Sarah Pidgeon Says Her Team Photoshopped a Picture of Her with Blonde Hair to Help Secure Role in “Love Story”
Sarah Pidgeon Says Her Team Photoshopped a Picture of Her with Blonde Hair to Help Secure Role in “Love Story”
Catherine SantinoTue, March 3, 2026 at 5:53 PM UTC
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Sarah Pidgeon.Credit: Jamie McCarthy/Getty; Eric Liebowitz/FX -
Sarah Pidgeon revealed that her team photoshopped a picture of her blonde to help with the casting process for Love Story
The actress, who is naturally brunette, dyed her hair to portray the late publicist Carolyn Bessette Kennedy on the buzzy FX series
The Ryan Murphy-led production faced backlash for Pidgeon's styling when set photos surfaced in June 2025
Sarah Pidgeon underwent a major transformation to play Carolyn Bessette Kennedy on FX's Love Story — but it took some "convincing."
On the Monday, March 3, episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the 29-year-old actress discussed her buzz-worthy portrayal of the late fashion publicist. Pidgeon, who is naturally brunette, opened up to host Jimmy Kimmel about the casting process.
"My team actually photoshopped blonde hair onto me," she revealed. "I have very naturally dark hair. So I think that maybe helped with convincing production that this was the right move."
Capturing Carolyn's signature blonde was no small feat. When photos from the set of Ryan Murphy's new series, which explores the love story between John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn, first surfaced in June 2025, fans were quick to criticize the styling — specifically Pidgeon's blonde.
Amid the chatter, Vogue reached out to Carolyn's hair colorist, Brad Johns, to get his take on the portrayal.
“No one would believe that Carolyn in the ’90s would ever have that color from me. It’s too 2024," he told the outlet at the time.
He added that he thought it was "totally wrong, the opposite of what we were going for. If you show that on TV and fashion people see it, they are going to think, why the f--- is she all ashed out with her hair only one color?"
Sarah Pidgeon on 'Love Story.'Credit: Eric Liebowitz/FX
Bonds started working with Carolyn, a natural brunette, in 1996. As he remembers, achieving her golden blonde — or what he described as his "child-of-the-beach" hue — was something "we worked really hard to get right.”
Murphy later responded to Vogue's coverage in an interview with Variety, claiming that the fashion magazine never reached out to him for comment. He also confirmed that Pidgeon's original hairstyle was a wig.
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“The hairstylist couldn’t even tell the difference between real hair and a wig because he insisted it was Sarah’s real hair. It wasn’t. It was a wig,” Murphy told the outlet. “Why didn’t Vogue call us and ask, ‘Let’s talk about your decisions. What are your reference photos?’ It’s interesting because Vogue called several times with interest in covering the show, but one of the first things they write is this without even checking with our us?”
The production later revised Pidgeon's look, dyeing her actual hair instead of using a wig.
Sarah Pidgeon.Credit: Jamie McCarthy/Getty
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In a new exclusive interview with PEOPLE, Johns recalled the origin of the now-trademarked "child-of-the-beach" hue he created for her when they first started working together, revealing that one of her facial features inspired it.
"It's all about eye color first," Johns told PEOPLE of Carolyn's "blue surfer girl eyes" that set the tone of the shade they'd ultimately create, transforming her light brown hair into the blonde we know today.
"Eye color's first because if it's blue, anything that's golden's going to show that up," he explained. "And if they're icy blue, white shows that up. I would look at the whole package... I mean, she was just gorgeous."
Johns, who is now retired from the hair industry and works as a glass artist (but detailed his headline-making career in a memoir, Dye), used his famous "chunking" technique to highlight Carolyn's "toffee" shade with precision.
"I was the founding father of the chunking technique," he told PEOPLE of the method he used on John F. Kennedy Jr.'s wife, which involved putting the highlight chunks in three foils around the front of her face and two beneath it for when she styled her hair up.
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Source: “AOL Entertainment”
