The subject of Lifetime’s made-for-TV movie House of Versace is none too pleased with the upcoming flick, with fashionista Donatella Versace expressing her thinly veiled displeasure at the unauthorized biopic.
“Versace has neither authorized nor had any involvement whatsoever in the forthcoming TV movie about Mrs. Versace,” reads a terse statement from the acclaimed fashion house.
The problem, according to a rep for Versace, stems from the movie’s source material, Deborah Ball’s unauthorized 2010 book, House of Versace: The Untold Story of Genius, Murder and Survival, which details the tragic murder of designer Gianni Versace and sister Donatella’s cocaine-snorting, party-girl past.
“Since Versace did not authorize the book on which it is based,”; clarifies the rep, “the movie should only be seen as a work of fiction.”;
To be fair, Donatella’s aversion to the film may have something to do with the trailer, in which Donatella (played by a deliciously over-the-top Gina Gershon) says such lines as, “I was always crazy — even before the drugs,”; and, “If you want to put me on a leash, it better be diamond studded, or you can kiss my ass.”
House of Versace, which also stars Enrico Colantoni as the late Gianni Versace and Raquel Welch as their Aunt Lucia, airs Saturday, Oct. 5 on Lifetime Canada.
