It’s almost time to dive into Love Story. Ryan Murphy’s nine-episode series, which chronicles the whirlwind romance and tragic end of John F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife, Carolyn Bessette- Kennedy, debuts on FX on February 12. On Tuesday, the Love Story cast and crew celebrated the premiere with a glitzy party at a New York hot spot befitting the ’90s It couple.
After a screening at Carnegie Hall, guests were bused over to The Pool, a storied event space and the former home of the Four Seasons restaurant located in Midtown’s historic Seagram Building. Designed by Philip Johnson and opened in 1959, The Pool’s mid-century modern aesthetic harkens back to the New York of the Mad Men age. It’s the birthplace of the “power lunch,” where notables like Barry Diller, Henry Kissinger, Barbara Walters, Nora Efron, Tom Wolfe, and yes, even Jackie O, were known to dine; it’s also where Love Story shot a pivotal scene for its second episode. (But more on that in a bit.)
Love Story star Sarah Pidgeon, who plays Carolyn, was locked in a deep conversation with costume designer Rudy Mance at the after-party. “We were just talking about all the hard work that went into it,” Pidgeon says, still clutching her colleague’s arm. “From cast to creatives and crew, there wasn’t a moment that our foot wasn’t on the gas.”
The team had to move quickly—especially Mance, who was brought on to the series after production had already begun. He was hired to fix Carolyn’s look after initial test shots of Pidgeon in character were torn apart on X and Instagram. “There’s no two other people, aside from her and I, that experienced what it was like to find this character through the clothes,” says Mance. “To really find who she was, and the story that we wanted to tell.”
