The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story “should only be considered as a work of fiction,” they said in a statement.

n Monday, only hours before FX’s Los Angeles premiere event for The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, the Versace family distanced itself from the Ryan Murphy-produced FX series, which stars Edgar Ramírez as Gianni Versace and Penélope Cruz as Donatella Versace.

“The Versace family has neither authorized nor had any involvement whatsoever in the forthcoming TV series about the death of Mr. Gianni Versace,” the family said in a statement Monday. “Since Versace did not authorize the book on which it is partly based nor has it taken part in the writing of the screenplay, this TV series should only be considered as a work of fiction.”

Though the family has not been formally involved in this project—which examines the fashion designers’ personal and professional lives in the 90s—Donatella did speak to Cruz about the series at least once.

“I did have one conversation that was between she and I,” Cruz told Entertainment Weekly last summer. “I don’t want to say the details, but it was a long conversation. That was very important to me. I think she knows that the way I’m playing her, that I truly love her and respect her.” Cruz has since elaborated: “I really hope that when she sees the show, she’s going to be happy. I’m sure there are going to be scenes that are hard for her to watch, because it’s a lot about the loss of her brother, which, of course, I have so much respect for. I did it with all my love.”

Without revealing whether or not he actually spoke to Donatella, Ryan Murphy has also gone on record saying that he respected one of the fashion designer’s wishes for the series.

“Donatella had some requests about how the children were depicted in the show,” Murphy said, referring to Donatella’s children with her ex-husband Paul Beck, Allegra and Daniel. “I listened to that. As a father, I understood. I wasn’t interested in going there, out of respect for her.”

The Versace family is not the only party to express doubts about the series. Gianni Versace’s boyfriend, Antonio D’Amico, also spoke publicly about his distaste for production images showing Ricky Martin portraying him moments after Gianni’s 1997 murder.

“The picture of Ricky Martin holding the body [of Gianni] in his arms is ridiculous,” D’Amico told The Observer over the summer. “Maybe it’s the director’s poetic license, but that is not how I reacted.”

Since that statement, however, Martin has gotten in touch with D’Amico. Martin said he told D’Amico, “‘Antonio, listen, maybe you’ve seen a couple of paparazzi shots of the actual scenes that we’re shooting, but please don’t judge the quality of it just by one picture because it could easily be taken out of context. You have to see for yourself what we’re doing, and you’re going to be so pleased with everything.’”

This is not the first time that the real-life subject of a Murphy project has hit back against his or her FX depiction. Last year, Olivia de Havilland filed a lawsuit over her portrayal in the anthology series Feud. De Havilland, who was played in the series by Catherine Zeta-Jones, claims Feud damaged her “professional reputation for integrity, honesty, generosity, self-sacrifice, and dignity.” The lawsuit specifically called out the episode “And the Winner Is,” which shows de Havilland backstage with Bette Davis on the evening of the 1963 Oscars.

According to Deadline, de Havilland and her legal team took issue with the actress’s “portrayal as a ‘vulgar gossip’; her use of the word ‘bitch’ and ’dragon lady’ on the show to describe her sister, Joan Fontaine; as well as her words about Frank Sinatra’s drinking habits.”

Source: vanityfair.com