying up the hues in his tie and shoes so nothing felt too matchy-matchy. Wittrock, meanwhile, mixed two almost-black tones for the slickest spin on color-blocking ever.

Turtleneck Knits

GQ creative director-at-large Jim Moore will be the first man to tell you: the black turtleneck is the easiest way to upgrade any suit. Here, Matt Bomer shows a sophisticated way to wear the Gianni Versace-approved staple, while Darren Criss turned up the volume with an abstract floral jacket.

Fluid Fabrics

Don’t have the cash for a burgundy suit, or the…gravitas to pull off a black turtleneck? Allow Harris Dickinson (who isn’t in the show but is a style up-and-comer we’ve had our eye on) and Ricky Martin (definitely in the show) to present a third option for looking fly on your next night out: adding some beach-weight fabric to your look. If you’re under 35 make it a breezy printed shirt like Dickinson, if you’re over 45 make it a sophisticated evening scarf like Martin.

The Men at the Assassination of Gianni Versace Premiere Were as Ridiculously Well-Dressed as You’d Expect

Darren Criss Is the Season’s New Song + Dance Serial Killer

dcriss-archive:

Turns out, you don’t need to be of the screen or stage to be an actor. Case in point: Andrew Cunanan. In the pilot of FX’s “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” alone, we see the 27-year-old slip in and out of elaborate personae and biographical fabrications like a Versace model changing before the runway. Was Cunanan really warding off Gianni Versace’s advances at a San Francisco club in 1990 (as he tells his friends), or was he the young stranger groveling for the fashion designer’s attention with boldfaced flattery and stories of the old country? Did he really work on his military pilot father’s pineapple plantation in the Philippines before moving to America for “the very best education” money could buy, or was he, as showrunner Ryan Murphy tells it, abused as a child and “groomed to inhabit this ‘American Dream’ that in his own family turned out to be a huge lie”?

While we now know the latter of both cases to be true, Cunanan wore his stories well, fooling Versace and others he encountered along the way. “I tell people what they need to hear,” he tells a male lover in the series’ first hour with chilling matter-of-factness.

Even Darren Criss, who stars as Cunanan in Season 2 of the Emmys-sweeping true crime anthology series, can’t help but admit that Cunanan’s innovation at times rivaled that of the fashion mogul’s. “[The show has] done a really good job of paralleling these two brilliant men, who are for obvious reasons very different,” Criss says. “Brilliance takes all shapes and sizes, and execution—no pun intended—varies and changes.”

The fact that a character like Cunanan was also a sociopathic spree killer—best known for assassinating Versace in 1997 before taking his own life a week later—is just the cherry on top of the young actor’s most formidable and emotionally demanding role yet.

Cunanan’s murderous tendencies aside, his gift for storytelling is mirrored in the man playing him. During a December interview over coffee in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood, Criss peppers in asides: “That’s a whole other story in and of itself” or “That’s a whole other hour, we won’t go there.” But the thing is, Criss—especially for actors—has quite the story to tell.

As a talent who rose from “Harry Potter” parody fame to become a standout supporter on “Glee,” a replacement in Broadway’s “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” and “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” and now a leading role on what he admits is “a pretty hot show [with] a lot of buzz attached to it,” the first piece of advice Criss has for any actor is to embrace an entrepreneurial spirit. He began his career in his native San Francisco at a very young age, first performing professionally at age 10 at the locally esteemed 42nd Street Moon theater company and as part of the American Conservatory Theater’s Young Conservatory program.

“That, to me, was where it all kind of got fostered,” he says. “And of course I did high school theater. The real backbone is high school theater.” (One of his favorite talking points with a new acquaintance is “[Tell me] what shows you were in, and I’ll try to guess what parts you played.” It’s a game he quickly proves adept at over the course of our meeting.)

Criss’ acting roots took him to the University of Michigan, where he received his BFA in theater performance—and by his senior year, fans were recognizing him on the street for an extracurricular student project gone viral. Featuring music and lyrics by Criss and A.J. Holmes, “A Very Potter Musical” was a comedic riff on J.K. Rowling’s beloved fantasy series that starred Criss as the titular teen wizard. It began as the sort of one-off “silly shit” that many a musically inclined theater student might create in his four years on campus. But when filmed in the university’s black box theater and pushed online at the advent of social media, “A Very Potter Musical” became somewhat of a subculture phenomenon among fans of the magical franchise.

“That’s kind of what changed everything, because after graduating, this thing that was just a fun story that we did our senior year became immortalized on an alternate platform,” Criss says. “That small, scrappy thing took on a life of its own, and from the unexpected success of that show, we became a theater company.” Founded in 2009 and set on “creating accessible, quality theater for the modern era,” StarKid Productions exists in Chicago’s vibrant theater scene to this day.

“It was the first point that anybody had acknowledged something that I had done without knowing me in a personal way,” Criss recalls. “It was my first brush with ‘being known.’ ”

While a desire for fame or recognition hardly seems of high value for Criss (“I take my work very seriously, but I don’t take myself seriously at all”), it’s a push-pull relationship between the public and private that certainly informed his take on Cunanan. Versace’s killer was obsessed with the rich and famous and had dreams of making his own way into society’s upper echelons. All of his lies were intended to make him appear better than he was. Within that, there was an underlying desperation to every move he made. “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” is in part meant to explore how that desperation came to be.

“I wasn’t interested in doing the boogeyman serial killer,” Murphy says by phone. “Cunanan was not a person who tortured pets and animals as a child. So the question is, then, how did he become a psychopath?”

The No. 1 question people ask Criss about playing Cunanan also comes back to its natural, psychopathic emotional heft: “Is it crazy to be in a dark place?” While the role does require a certain level of brutality and psychiatric unease, the actor has two things to say to that. First is that it’s “no crazier than being a cisgender, heterosexual 20-something playing a gay singing teenager,” as he did on Fox’s “Glee,” also from Murphy. In other words, he’s embodying a character. “I’m not playing myself,” he says, “but you have access to emotions that those people go through, and you find as many common denominators as possible.” And second is that we all may be surprised by Cunanan’s less obvious, more human characteristics.

“We know Andrew was made famous by horrible things, but we don’t really know a lot about his life and who he was,” Criss says. “He was a really joyous, likable, affable, energetic young man…. You really question at what point could this have been you or any of us or anybody we know and love? Are we as awful as the worst thing we’ve ever done?”

Upon a bit of self-reflection, Criss says it’s that ever-present dichotomy of right and wrong, friend and foe, that keeps him acting in the first place.

“That’s probably why I like acting so much: It bends people’s sense of empathy for the human experience,” he says. “I’m excited for people to experience something [with this show]. I don’t think people really know what’s coming, and that excites me endlessly.”

Something New

Darren Criss insists that despite his credits, he “kind of fell into musical theater by bizarre providence” and that he still views himself as “the actor who sings, not the singer who acts.” That made the opportunity to tap into the psyche of a murderer for nine hours of prestige TV all the more appealing. Ryan Murphy, for one, knew Criss had it in him all along. “The only person in the world who could play Andrew Cunanan is Darren Criss,” the creator says. “For several reasons: One is the obvious correct ethnicity. I thought that was very important to get that right. It would be a disservice to cast an Italian-American as a Filipino-American. But the other thing that was important to me is that I knew that it was going to be a very big, Shakespearean role. I don’t think that there’s going to be a bigger role on television next year in terms of difficulty. It’s him going through the deepest sociopathic impulses and emotional problems. I just thought that Darren is prime. He’s just turning 30 [and] I think that he’s ready to graduate to more difficult material and really try something hard…. I think people will be surprised and startled by his performance and excited because it’s the announcement of something new in his life.”

Darren Criss Is the Season’s New Song + Dance Serial Killer

Versace Family Slams ‘American Crime Story’ in Second Statement

The Versace family has issued a second statement in response to the upcoming season of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story.

The family first issued a statement earlier in the week, breaking their silence on the portrayal of Gianni Versace‘s murder. FX responded with their own statement.

“As we have said, the Versace family has neither authorized nor had any involvement whatsoever in the forthcoming TV series about the death of Mr. Gianni Versace, which should only be considered as a work of fiction. The company producing the series claims it is relying on a book by Maureen Orth, but the Orth book itself is full of gossip and speculation. Orth never received any information from the Versace family and she has no basis to make claims about the intimate personal life of Gianni Versace or other family members. Instead, in her effort to create a sensational story, she presents second-hand hearsay that is full of contradictions,” the statement, provided to Just Jared, began. “As just one example, Orth makes assertions about Gianni Versace’s medical condition based on a person who claims he reviewed a post-mortem test result, but she admits it would have been illegal for the person to have reviewed the report in the first place (if it existed at all). In making her lurid claims, she ignores contrary information provided by members of Mr. Versace’s family, who lived and worked closely with him and were in the best position to know the facts of his life.”

“Gianni Versace was a brave and honest man, who engaged in humanitarian work for the benefit of others. Of all the possible portrayals of his life and legacy, it is sad and reprehensible that the producers have chosen to present the distorted and bogus version created by Maureen Orth. The Versace family will issue no further comment on the matter,” the statement concluded.

Versace – starring Edgar Ramirez, Penelope Cruz, Darren Criss, and Ricky Martin – premieres on FX on January 17.

Versace Family Slams ‘American Crime Story’ in Second Statement

Jeff Simon: A few words about Versace, O.J. and Oprah

The second season of FX’s “American Crime Story” is called “The Assassination of Gianni Versace.” The first was the smash hit and award season bonanza “The People Vs. O.J. Simpson.”

Versace begins at 10 p.m. Jan. 17.

It confronts a specific period’s homophobia directly in a way that, despite the geometrically progressing acceleration of the subject everywhere, is still not all that common. Which is why, in its way, some will see it as brave, even now when gay subject matter has been routine for decades all over television.

But that is the whole point of Ryan Murphy’s “American Crime Story” this time around.

The nine-part limited series is based on the 2008 book “Vulgar Favors: Gianni Versace and the Largest Failed Manhunt in U.S. History” by Maureen Orth, the brilliant Vanity Fair reporter who is the widow of Tim Russert and the mother of Luke Russert.

Versace was murdered in 1997 in front of his Miami Estate by the disturbed serial killer Andrew Cunanan who, said Orth recently at a New York screening, “wanted to be everything Versace was but he wasn’t willing to do the work for it. The idea that he was willing to kill for fame – there’s a line from there to getting famous on a sex tape like the Kardashians down to becoming president of the United States because you’re a reality TV star.”

Cunanan’s killing for fame seems more than a little related to the motivations of Mark David Chapman’s murder of John Lennon.

If you read about that advance presentation in a New York theater, you come up with what sounds like a mission statement from Murphy that seems at odds with Orth’s tough social and media criticism.

Says Murphy “We’re trying to understand the psychology of someone who could be drawn to do those deeds.”

The trouble, of course, is that there is an immense difference between the amount of fame possessed by Versace, even at his “designer to the stars” zenith, and Simpson, even during the lowest point of America’s public obsession with his wife’s savage murder.

That too, is related to the relative lack of passion in investigation of crimes in the LGBT community. At its base though, we’re talking about the apogee of fame that can be achieved by a fashion designer, however ubiquitous his clients, compared to that achieved by a great football star, decent sportscaster, commercial spokesman and playful comic actor.

O.J. was in American living rooms and bedrooms running through airports while little old ladies shouted “Go, O.J. go.” If Versace had been in nightly TV commercials, things would have been different. What we see in the opening minutes of the new Versace series is a picture opposite to that of a populist American hero. Murphy’s “Versace,” in that opening episode, is nothing so much as a late-20th century version of a Venetian prince up to his receded hairline in impossible luxury. The act of waking up in the morning and being served his morning orange juice seems to epitomize the luxury of a Medici.

Even so we’re talking about about American fame on a vastly lower level than O.J., even before the obsession with the murder and trial began.

And that makes “Versace’s” decision to tell its tale the way it does almost fatal. It eventually gets very interesting. But it takes a while. It isn’t easy to stick with it. There’s no question that the figure who should command attention is his killer, with all his crimes and his pathology.

But its very title and its opening episode concentrate on what it presumes to be its chief appeal: the celebrity fashion designer so tragically murdered and the subsequent complexity of the fight over his business.

Whatever it made as a Vanity Fair story or book, it seems a good deal less on television.

The first thing we see is Edgar Ramirez, as Versace, living in sensual Miami luxury contrasted with the murderous stalking and psychological instability of Cunanan.

You don’t get to the juicy subjects the series concerns until you’ve gotten rid of the crime itself which didn’t begin to obsess America the way Nicole Brown Simpson’s and Ron Goldman’s murders did.

Murphy is a fascinating figure in American television, an authentic gay grandee provocateur of the medium. He’s reported himself gay since high school and much of what he does is saturated with gay themes and what some would decorously call “camp” concerns (“Feud”). His new series “9-1-1” began, on its opening night, with the husband of the character played by Angela Bassett telling his two sons at breakfast that he has, in middle age, figured out that he was gay.

What bowls almost everyone over about Murphy is his extraordinary success at casting his productions. Even his new “9-1-1” series stars Bassett, Peter Krause and Connie Britton which is a terrific cast for something that is little more than a 21st century version of the old TV series “Emergency” (which Michael Arlen once wittily called “training television” for children).

The casting of “The People Vs. O. J. Simpson” was little short of sensational even before anyone got a look at the thing. And then it became legendary no matter how debatable – Cuba Gooding Jr. as O.J., John Travolta as Robert Shapiro, Courtney B. Vance as Johnnie Cochran, Nathan Lane as F. Lee Bailey, Sarah Paulson as Marcia Clarke and Sterling K. Brown as Christopher Darden. That cast received awards and acclaim all over the place. It remains one of the best casts ever assembled for a TV drama.

And yet another reason why the newest follow up in Murphy’s “American Crime Story” series is nothing if not a disappointment.

Jeff Simon: A few words about Versace, O.J. and Oprah

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ Premiere Draws Ricky Martin, Penelope Cruz

Ricky Martin, Penelope Cruz, Edgar Ramirez and Darren Criss, stepped out at the premiere of their new series, “The Assassination of Gianni Versace,” the second installment of Ryan Murphy’s “American Crime Story” franchise. While the Versace family recently released a statement denouncing the project as “a work of fiction,” Murphy was quick to mention that Cruz had received a kind gesture from her onscreen alter ego. “Donatella Versace sent Penelope Cruz a huge arrangement of flowers yesterday,” he shared.

“It was very nice,” said Cruz, who stars as Donatella in the nine-episode series, which debuts Jan. 17 on FX. “I don’t know if she has seen [any episodes yet], but it’s a personal thing. For me, it really made me smile. It made me happy.” The actress said she admires Donatella’s passion and success in running an empire. “She had to do that in a moment when she was devastated and she proved to be strong. That was a very generous thing to do because I’m sure she did it also for him.”

“Look, maybe it will be too painful for her to [watch], but I think we treat her with a lot of respect and dignity,” added Murphy. “I really admire Donatella — like I really admire Marcia Clark. I think Donatella Versace was a woman who, out of the blue, was asked to carry on a billion-dollar company and keep her family business going and intact and was up against a board of directors and lawyers who were all men and were trying to tell her something contrary to what she wanted to do. I really admire what she was able to do and continues to do.”

Cruz said she spoke with Donatella in advance of filming. “We had a long conversation when Ryan offered me the part,” said Cruz. “I needed to talk to her about it before I moved forward.” Once she accepted the role, Cruz prepared by combing through interviews with Donatella on YouTube in order “to capture the essence of this wonderful woman.”

Ramirez plays the role of Gianni Versace. “It’s such a great opportunity and such a great privilege to step into the shoes of one of the most creative minds of the 20th century,” said Ramirez, who wore prosthetics as part of his physical transformation. “He’s a genius that affected culture and changed it. Gianni was a disruptor. Gianni did things that no one else had done before….He was the designer of his time and for me that’s incredible to play.”

While Ramirez spoke with a few of the late designer’s friends to prepare, he didn’t read Maureen Orth’s “Vulgar Favors: Andrew Cunanan, Gianni Versace and the Largest Failed Manhunt in U.S. History,” the book upon which the show is based. “Andrew Cunanan has nothing to do with his life,” he explained. “He has to do with his death, so I wasn’t interested in Andrew Cunanan. I didn’t want to put those ideas in my head.”

Criss was tasked with tackling the role of serial killer Cunanan. “I feel like I made varsity,” Criss said of being cast on the show. “I get to be on an FX show, another Ryan Murphy show. The fact that it’s a second season for a show whose stripes are already proven in quality and content. Then I get to be in a project that has a character that is extremely compelling and is an actor’s dream to work on — not because of it’s darkness or the violence that it involves but because of the colors of emotional arcs that he carries with him. And on top of that let’s not forget the bonus that I get to hang out with a bunch of movie stars which is certainly a thrill. My head explodes a little bit [when I talk about it] and it did every day going to work. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

Murphy said that the project features his dream cast. “They were all my first choices,” he shared, adding that, despite rumors, Lady Gaga was never in the running for the role. “She was never available. She was doing ‘A Star Is Born’ when we were casting it.” Murphy added, “I always wanted to work with Penelope. I liked that she was friendly with and knew Donatella very well. I’ve been friends with Penelope for almost 10 years and I’ve always wanted to work with her, but we could never find the right piece or the right timing. Finally this worked.”

Famous guest stars include Max Greenfield, Finn Wittrock, Michael Nouri and Judith Light, the latter of whom wore Christian Siriano to the premiere. “I remember hearing the news,” said Light, who appears on the third episode as Marilyn Miglin, a powerful businesswoman whose husband is murdered. “My parents were living in Florida at the time and they lived in Pompano Beach, which is near Miami. He was iconic and it was shocking — how this could have happened when there were so many things that fell by the wayside.”

Beyond the headlines, Murphy said the project is, at its core, “about something I lived through which was homophobia in the Nineties and the trickle-down effect of ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ in our country. I also think it’s about great beauty and great destruction and it answers the question, ‘How does one person become a murderer?’ And how does another person become a creative genius? Both things don’t just happen, so we examine that.”

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ Premiere Draws Ricky Martin, Penelope Cruz