Naomi Watts, Paul Kelly Join Sarah Pidgeon in Ryan Murphy’s ‘American Love Story’ Spinoff

Ryan Murphy has reportedly found his John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy for his American Love Story anthology spinoff for FX.

Pop culture writer Evan Ross Katz on his Instagram page revealed Naomi Watts will play Jackie Kennedy and newcomer Paul Kelly will fill the role of her son, John F. Kennedy. Sarah Pidgeon was earlier announced to play Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy.

FX and 20th Television, where Murphy has an overall deal with Disney, declined comment on the casting news. American Love Story will chart the whirlwind courtship and marriage of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Bessette-Kennedy.

The latest Murphy anthology series will look to portray famous romances that captured global attention. John F. Kennedy Jr. and Bessette-Kennedy, who worked as a publicist at Calvin Klein, were considered American royalty during the 1990s.

But their celebrated love story and marriage began to wilt under the constant scrutiny of the tabloid media. The pressures of their careers and Kennedy family ties ended with tragic deaths in 1999 when John F. Kennedy Jr.’s private plane flew into the ocean off the coast of Massachusetts.

The first iteration of the American Love Story anthology series for FX will be produced by Murphy, Brad Simpson, Nina Jacobson, D.V. DeVincentis and Connor Hines. Murphy also expanded the American Story universe with another new franchise, American Sports Story.

The first season American Sports Story, a franchise set to re-examine a prominent event involving a sports figure through the prism of today’s world and told from multiple perspectives, focused on the former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez.