A Legend Revisited
As the book editor she was in the last decades of her life, it was part of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis' job to figure out what the next blockbuster book would be and sign the author.
But she never sealed the deal for what would have been one of the biggest bestsellers ever: her own autobiography.
That unwritten memoir seems to haunt American authors and filmmakers, who have time and again made their own attempts to tell her story.
The latest to try is Donald Spoto, author of the book Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: A Life, and an executive producer of the CBS miniseries Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, to be broadcast Nov. 5 and 8.
Spoto's previous biographical subjects have included Ingrid Bergman, Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Tennessee Williams, Laurence Olivier, Elizabeth Taylor, Alfred Hitchcock and Marlene Dietrich.
Jackie was his editor, in fact, when he wrote the book about Dietrich and that professional acquaintance played a role in his decision to write this new book.
Spoto calls Jackie "an extraordinary human being." Disturbed by the many "half-truths" that were published following her death, Spoto set out to put the record straight, with an account of every part of her life, from birth to death.
The miniseries follows that same road, showing everything from her parents' marriage, marked by her father's philandering, to her own reaction to John F. Kennedy's infidelity, her life as a mother, and her work as an editor.
Interviewed by CBS News Early Show Anchor Bryant Gumbel, Spoto says his view of America's most famous First Lady is of a woman who "was the child of an alcoholic womanizer and of a mother who was a terrible social climber...a girl who read voraciously...and led an inner life against all this exterior madness and the trauma of a broken home."
A determination to survive, says Spoto, was a driving factor in Jackie's consciousness.
"By 1960, she was in a marriage that she was insistent would survive," he says. "She would make it work. The first few years, that marriage was deeply troubled. She had, in fact, a miscarriage, a stillbirth, and a husband who was flagrantly unfaithful."
It's a situation she did think of escaping, according to Spoto.
"At one point, she went to her father-in-law. She went to Joe Kennedy and said 'Look, I'm willing to end this marriage because obviously I can't give him anything that he needs to succeed.' And Joe Kennedy said 'You know, I'll give you a million dollars to stay with the marriage.' She was shocked by that," says Spoto.
But the author believes it was love, not money, that persuaded Jackie to stay on.
On another aspect of Jackie's life, Spoto is adamant in saying that he is absolutely sure there is no truth to rumors that her relationship with Bobby Kennedy was anything more than just friends.
As for her decision to marry Aristotle Onassis, Spoto does no find it so very puzzling.
Spoto says Jackie loved the Greek shipping tycoon "in her own way - all the evidence was of a relationship of keen affection."
"She and Ari had been friends for years (before getting married). He had been a friend to both Kennedys," says Spoto. "Here was a man who offered her protection, security, attention to the children. He was a wonderful father to John and Caroline, and at a time when she felt that the country as it was, was in such profound turmoil - the year in which Dr. King and Robert Kennedy were assassinated within eight weeks of each other. Her line was - if they're killing Kennedys, my children are next."
The role of Jackie in the CBS miniseries is being played by Joanne Whalley, whose previous credits include Scarlett O'Hara in the CBS mini-series Scarlett and the feature films Willow, The Man Who Knew Too Little, Navy Seals, Trial by Jury, and Scandal.
Stepping up to the plate in the role as JFK is Tim Matheson, who currently stars as the vice president on NBC's The West Wing and whose credits include Forever Love and Harmful Intent, both on CBS, and the feature films The Story of Us, She's All That, A Very Brady Sequel, and Animal House.
Spoto himself has a cameo in the mini-series, playing the role of Richard Cardinal Cushing, the Roman Catholic leader whose sphere of influence extended way beyond Boston.
Others in the cast include Tom Skerritt, as Joseph P. Kennedy; Diane Baker, as Rose Kennedy; Andrew McCarthy, as Bobby Kennedy; Frances Fisher, as Janet Bouvier, Jackie's mother; and Phillip Baker Hall, as Aristotle Onassis.
©2000, CBS Worldwide Inc., All Rights Reserved