TV and Movies

[blackhole99]

There's a book out by a good friend of John John Kennedy called 4 friends by William Cohan,if I'm not mistaken. WC was a close friend of JJ and mentioned when he was on MSNBC promoting the book that JJ was always a risk taker and thought the rules did not apply to him. WC also mentioned that JJ and his wife were not living together and were going to divorce when John put the plane in the sea. So yes, his friends are making money off their friendship with him. Of course, like they say,"to those that much is given, much is expected". I can only imagine how jealous his friends were of his charm and good looks, let alone the mass of wealth he was born into.

[Sooner]

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@blackhole99 wrote:

There's a book out by a good friend of John John Kennedy called 4 friends by William Cohan,if I'm not mistaken. WC was a close friend of JJ and mentioned when he was on MSNBC promoting the book that JJ was always a risk taker and thought the rules did not apply to him. WC also mentioned that JJ and his wife were not living together and were going to divorce when John put the plane in the sea. So yes, his friends are making money off their friendship with him. Of course, like they say,"to those that much is given, much is expected". I can only imagine how jealous his friends were of his charm and good looks, let alone the mass of wealth he was born into.

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@blackhole99 I surely don't think all of his friends were jealous of his charm and good looks and wealth.  I really don't think most people think that way about their friends.  

[blackhole99]

@Sooner  no, I certainly don't think "all" his friends were jealous of his good looks, charm and money and didn't say "all". I forget some posters will take every word and statement you make literally and challenge it.

[RetRN]

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@Pearlee wrote:

By the way, speaking of "entitled,"  according to the TV show, John was flunking out of Brown University more than once, but Jackie intervened and Brown kept John enrolled and he graduated from there.  Then went on to law school and later flunked the bar exam twice.

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Was any Kennedy not "entitled"?  They could get away with anything . Wealth, charm, and good looks are things that many people are enamored with. Drug abuse and alcohol abuse were rampant in that family. 

[colliemom4]

I watched a little bit of a show about them last night but just couldn't get into it. I do recall it happening and finding it very sad that John, Carolyn and her sister passed away.

[Somertime]

It amazes me that Joh Kennedy, Jr. would be lumped into the same critique of "the entitled" Kennedy children with drugs, etc.  The Kennedy children involved with drugs, lawsuits, ot of control behavior were Ethel Kennedy's boys, Jean Kennedy's son William and Patrick Kennedy who has acknowledged his problems and has sought help.

The worst thing for John Kennedy was poor grades at Brown, what Mother wouldn't make an effort to keep him in school and taking the NYS Bar exam, twice which is extremely hard and most people have to take it a second time and there is no shame in that.  Oh my heavens, how awful!  Oh my heavens, how entitled!!!!  You have to be kidding.  He was raised very differently as was Caroline from his other cousins and it showed.  To lump him with the other troubled Kennedy's is unfair and unwarranted.

[stevieb]

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@Sooner wrote:

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@blackhole99 wrote:

There's a book out by a good friend of John John Kennedy called 4 friends by William Cohan,if I'm not mistaken. WC was a close friend of JJ and mentioned when he was on MSNBC promoting the book that JJ was always a risk taker and thought the rules did not apply to him. WC also mentioned that JJ and his wife were not living together and were going to divorce when John put the plane in the sea. So yes, his friends are making money off their friendship with him. Of course, like they say,"to those that much is given, much is expected". I can only imagine how jealous his friends were of his charm and good looks, let alone the mass of wealth he was born into.

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@blackhole99 I surely don't think all of his friends were jealous of his charm and good looks and wealth.  I really don't think most people think that way about their friends.  

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Agree and I'd also note @Sooner that birds of a feather tend to flock together... I'd posit that many of his friends played pretty much in the same ballpark as did he...

[LoriLori]

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@Somertime wrote:

It amazes me that Joh Kennedy, Jr. would be lumped into the same critique of "the entitled" Kennedy children with drugs, etc.  The Kennedy children involved with drugs, lawsuits, ot of control behavior were Ethel Kennedy's boys, Jean Kennedy's son William and Patrick Kennedy who has acknowledged his problems and has sought help.

The worst thing for John Kennedy was poor grades at Brown, what Mother wouldn't make an effort to keep him in school and taking the NYS Bar exam, twice which is extremely hard and most people have to take it a second time and there is no shame in that.  Oh my heavens, how awful!  Oh my heavens, how entitled!!!!  You have to be kidding.  He was raised very differently as was Caroline from his other cousins and it showed.  To lump him with the other troubled Kennedy's is unfair and unwarranted.

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ITA.  I watched the second hour and it was Carolyn whose life got the storybook treatment.  She did the drugs, she was addicted to cocaine.  Okay those were the times and that was the industry but still, it was her and not him.  She treated him badly in public and other than her best friends didn't have many who had good things to say about her.

It's sad that his greatest love was Daryl Hannah but his mother did not want him marrying an actress nor did she like Hannah. Although she died not long after her breakup I think she really got in his head about it.  Carolyn Bessette ticked the right boxes, he settled and that's sad. 

Who knows what he could have done had he lived. His sister, though she also had an unhappy marriage, has led an exemplary life given the privileges of her birth and the failings of the rest of the family.  Jackie did an incredible job raising them.

[stevieb]

There's a good article by Vanity Fair on the unraveling of their marriage. John was good looking, had presence and charisma but I, of course, dont know if there was substance to go with the style. The artilce paints him as a bit of a narcissit and her as more than a bit of a train wreck. It goes on to say they would have divorced. Whether John was 'entitled' or not (and noting that entitlement can take different forms...) it would seem as though he was at least a bit arrogant and that hubris, it also seems, was his undoing...

As for Jackie, it always seemed she was intent at all costs on him living up to the supposed Kennedy family 'legacy': an ivy league education, law school and a hgh end profession. Not that there's necessarily anything long with a parent wanting what (she deems...) is best for their child, but who's to say that his life might have taken a very different turn had she not virtually insisted on her plan... Had he flunked out of Brown, become an actor, as he at one time wanted to be, married someone not of their 'ilk', as might well have happened had he not been 'expected' to make a 'good' match and so on, things might (or might not...) have had a different ending...

[LoriLori]

Give him this:  George was a new and different, pretty good idea (except for that awful first cover which unfortunately came to define the magazine).  Yes it was a failure but many people who have gone on to great success have failed many times; indeed some of them cite their failures as key learning experiences.  Sadly he didn't have the years to learn.