History Channel Yanks The Kennedys
Katie Holmes isn’t the only one mourning the cancellation of the History channel miniseries The Kennedys. So are the fashion obsessed, who were salivating over the thought of seeing Jacqueline Kennedy’s iconic styles brought to life on the small screen. A&E Television Networks just announced it was scrapping its plans to broadcast the eight-part Kennedy family biopic. “While the film is produced and acted with the highest quality, after viewing the final product in its totality, we have concluded this dramatic interpretation is not a fit for the History brand,” an A&E rep told The Hollywood Reporter.
The network reportedly axed the film, which stars Greg Kinnear as President John F. Kennedy and Holmes as the former First Lady, because it deemed the content historically inaccurate. But judging by an early trailer for the miniseries, they at least got the Camelot queen’s regal wardrobe right.
In the two-minute clip (below), Holmes, with her brunette hair styled in a bubble cut, wears classic ’60s styles—including a pale blue sleeveless shift and an Emilio Pucci-inspired floral-print dress—as well as ensembles that defined Mrs. Kennedy during her White House years: There she is at the President’s inauguration in a replica of the white gown Mrs. Kennedy co-designed with Bergdorf Goodman’s Ethan Frankau, and at Dallas’s Love Field airport in the pink wool suit that would soon become stained with blood.
While the real Jacqueline Kennedy wore Chanel on that fateful day in November 1963, Holmes was outfitted by a different designer. “The pink suit was actually made by Armani,” she told Access Hollywood.
A longtime fan of Mrs. Kennedy, Holmes—who speaks lovingly of her idol in February’s Elle and channeled her last year in New York magazine’s Fall Fashion issue—has said she felt fortunate to portray her on film.
“She not only had great style, but she [was] an artist [and] a writer. She was an illustrator. She was an editor,” the Holmes & Yang designer has said. “Her great style was both appropriate for every event that she went to and also classic, and also things that were wearable. I feel really lucky to be playing her.”
The Kennedys is slated to air in Canada in March and will be broadcast internationally as well. Asylum Entertaiment and Muse Entertaiment, which produced the project, hope to bring the miniseries to a U.S. pay-cable channel in the near future.
