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Sometimes, art imitates life a little too closely, or in ways the real-life subjects wish it hadn't. Join us as we explore the made-for-TV movies and limited series that delved into true events, only to rub the very people they depicted the wrong way. From docuseries portrayals to celebrity biopics, these dramatizations stirred up significant controversy and resentment from the individuals or families whose stories were told. Get ready for some major real-life drama!
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00:00But there were so many people who profited from them being at each other's throats.
00:05Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're looking at the made-for-TV movies and miniseries that
00:10tackled true events and rubbed their real-life people the wrong way.
00:13I don't think they really portrayed Tommy or I positively.
00:19The Act. The public was left reeling by the shocking 2015 murder of Dee Dee Blanchard,
00:24a woman who fabricated her daughter's extensive medical history.
00:27But I hope that one day I can not maybe have to use the tube anymore, like you said.
00:34Gypsy, maybe that day isn't too far away.
00:38A 2019 Hulu Limited series explored the household dynamic between Dee Dee, her daughter Gypsy Rose,
00:43and her eventual murder by Gypsy Rose's boyfriend, Nicholas Godijohn.
00:47According to a cousin, Dee Dee's sister expressed a desire for the story to be left alone.
00:51Who are you, Gypsy?
00:55Do you even know?
01:00You don't always want to be the person she made you into.
01:03Between the documentary Mommy, Dead and Dearest and the Hulu series, they felt their
01:07howering story didn't need any further exposure.
01:09However, that same cousin wasn't sorry about Dee Dee Blanchard's fate, calling her crazy.
01:14Looking for things that weren't correct or that were inaccurate, that's neither here nor there for me.
01:24That's why I'm doing this docuseries, is to share my truth of the actual events that took place.
01:31I'm not trying to Hollywood it up.
01:33The Staircase
01:34After Michael Peterson was charged with the murder of his wife, he and his family allowed documentarians
01:39Jean-Xavier Dulestrade and Sophie Brunet access to the aftermath.
01:43And you say there's no sign of a break-in?
01:45Big house, but don't look like it.
01:48It sounds like no one was here except for him and his wife.
01:50Nearly two decades later, this process was documented in the HBO Max miniseries of the same name.
01:55Although credited as a producer of the miniseries, Dulestrade was not thrilled at his own depiction in the miniseries as
02:01an unethical documentarian.
02:12Peterson himself was upset at what he accused the fictionalized show of trashing him and his children.
02:18However, Peterson seemed to reserve most of his ire for the original director Dulestrade, whom he accused of selling the
02:23Peterson family out.
02:29Narcos
02:30Netflix's hit series, based on the life of Colombian cartel leader Pablo Escobar, was not violent enough, says the real
02:36man's son.
02:44Sebastian Marroquin, who renounced his father's life of violence, published a list of grievances against the show's second season, citing
02:50its many inaccuracies.
02:52He arranged these 28 complaints in a numbered list.
03:04However, his biggest complaint came a year later, after the show had finished airing.
03:08Marroquin accused the show of glorifying his father's life of crime.
03:11He alleges that several young men had messaged him looking for advice on how to become like Escobar.
03:16That's why 10 minutes after that, I called the press and I tell that I will never do anything to
03:23continue my father's steps.
03:25And that's the second threat, peace.
03:27And that's the only one that I've been living every day since then.
03:32Whitney.
03:33By all accounts, the lifetime biopic directed by Angela Bassett and starring Yaya DaCosta was a respectful tribute to the
03:39life and legacy of Whitney Houston.
03:41Anyway, people are tired of seeing me get prizes.
03:43I don't blame them.
03:44Sometimes even I get sick of hearing about myself.
03:46However, the Houston family attests that none of them were contacted by producers during its making.
03:51The family even accused Bassett, who co-starred with Houston in Waiting to Exhale, of misrepresenting her friendship with the
03:57late singer.
03:57She was their heart.
03:59She was their mother, their daughter.
04:00And as you say, very, very protective.
04:02And you never know at the beginning of any movie what's, will it fly or will it flop?
04:08The late singer's mother, Sissy Houston, expressed relief that the movie finally aired.
04:12If only it meant the world could forget about it and go back to remembering who her daughter actually was.
04:17I'm at the top of my game.
04:20Look around you.
04:21Who do you think is paying for all this?
04:24The only problems I've got are the ones you've given me.
04:26American Crime Story.
04:28The first season of executive producer Ryan Murphy's true crime series garnered some criticism from real life figures.
04:33We've been friends forever.
04:34When Chris and I broke up, the juice was there for me every night.
04:37I'd do anything for this man.
04:39Most notably, Kris Jenner and the Kardashians took issue with the portrayal of the late Robert Kardashian's role in the
04:44OJ Simpson trial.
04:45But the second season, which covered the murder of fashion designer Gianni Versace, kicked a glamorous hornet's nest.
04:51The entire Versace family and Murphy got into a war of words, releasing opposing statements about the show's veracity.
04:57What does it matter what I said?
04:59What does it matter?
05:00Yes.
05:00It matters.
05:01Only if they know it isn't true.
05:02But you know.
05:03The Versace's even drags Maureen Hort, the author of the book the show's based on, into the fray.
05:08Donatella Versace was at least pleased enough with Penelope Cruz's portrayal of her to send her a bouquet on Golden
05:13Globes night.
05:14Now, the press and the police will break through his life.
05:18Every rumor, every indiscretion.
05:21They'll judge the killer, yes.
05:23But they'll judge the victim, too.
05:24Inventing Anna
05:25Anna Delvey, also known as Anna Sorkin, suggests that Shonda Rhimes' Inventing Anna invented a little too much.
05:32Sources say she also conned Manhattan's Glitterati, leaving egg on the faces of society's biggest player from the art world,
05:39real estate, fashion, and Wall Street.
05:41The pop's all lies, you know.
05:43According to her, star Julia Garner's performance made Sorkin seem far more brazen and shameless than she considers herself to
05:49be.
05:50Rachel Deloach Williams, played on the show by Katie Lowe's, had the opposite view.
05:54She started to be pulled aside by the hotel managers as the week went on, and then the day before
05:58our departure, it was the morning and I woke up and there were two managers that came into the villa,
06:04and we weren't allowed to leave until a functioning card was on file.
06:07And I was boxed, basically, into the position of having to give them mine for what I was told would
06:12be a temporary hold.
06:14Williams counted herself among Sorkin's victims and accused the show of exploiting her trauma while putting a criminal in the
06:19spotlight.
06:19Sorkin responded with an Instagram diatribe about Williams' attempt to sell her own version of the story to HBO.
06:26It's like what would happen if toxic friend group drama went public.
06:29Anna looked at the soul of New York and recognized that if you distract people with shiny objects, if you
06:34show them the money, they will be virtually unable to see anything else.
06:38And the thing was, it was so easy.
06:41Love Story
06:41Ryan Murphy added another anthology series to his list of credits.
06:46This one follows the turbulent love story of American royalty John F. Kennedy and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy.
06:51We only have a few snapshots of the real wedding, so we have to imagine what's behind the camera that
06:57took that photo, what's on the other side of the house.
06:59Actress Daryl Hannah was so outraged that she took out a guest column in the New York Times.
07:04In it, she accuses the show of portraying her as a selfish, substance-using diva when this was far from
07:10the truth.
07:11In a New York Times essay, Hannah rejects her portrayal as, quote,
07:15Irritating, self-absorbed, whiny, and inappropriate.
07:18Living members of the Kennedy family, such as cousin Douglas Kennedy, defended Hannah.
07:23Jack Schlossberg, whose mother Caroline Kennedy figures heavily in the series, was equally unimpressed.
07:28Schlossberg went so far as to call Love Story fiction.
07:32If you want to know someone who's never met anyone in my family, knows nothing about us, talk to Ryan
07:37Murphy.
07:37I would just want people who do watch the show to watch it with one letter in mind, and that's
07:42a capital F for fiction.
07:44Monster.
07:45Ryan Murphy's anthology series about real-life killers has been taken to task for numerous offenses, including bad taste.
07:52He recorded their sessions.
07:53He got their confessions all on tape.
07:56We're talking hours and hours of them talking about how they planned it, why they did it, if they felt
08:02any remorse.
08:03The relatives of Jeffrey Dahmer's victims spoke out when Netflix dropped the first season of the series in 2022.
08:09The Menendez brothers themselves are still around to take issue with how the show addressed the murder of their parents.
08:14Lyle, focus.
08:22Eric Menendez's wife took to X to share his thoughts, and they were fairly damning.
08:27He took particular umbrage with the show's treatment of their allegations of abuse, which formed the crux of their defense.
08:33Ryan Murphy's response was that the publicity for Monsters was, quote,
08:37the best thing that's happened to the brothers since their trial.
08:40We can all rest easier tonight knowing that Lyle and Eric Menendez will never be free men,
08:44and that they'll both die in prison.
08:46Honestly, I feel a sense of enormous relief.
08:50Is it a win?
08:52Oh man, it's a win.
08:54Feud.
08:54The two legendary Hollywood actresses at the center of Feud, Betty and Joan, were long deceased when it hit the
09:00airwaves.
09:00But it was the Academy Awards that year when it became the point of no return for both Betty and
09:08Joan.
09:09But Olivia de Havilland was still alive, and she had a bone to pick with Ryan Murphy.
09:13Betty Davis and Joan Crawford's fictionalized story tangentially involves another Oscar winner, Olivia de Havilland.
09:20You're referring to that photo of me in PhotoPlay magazine.
09:25I wasn't turning my back on my sister in that photo.
09:28I just didn't see that she was there.
09:30As played by Catherine Zeta-Jones, de Havilland was so outraged by the portrayal of her that she didn't just
09:35sue the show in California.
09:37The Hollywood veteran tried to take her case all the way to the Supreme Court.
09:40Though they declined to hear the case, it's admirable that at 101 years old, de Havilland wasn't going to let
09:46anyone put words in her mouth.
09:48Oh no, I don't do bitches.
09:50They make me so unhappy.
09:52You should call my sister.
10:00Before we continue, check out this single from Sound Mojo's Adia, Songs from Iran, reimagining Persian melodies as modern rock,
10:08metal, and pop songs.
10:10Check out the full track and album below.
10:12Where are you, my love zone here?
10:14Say the word and I'll appear.
10:16I wrote this song just for you to tell you what I always knew.
10:26Pam and Tommy.
10:28Pamela Anderson made headlines during a 2026 appearance on Andy Cohen's radio show.
10:33Seeing Seth Rogen at that year's Golden Globes opened up an old wound.
10:36How can someone make a TV series out of difficult times in your life?
10:40And I'm a living, breathing human being over here.
10:42Hello.
10:42Did you run into him at all?
10:44Well, he was, you know, in the pit at the Golden Globes.
10:47So we were close.
10:48But I was just like, I just don't know.
10:51I may just feel like I'm not chopped liver over here.
10:53Rogen was one of the executive producers of the limited series about the release of her explicit tape with her
10:58ex-husband Tommy Lee.
10:59Not only did Pam and Tommy document a traumatic time in her life, but no one for production consulted with
11:05her.
11:05People are still capitalizing off that.
11:07That was, was, was the shocking part.
11:09I remember seeing this Pam and Tommy thing on Hulu or some advertisement for it and I thought, what the
11:13hell is this?
11:14No one called me.
11:15No one asked me.
11:15I'm still alive.
11:17Instead, they bought the rights to a Rolling Stone article about the fiasco and used it as a guide in
11:21dramatizing the real events.
11:23Anderson maintains she still wants an apology over the series.
11:27Okay, but you don't seem to understand what a big deal this is to me.
11:30Like it's not a big deal to me?
11:32I'm on that tape just the same as you.
11:34But this is worse for me.
11:36I mean, this is way worse.
11:37How much input should these shows have taken from the real people involved?
11:41Tell us in the comments.
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