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TV shows based on history are never 100% accurate. But it’s way worse for the real-life people whose lives become the plot of a movie or a TV show. Many people don't like how they're portrayed, with some calling the show about them a complete lie. Others have gotten so angry they sued. And many of them have just refused to watch - the worst fate for a TV show of all.
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TV shows based on history are never 100% accurate
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Big shock, I know. But it's way worse for the real-life people
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whose lives become the plot of a movie or a TV show. Many people don't like how they're portrayed
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with some calling the show about them a complete lie. Others have gotten so angry, they sued
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And many of them have just refused to watch. The worst fate for a TV show of all
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So, today we're taking a deep dive into several historical TV projects
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that angered the people they portrayed. Hollywood legend Olivia de Havilland retired in 1988
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and afterwards rarely appeared in public or spoke to the press. So when the Gone with the Wind star did speak up, people noticed
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In 2018, de Havilland sued FX and Ryan Murphy Productions over her depiction in the miniseries Feud, Betty and Joan
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The show focuses on the decades-long feud between rival screen legends Joan Crawford and Betty Davis
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of whom de Havilland was a longtime friend. Specifically, de Havilland felt the show portrayed her as a gossip and a hypocrite
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In a statement provided to The Guardian, de Havilland wrote, The creators of Feud used my identity without my consent and put false words in my mouth
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including having me publicly calling my sister, Joan Fontaine, a . Feud? Please
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De Havilland's lawsuit alleged that the show defamed her character and tarnished her reputation
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but a California appeals court didn't agree, throwing out the case in 2019 on First Amendment
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grounds. DeHavilland passed away the following year, clearing the way for Feud, Bolivia, and the State of California
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John Travolta received plenty of praise for his portrayal of O.J. Simpson attorney Robert Shapiro
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in 2016's American Crime Story, The People v. O.J. Simpson. But one person who wasn't impressed
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was Shapiro himself. The famed lawyer only watched part of the first episode
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but he felt Travolta's interpretation was inaccurate and not reflective of who he is
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When TMZ questioned Shapiro in the parking lot of an LA grocery store, Shapiro claimed Travolta
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never met or consulted with him to prepare for the role. He's a fine actor, and I'm sure he did
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his best, Shapiro said. But I imagine that if you try to interpret who somebody is without meeting
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them and finding out who they are you not going to hit the nail and be absolutely accurate Guess Shapiro was saying Travolta didn have the juice The show continued to catch heat in its second season The Assassination of Johnny Versace which dramatized the 1997 murder of fashion designer Johnny Versace
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by serial killer Andrew Kananen, and how the Versace family kept their lives and company together in the aftermath
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Creator Ryan Murphy based most of the show on Vanity Fair columnist Maureen Orth's 1999 book Vulgar Favors
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and that was the Versace family's main objection. In an official statement, the Versace's emphasized that they had nothing to do with either the book or Murphy's show
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and went on to call the series a work of fiction. A day later, the Versace family released a second statement specifically condemning Orth's book
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alleging it, Distorted and bogus, though it may have been, the series was an Emmy-winning hit
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Sometimes the truth just isn't as entertaining. The British royal family has varying opinions about The Crown
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the Netflix series that dramatizes the events of Queen Elizabeth II's reign
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Prince Edward and his wife Sophie apparently loved it, and the Queen herself was reportedly a fan of the first season
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although we understand why she would have dropped off. She already knew how the whole thing was going to end
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Other members of the royal family, like Prince William, haven't bothered to watch at all
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Officially, the family issued a statement reminding the public that they haven't participated in the making of the show
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and didn't give it their official approval, which is kind of like your parents forbidding you from watching MTV
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The Queen's late husband, Prince Philip, didn't directly comment on the show beyond that official statement
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but people close to him indicated he was squarely in the don't-care-for-it camp
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Actor Matt Smith, who played a younger version of Philip on the show's first two seasons, sat next to him at a dinner party
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The prince asked Smith if he was participating in this crown thing
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to which Smith responded by asking him if he'd watched the show. Prince Philip glared at him and said
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Don't be ridiculous. Apparently, Philip was more of a Doctor Who fan
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Although the queen did enjoy season one, she objected to Philip's portrayal in season two
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which suggested he was a cruel and domineering father who sent a young Prince Charles to a harsh boarding school to toughen him up
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According to historian Hugo Vickers, Prince Philip also objected to a season two storyline
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in which his father blamed him for the demise of his sister Princess Cecily who perished in a plane crash in 1937 The Chernobyl nuclear meltdown was an international tragedy that affected millions
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But for Lyudmila Ignatianca, HBO's 2019 miniseries dramatizing the events was re-traumatizing
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The show did get the basic facts of her story correct. She really was the wife of firefighter Vasily Ignatianca, who succumbed to radiation poisoning
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two weeks after the meltdown. Just as the show depicts, Lyudmila was pregnant at the time
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and didn't mention it to Vasily's doctor when she begged to visit him in the hospital
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Two months after the visit, Lyudmila gave birth to a daughter who perished four hours later
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due to congenital heart failure and cirrhosis of the liver, two possible symptoms of radiation exposure
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Her problems with the show weren't so much about its accuracy, but the fact she didn't give HBO permission
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to use her story. After the show's release, she dealt with prying reporters
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accusing her of being at fault for her baby's death. They were asking me why I had been at my husband's bedside
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knowing that I was pregnant at the time. She told the BBC, But tell me, how could I leave him
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We didn't know anything about radiation then. The negative press forced Lyudmila to move from Kiev, Ukraine's capital, to a rural area
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She also pointed out several factual inaccuracies in the show's portrayal that may have been relatively minor to viewers
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but extremely significant to someone who had experienced the events. For example, in the show, Vasily couldn't be buried in his shoes because his feet were swollen from radiation
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So Lyudmila kept them as a memento. In reality, the shoes were buried with him
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When it comes to movies about politics, the politicians depicted in them almost never approve
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No matter where they are on the political spectrum, really, they even complained about Air Force One
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With HBO's Game Change, which dramatized the events of 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain's decision to choose Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate
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there was no realistic chance Palin would agree with her portrayal. And sure enough, she didn't
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The movie actually portrays both Palin and McCain, played by Julianne Moore and Ed Harris, rather sympathetically
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But before HBO even released it, Palin attacked its credibility. She sent a video to her supporters that recut the movie's trailer to include cable news clips showing herself in a positive light
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An accompanying note read, The screenwriter of Game Change Danny Strong lapsed into a tired routine of manipulating facts and omitting key parts of Governor Palin story in order to push a biased agenda and drive ratings It also stated that Palin wasn concerned with being in the good graces of Hollywood Team Obama
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Palin never specified exactly what facts the movie got wrong or what part of her portrayal she was unhappy about
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Director Jay Roach said he and his team based the movie on journalist John Heilman
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and Mark Helperin's book of the same name, and they conducted over two dozen interviews with people involved in the campaign
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John McCain wasn't a fan of game change either. The Arizona senator didn't bother to watch the film, but he still criticized his point of view
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describing Heilman and Halperin's book on Fox News Sunday as He also felt the movie amounted to an assassination of his former running mate's character
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saying he didn't understand, even in the tough world of politics, why there continues to be such an assault on a good and decent person
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Most of all, McCain didn't appreciate that the film showed him using swear words
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He commented, without using a single F-bomb, I've been told I'm portrayed as using an exceeding amount of coarse language
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And I don't use coarse language very often. I have a larger vocabulary than that
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Four years before Game Change, director Jay Roach rankled Washington with another HBO film
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In 2008, Roach's Recount, based on the contentious Florida recount that decided the 2000 presidential election
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upset both Democrats and Republicans involved in the events. How's that for bipartisan dealmaking
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Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher led Al Gore's team during the recount
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and was therefore a major character in the film, played by Sir John Hurt
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he of Elephant Man and Space Bugs exploding out of his chest fame. Christopher didn't know the movie existed
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until his tailor told him about it. When HBO sent Christopher transcripts of scenes
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with his character, he wasn't impressed. He told the New York Times
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it contained events that never occurred, words I never spoke, and decisions attributed to me that I never made
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Okay, sure, but how was it? William M. Daley, Gore's campaign chair who was played by Mitch Pelleggi, also took issue with Christopher's portrayal
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According to Daley, the film misrepresented events by presenting Christopher as too cautious and respectful of the process and not concerned enough about winning
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According to the film, all of this allowed Republican operatives James Baker, played by Tom Wilkinson, to outfox Christopher
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But Daly put it a bit more bluntly, suggesting that the perception that Warren Christopher was some wuss who got hoodwinked by Jim Baker
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is absolute fantasy in the mind of somebody who is trying to make themselves out to be bigger than they were
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Sounds like he wanted less of a recount and more of a rewrite