‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story’ Finale Recap: The End of Andrew Cunanan

The second season of American Crime Story ends where it began, with the titular assassination of Gianni Versace. After going back in time throughout Andrew’s life, the finale returns to Florida with Andrew on the run from the FBI, stuck watching his own life’s story play out on the news.

In many ways, this season can be split into three parts. There are the first two episodes and this finale, all about Versace in Florida and the manhunt for Andrew Cuanan. Then we had the third, fourth and fifth episodes, all about the start of the killing spree with Jeff Trail, David Madson and Lee Miglin. Then we had the past three episodes, all about Andrew’s psychology from his childhood to his rise and fall.

Andrew on the Run

After a seven-episode detour in time, from Chicago and Minneapolis to California and the Philippines, the finale takes us back to July 15, 1997 in Miami Beach, the day of the assassination of Gianni Versace. We see the murder again, then at night Andrew breaks into a houseboat and watches the news reports where he has been identified as the prime suspect. Andrew seems pleased with himself and laughs at the speculation that the murder was a hit ordered by the Italian mob.

The next morning he steals a car and tries to flee, but there are police checkpoints everywhere so he’s stuck on the houseboat, reduced to digging through the trash for scraps and even attempting to eat dog food.

Meanwhile, the FBI questions Ronnie (Max Greenfield), who gets snarky with the police about how they didn’t care about Andrew’s killing spree until he murdered a celebrity. He claims that society was disgusted by Andrew because he’s gay long before he started killing anyone and now Andrew isn’t hiding, he’s trying to be seen.

Andrew Cunanan, This Is Your Life

Most of the episode focuses on Andrew watching the news, offering a glimpse at his own life and what his story will be. He seems happy to have his name linked with Versace’s, but less pleased by the rest. His mom is being questioned by police and harassed by reporters. His best friend Lizzie begs Andrew to turn himself in because she knows how much he cares about what other people think of him.

A report about David Madson’s father defending his son as a victim seems to enrage Andrew, a reminder of the life he dreamed about having that ended in tragedy.

Andrew also sees Marilyn Miglin, marking the return of the best part of this series, Judith Light. She is in Tampa for an appearance on the home shopping channel, talking about her father dying when she was young and how that impacted her, forcing her to get a job and work hard. She talks about wanting to go back in time and tell her younger self how special she was. This seems to resonate with Andrew and he resents the fact that Marilyn is now successful but he isn’t.

Andrew has an emotional breakdown and calls his dad in the Philippines. Pete is profiting from the interviews he’s doing because his son is in the news. Andrew cries and begs his dad for help. Pete asks where he is and promises that he’ll fly right over to help him.

The next night Andrew sees his dad on the news, saying that his son is not gay. He adds that they talk regularly and Andrew is too smart to get caught by the cops, saying that he’s talking to Hollywood about selling the movie rights to Andrew’s life story. Andrew is furious that is dad is selling him out like this and he shoots the TV.

Gianni’s Funeral

The show jumps to Italy a week after the murder. Antonio and Donatella are preparing for Gianni’s funeral. He wants to spend his days at one of Gianni’s Italian homes to stay close to him, but Donetlla informs him that the homes are all owned by the company, effectively leaving him with nothing. He also gets snubbed by the priest at the service.

The only purpose is to highlight the difference between the two major figures in the series. While Gianni’s funeral is ornate in an Italian cathedral, with Princess Diana and Elton John in attendance, Andrew is stuck watching it on a houseboat while eating dog food and seeing cockroaches crawl along the floor.

I also wonder if this is a little Easter Egg for the second season of Ryan Murphy’s Feud, which will center on Diana and Charles, because Gianni’s funeral takes place a little over one month before her death. It would be kind of cool if FX connected the two shows and included Diana attending Gianni’s funeral in Feud season 2.

The End of Andrew Cunanan

Eventually, the owner of the houseboat shows up and sees that it’s been broken into. He enters with a gun, but Andrew fires a warning shot. The man runs away and calls the police, who swam the scene. Andrew sees the whole thing play out on the news, knowing that he’s surrounded. The police try to contact him, but he refuses. The police storm the houseboat. Andrew sits on a bed, puts his gun into his mouth and pulls the trigger.

In a beautiful piece of symmetry, the show immediately cuts back to Andrew’s meeting with Gianni at the opera. You may remember this scene from the premiere, when the show abruptly cut away from it to the moment when Andrew shot Versace. This time it picks up right where the scene left off last time.

Andrew talks about fearing that no one will think he’s special. Gianni tells him that it’s not about persuading people, he should just go out and do it. Andrew desperately wants to work with him because Versace is the only man who believes that Andrew is special. Andrew tries to kiss him, but gets rejected. Gianni just wants him to be inspired.

The Aftermath

Following Andrew’s suicide, Marilyn is informed and she’s glad it’s done. She also reveals that she’s received letters about the charitable things her husband did that he never told her about.

In Italy, Donatella tells Antonio that the morning Gianni died he called her to talk about a runway show she was doing. She was annoyed that he was micromanaging her so when he called back 30 minutes later, she ignored the call. The show ends with Donatella visiting her brother’s tomb, cut with Andrew’s meager tomb as well as Antonio making a failed suicide attempt.

It’s all a little rushed, perhaps because Penelope Crruz and Ricky Martin were underused and their characters were underdeveloped throughout the series. The finale tries to make it seem like Versace was an important part of this story, even though he was largely absent from most of it.

In the end, the show offers a brief disclaimer, saying that while the series was inspired by a true story, “Some events are combined or imagined for dramatic and interpretive purposes.” In other words, some of it was kind of true, but they made up some stuff. That feels like the kind of warning that should have appeared at the beginning of the series, not after it’s all over.

Party Report: Inside Darren Criss, Ricky Martin’s ‘Assassination of Gianni Versace’ Finale Celebration (Photos)

FX threw a “finale” celebration for the “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” at the DGA on Sunset Blvd. on Monday night to bookend a season that launched with a Mer-man and models strolling a glittering runway in Hollywood. Why don’t more hit TV shows celebrate the end like this? A few hundred guests (and Emmy voters) got a sneak preview of the last episode and some face time with the stars, writers and directors (including director Matt Bomer, far right) but unfortunately no Ryan Murphy.

Multiple media outlets tried to pry a St. Patrick’s Day-hued Judith Light for commentary on her other series, Amazon’s “Transparent.” The accusations against Jeffrey Tambor and his subsequent exit scrambled the show’s future, but Light is a pro and shut down all inquiries. “We’re here to talk about ‘Versace,’” she said repeatedly. Also Read: ‘American Crime Story’: Yes, Marilyn Miglin Still Sells Perfume

The “Versace” line snaked down Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood and extended to the corner of Fairfax. There were still about 75 people waiting helplessly in a standby line 20 minutes after the show had already started … that’s a good sign, showing that industry fans couldn’t wait two more days for their “Versace” fix.

“I’m not playing a killer. I’m playing a person,” lead actor Darren Criss, who plays serial killer Andrew Cunanan, said. “Once you enter it from that portal, it’s a little easier to understand.” We have a hunch we’ll be seeing a lot Criss over this Emmy season. It’s indisputably his show, even if he claimed a subordinate position in the group photo at the top of this gallery.

Could the series net FX a costume design Emmy nomination? Sure. Some of the memorable threads from this season graced the DGA lobby. There is also a new costume category this year: “Outstanding Period Costumes.” Ryan Murphy’s prior series, “The People v. O.J. Simpson” got a nomination and “America Horror Story: Freak Show” won a prior iteration of this category.

“I just came back from France and people were crazy about [the show],” Edgar Ramirez (left, who played Versace) told The Party Report. When not on stage, Ricky Martin introduced himself to other actors who he didn’t share scenes with. The season finale airs Wednesday night on FX.

Party Report: Inside Darren Criss, Ricky Martin’s ‘Assassination of Gianni Versace’ Finale Celebration (Photos)

Matt Bomer Shares the Secrets Behind His Long-Lasting Marriage (Exclusive)

Matt Bomer’s key to a successful marriage was actually someone else’s key first.

“My grandparents were together from the time they were teenagers on, and I used to ask them and they’d tell me, ‘One day at a time,’” the actor tells ET. “So, I guess I try to adapt that philosophy, but also just having perspective. You know, at the end of the day, the family and our home life is the most important thing and keeps everything else in perspective.”

The 40-year-old quietly wed his longtime love, power publicist Simon Halls, back in 2011. The couple share three sons, Henry, Walker and Kit, though Bomer admits they’re not very familiar with his work.

“I just have to make sure that I start working on more things that they can see!” the American Horror Story vet notes. “’Cause they’re like, ‘You do this, but then we can’t watch it.’ I’m like, ‘When you’re older maybe!’”

That includes Bomer’s latest project, stepping behind the camera on FX’s The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. He made his directorial debut on episode eight, “Creator/Destroyer.” ET caught up with him at a For Your Consideration event for the series at the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles, ahead of its finale, airing Wednesday on FX.

‘American Crime Story: Versace’ Cast on How They’ve Worked With the Designer’s Real-Life Family

“It’s a big responsibility,” Bomer says of directing the series. “It’s a big stage to step on to, to make your directorial debut, so I took it very seriously. I spent about four and a half months working on the project, from research I did, to here at the DGA, I did an intensive. I shadowed two of the great directors we had, Dan Minahan, Gwyneth Horder-Payton, and just exhaustively, I think I read over 300 pages of books on directing, and reached out to friends who were kind enough to mentor me … so, I guess it meant a lot of hard work.”

The actor lit up when asked what a nomination or award for his directing work would mean, saying, “I don’t think there are words for it, really.”

Next up for Bomer is another Ryan Murphy project, the Broadway revival of The Boys in the Band. The play officially opens on May 31 at the Booth Theatre in New York City.

“It’s the 50th anniversary of the play, The Boys in the Band,” Bomer notes. “It’s really the first mainstream gay play that there was, and I think it’s incredible how far we’ve come in 50 years, but also important to look back on what life was like for people 50 years ago in the LGBT community, people who couldn’t go out and dance together in public without being arrested, who had to live in the shadows. And so, this play is really about a group of friends who are having that experience together and how it affects their relationships in their lives, and what there hopes and dreams are.”

“It’s gonna be fun!” he adds. “Come celebrate the birthday party with us and I hope you have a good time.”

(Source: https://player.vimeo.com/)

American Crime Story: Gianni Versace shocks viewers with seriously gory scenes

American Crime Story’s latest series, following the murder spree of Gianni Versace’s killer Andrew Cunanan, might have us hooked – but it’s also served up some pretty stomach-churning violence along the way. So much so that many viewers were left with seriously shredded nerves after the series’ latest instalment on BBC Two on Wednesday night – with the folks at home describing it as ‘grisly’ and ‘terrifying’. And the show pulled no punches as it showed the start of Cunanan’s killing spree – which began with him murdering his friend Jeffrey Trail in plain sight of his lover David Madson, before wrapping his body up in a rug.

It was all pretty grim stuff – and left people seriously unsettled.

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American Crime Story: Gianni Versace shocks viewers with seriously gory scenes

American Crime Story fans ‘traumatised’ at most ‘grisly’ scenes ever seen on TV as Andrew Cunanan claims another two victims

AMERICAN Crime story viewers declared scenes in tonight’s episode some of the most “grisly” and “horrifying"they’d ever seen on TV.

The drama, which follows the crimes of Gianni Versace serial killer Andrew Cunanan tonight showed the stomach-churning beginning of his killing spree.

The episode saw Cunanan (Darren Criss) hammer to death his first victim – his friend Jeffrey Trail – in front of lover David Madson before rolling his bloodied body up in a rug.

One horrified fan tweeted: "Wow, that was such a tense and horrifying episode… I don’t sleep well on Wednesday nights.”

Another wrote: “That whole ep was absolutely terrifying,” while a third added: “Not sure I can handle this anymore, my nerves are shredded.

A fourth tweeted: "Shellshocked. That was both brilliantly directed and perhaps the most horrid, grisly thing I’ve seen.”

What happened to Andrew Cunanan’s parents, Modesto and Mary Ann Cunanan?

Warning: This post contains slight spoilers for the final episode of The Assassination of Gianni Versace.

The story of Andrew Cunanan, the serial killer who fatally shot fashion designer Gianni Versace in 1997, ends this week, in Wednesday night’s finale of American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace. But while it’s over for the characters in the Ryan Murphy’s FX series, the real people affected by Cunanan’s killing spree lived on far beyond the events that end Season 2—including Cunanan’s parents, Mary Ann and Modesto.

Both Mary Ann and Modesto Cunanan (Joanna Adler and Jon Jon Briones, respectively) play key roles in the ninth and final episode of Assassination of Gianni Versace, each affecting the final hours of their son (Darren Criss) in their own way. But what happened to the real people after the nightmare was all over?

Mary Ann Cunanan

After her son’s death, Cunanan’s mother Mary Ann lived out the rest of her life quietly, if oddly. When journalist Maureen Orth interviewed Cunanan’s mother for her 1999 book Vulgar Favors—the basis of the FX show—she reportedly told Orth that her son did not kill Versace and that his previous murder spree was a mafia setup. She lived alone in National City, California, when Orth visited her and had dedicated a nearby plot of land to grow a memorial garden for Andrew. Orth also described “a shrine to Andrew” in Mary Ann’s living room.

In an anonymous blog post published by the San Diego Reader in 2009, someone who claims to be the daughter of the Cunanan family’s next-door-neighbor wrote, “The last time I saw Mary Ann, she was covered up in an old coat and sunglasses with a scarf tied under her chin. It was a hearty spring day that didn’t require a coat, and she dipped a hankie and washed her hands in a fountain at the Mercado shopping plaza.”

Several online obituaries list Mary Ann’s death at the age of 73, on April 15, 2012. Besides Andrew, she had three other children with Modesto Cunanan: Elena, Christopher and Regina.

Modesto Cunanan

Cunanan’s father—whose real name was Modesto but went by “Pete” in America—returned to the U.S. from the Phillippines after his son committed suicide. (He had fled the country after being accused of fraud in the ‘80s.) In 1999, two years after his son’s death, he arrived in Los Angeles with a Filipino filmmaker, determined to make a documentary about his son’s serial murders—which, the elder Cunanan told the Los Angeles Times, he believed was an FBI conspiracy. “The American people are being misled,” Modesto said. “They swallowed everything hook, line and sinker because it came from the FBI.” In addition to maintaining his son’s innocence, he also denied that Andrew was homosexual, calling him “gay by association.”

Around the same time, Orth spoke to Modesto for Vulgar Favors. She described that meeting in a recent article for Vanity Fair. “Cunanan told me that Andrew was being set up by the mafia, and maybe I could go in on the movie treatment he was peddling about Andrew for half a million dollars,” Orth wrote. “’I know who should play him,’ Pete Cunanan said. ‘John F. Kennedy Jr.’” According to Orth, Cunanan had also “joined a survivalist cult and was seeking buried gold he claimed the Japanese had left behind in World War II.”

Not long after his son’s death, Modesto remarried to a Filipina woman. His current whereabouts—and whether he is still alive—are unknown.

You can read more about Cunanan’s parents in Newsweek’s Assassination of Gianni Versace fact vs. fiction breakdown.

What happened to Andrew Cunanan’s parents, Modesto and Mary Ann Cunanan?

The Assassination of Gianni Versace episode 4 recap: the drama returns to Andrew Cunanan’s first killings

BBC crime drama The Assassination of Gianni Versace took a particularly tragic turn in episode four, returning to the very beginning of murderer Andrew Cunanan’s killing spree.

After watching him murder his final three victims – Versace, Lee Miglin and cemetery worker William Reese – in cold blood in the previous three episodes, episode four sees Cunanan undergo an emotional journey as he builds towards the murder of his former lover David Madson.

It’s the first time we see Cunanan seemingly emotionally attached to anyone, and provides some insight into his motives and the downward spiral that leads to the murder of the fashion designer.

Who is Jeffrey Trail?

We get very little insight into the character of Cunanan’s first murder victim; presumably that is coming in the next episode, with the series retroactively exploring Cunanan’s murders.

But, for the record, Jeff Trail, a former naval officer, was a friend of the murderer’s from his days in San Diego. According to a New York Times report from July 1997, Cunanan told friends shortly before leaving for Minnesota that he was flying to Minnesota to “settle some business” with an old friend.

The report goes on to suggest that the two had been romantically linked, but this was denied by Trail’s family.

Cunanan’s motives are clearer than ever

For the first time in the series, the murders Cunanan commits appear to have a clear motive. The episode opens with Versace’s assassin pummelling his first victim – his friend Jeffrey Trail – to death with a hammer in front of David Madson, who is frozen in fear.

A brief conversation between Trail and Madson suggests that Cunanan, who was in love with Madson, had found out that they had been sleeping together, and that Cunanan had killed him out of jealousy – thinking that somehow he and Madson would be able to build a life together with Trail out of the way.

As the episode unfolds, however, Cunanan begins to realise that his ex is never going to love him back, and that Madson is likely to run away at the first opportunity. He appears to realise this as he sits watching real-life musician Aimee Mann perform a cover of the Cars’ 80s anthem ‘Drive’.

Elsewhere in the series, there had been suggestions that his killings were a result of his craving notoriety (the day after he kills Versace, he picks up a copy of every newspaper to read the reports), but the murders that kicked off his spree appear more emotionally motivated.

Why didn’t David Madson escape?

The episode is particularly excruciating because we know exactly where it’s going. David Madson fails to escape Cunanan despite several opportunities on their road trip.

It is worth noting that this is one of the areas where the writers have had to embellish the most, as very little is known about what transpired in those days in late April and early May in Minnesota after Andrew Cunanan arrived to visit Madson and Trail.

“We know there was this murder, and then we know they were in a car together, and we know that David begged for his life at the end,” American Crime Story executive producer Brad Simpson told Vanity Fair, “but we had to fill in what might have happened during that time.”

A report by Newsweek in July 1997 stated, “Madson’s role remains hard to figure out. He apparently made no effort to leave; neighbours saw the two men walking Madson’s dog the day after Trail’s murder.”

The drama itself suggests that he was motivated purely by fear.

The killer’s misdirection

The show’s writers have been detailing repeated errors by the police, many of which may have resulted from stereotyping and a lack of understanding of gay life. In episode four, Andrew Cunanan throws the police off his scent by placing sex toys and gay porn magazines out on Madson’s bed before they flee, leading the police to assume that some sort of sex act had gone wrong.

The police later tell Madson’s parents ominously, “I can tell you with certainty, there’s a great deal you don’t know about your son”.

This continues the drama’s exploration into gay politics of the era, following the allusions to the AIDS crisis, and the police’s aggressive questioning Versace’s lover Antonio D’Amico (Ricky Martin) about his sex life on the day of the murder.

Where are Donatella and Gianni Versace?

For the second episode in a row, two of the series’ most prominent figures, as played by Penelope Cruz and Edgar Ramirez respectively, are nowhere to be seen, as the show continues to delve deeper into the life of the fashion designer’s killer.

Have we seen the last of the show’s glamorous duo? As has become increasingly clear, the show isn’t really about Versace. Oscar-winning Cruz and beautiful Miami beach scenes have give way to something far more cold and brutal…

The Assassination of Gianni Versace episode 4 recap: the drama returns to Andrew Cunanan’s first killings

What Donald Trump and Versace’s Killer Have in Common

“The answer for every question about him really, no matter what the question is, is ‘dominance,’ the need to dominate,” said Gwenda Blair—the author of the not-exactly-briefly named The Trumps: Three Generations of Builders and a Presidential Candidate—in a 2016 interview with Yahoo News about the tiny-handed presidential candidate and his big, presidential aspirations. “Everything is focused on that, that’s his whole MO, and it all goes back to his dad, and to getting out of the outer boroughs.” Harry Hurt III, another Trump biographer, agrees: “It all goes back to his father. Since he was a child, he’s been vying for his father’s attention and everything else in his disturbed existence is rooted in the crazy need to prove he can outdo his father.”

Hurt’s biography of Donald Trump has the title Lost Tycoon. It might as easily be called A Life In Dollars—something said by Andrew Cunanan’s stockbroker father, Modesto, in an interview at Merrill Lynch in this week’s episode. The monologue that he delivers is so speechifying and dramatic that it sounds less anecdotal than like propaganda. “I have lived a life in dollars,” he assures them. “I was born in the Philippines, in a house that any of you gentlemen could buy with the money in your wallets…. I bought my first home [in America for] $12,000. A few months later, I moved to an $80,000 home. Now is that biography, or business? Because I will tell your investors that’s what I plan to do with their money. I will cross oceans with it. I will take it to new lands. I’m talking about growth they can’t imagine.”

Like some presidents, it turns out that Modesto also happens to be something of a con man: one who flies the stars-and-stripes flag in his yard, and calls America “the greatest country in the world.” (The name “Modesto” is another of those real-life ironies this story’s riddled with; it is the perhaps the opposite of nominative determinism.) Aiming to transform himself into a more American American, he tricks a very, very aged woman out of her life’s savings. “Yes, I stole,” he tells his son after he’s fingered by the FBI for selling phony stocks, and has to flee back to Manilla. “But only what I needed to be an American. You can’t go to America and start from nothing—that’s the lie.”

This lie is flexible. To start from nothing can be possible, assuming that you have the something of familial love as a foundation. When the mother of the young Gianni Versace notices his interest in her dressmaking in this week’s opening scene, we brace for conflict; happily, none is forthcoming. This is Reggio Calabria, Italy, in the 1950s—and although the boy is called a pervert by his teacher, and a pansy by a schoolmate, she remains as tender as the mother in a fairytale. Denied her childhood dream of growing up to be a doctor, she does not believe that parents should police their children’s aspirations in accordance with a thing as tedious, or nebulous, as classic heterosexual gender roles.

“I see you watch me work,” she tells him, softly. “There’s no need to hide.” “Success,” she adds, encouraging her son to make his first dress from a pattern scribbled down covertly in a language class, “only comes with hard work: many hours, many weeks, and many years. And it’s never easy. But that’s alright, that’s why it’s special.” Contrast this with the advice Modesto Cunanan gives to his son, whom he refers to as “Prince Andrew,” an odd affectation that feels somehow creepy rather than paternal: “Every morning when you wake up, and every night when you go to sleep, I want you to remember something: that you’re special. And when you’re special, success will follow.”

If the current president were not the current president, it would be easier to believe that Gianni’s mother was correct, and that Modesto was in error. Thinking that success is special only when you work for it seems more right, or more ethical, than thinking that some persons are de facto special and deserving of whatever they desire. But “more ethical” does not mean, necessarily, more true.

Now that we’re almost through with American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace, what appear to be the series’ themes? That there is no authentic shortcut to success; that genius cannot be approximated; that our early family lives sow seeds that will eventually grow into something inescapable, for good or bad: a thing that bears fruit, or a choking weed.

From early childhood, Hurt says in his Trump biography, Fred Trump would tell his son: “‘You are a killer…You are a king…You are a killer…You are a king…’ Donald believers he can’t be one without the other. As his father has pointed out over and over again, most people are weaklings. Only the strong survive. You have to be a killer if you want to be a king.” Following Modesto to Manila not long after graduating high school, Andew Cunanan expects to find an answer as to why his father gamed the system, sold the family’s assets, and then cut and ran. Instead, he finds the thing that he most fears: a coward, penniless and living like a ghost—no go-getter, no hero, but a deadbeat bum. “I can’t be you,” says Andrew. “If you’re a lie, then I’m a lie.”

“You’re not upset that I stole; you’re upset that I stopped,” Modesto snarls back. “Now you have to work. You’re a sissy kid, with a sissy mind.” He spits on Andrew, and the son—begotten by the father, but not yet his double—grabs a knife, but is incapable of striking with it. Both men watch each other with the tense uncertainty that only comes from two male animals not knowing who is predator, and who is prey. The moment is near Biblical in tone.

“Do it!” screams Modesto. “Be a man, for once!”

“I’ll never be like you,” Andrew Cunanan says, before he leaves. But you can’t go back as if your parents don’t exist, and start from nothing—that’s the lie.

What Donald Trump and Versace’s Killer Have in Common

Penelope Cruz as Donatella Versace: the anatomy of a style icon

The character of Donatella Versace makes her entrance – and it is an entrance – near the end of the first episode of The Assassination of Gianni Versace. Clad in her signature spray-on jeans, black roll-neck and double-breasted suit jacket, she is impossibly glamorous, even while grieving.

With Penelope Cruz playing Donatella in Ryan Murphy’s take on the Versace assassination, a follow-up to 2016’s The People v OJ Simpson, the show offers a potted retrospective of the iconic style of the Italian house, and the personal style of the woman at its helm. Cruz’s transformation into Donatella is uncanny – he has the original’s platinum-blonde hair, permanent tan, full lips and dark, smokey eyes – and a wardrobe of classic, covetable vintage Versace (or replica-Versace) pieces.

For a woman who once said, ‘You can be too boring, but you can never be too seductive’, seduction and glamour are in her DNA. Day-to-day looks remain true to the tried-and-tested formula reflected in Cruz’s opening appearance: tight black trousers – which Donatella declares to be ‘essential’ for every woman in her US Vogue 73 questions interview – black boots, a tailored jacket, or shirt, accessorised with an endlessly rotating collection of gold jewellery.

In September last year, two decades after Gianni Versace was murdered on the steps of his Miami Beach mansion, Donatella, creative director of the Versace label since the designer’s death,turned her spring-summer 2018 show into a tribute to her late brother.

With five of the original supermodels returning to walk the runway in honour of the late designer, the show has already gone down in fashion history. At the centre of the five was the instantly recognisable figure of Ms Versace, dressed in her go-to daytime black with gold accents. Her own style has become as iconic as the gold chainmail sheaths worn by Cindy, Naomi, Carla, Claudia and Helena.

Though the Versace aesthetic has evolved, perhaps matured, during Donatella’s tenure, a flick back through 30+ years of her own looks demonstrate that, save a gradual exaggeration of her physical appearance – slimmer, more platinum, smokier eyes – her personal style has remained virtually unchanged. And, as Donatella, Cruz’s on-screen wardrobe is expertly judged. Daytime wear varies between minimal, streamlined silhouettes and sharply cut tailoring. For evening, she showcases a rotation of sheath dresses. The palette is minimal – mainly black, with a flash of red, metallic, and the occasional Versace print, always accessorised with her signature gold jewellery.

The first three episodes have shown a grieving, business-like Donatella, though future episodes will reveal flashbacks to high-glamour appearances – a particular highlight promises to be the Belt dress worn for Vogue’s 100th anniversary party. For the red carpet, she ups the ante in ultra-slim fit (she is a fan of Alaia’s bodycon designs alongside her own label), corset-cinched waist, sculpted bust, floor-length silhouettes. Sequins/beads/feathers/rhinestones deliver maximum glamour. The Donatella version of her brother’s all-out glamour that plays out on the runway and in the Versace collections, is somehow more feminine – a modern evolution on the 1980s campaigns where supermodels draped themselves over mahogany muscle men. The same can be said of her own style.

In December, Donatella was awarded the Fashion Icon award at the Fashion Awards. She accepted her prize in a gown that seemed to fuse her own style with the aesthetic of the label she has led for the last 20 years. Nipped at the waist, sculpting and cinching of the torso and bust, sleeveless, floor-length, slashed to the thigh, the silhouette was pure Donatella. The all-over print – an instantly-recognisable motif from the Versace archive – perhaps, a tribute to her late brother?

Penelope Cruz as Donatella Versace: the anatomy of a style icon