Halston family calls Ryan Murphy's Netflix series 'sensationalized fiction'

• "Halston" follows Ewan McGregor as the iconic fashion designer throughout his life and career.
• Halston's family have called Ryan Murphy's Netflix show "inaccurate" and "fictionalized."
• Halston's nieces said the family were not consulted and that the show is "unauthorized."

Ryan Murphy's new Netflix series "Halston," starring Ewan McGregor as the late fashion designer, has been called "inaccurate" and "fictionalized" by Halston's family.

On Monday, Halston's niece Lesley Frowick, a keeper of the Halston's archives, released a statement about the new show, writing: "The HALSTON Archives and Family were not consulted on the upcoming Netflix series involving an inaccurate, fictionalized account of famed fashion designer, Halston."

The statement continued: 'The HALSTON Archives remains the only definitive and comprehensive source on the man and his legacy as the personally appointed custodian of his private papers and effects."

Meanwhile, Brook Drummond, another of Halston's nieces, posted to her Facebook on May 7 warning that the show was "sensationalized fiction."

Drummond wrote: "Anyone who is interested in watching the upcoming Netflix series HALSTON, please understand that the Family was not consulted and it is an unauthorized, overdramatized and fictionalized account of a great man."

The show was created by Sharr White and co-written and produced by Murphy. The five-part series follows Halston's rise and fall in the New York City fashion scene through the 1960s, 70s, and 80s.

Reviews of the show have yet to surface with the series premiering on May 14, but "Halston" isn't the first Ryan Murphy show to be attacked for historical inaccuracy. His 2020 show "Hollywood" was criticized by some for taking too many liberties with the parts of the story that were true. However, that show deliberately blended fact and fiction to create an alternative history of Hollywood's golden era.

"Halston" is much more of a true-life tale, with no purposefully fictional elements involved.

Halston, who died in 1990 of Kaposi's Sarcoma, an AIDS-related cancer, rose to fame after he designed the pillbox hat that Jackie Kennedy wore to the 1961 inauguration of her husband President John F. Kennedy.

Halston later launched his own ready-to-wear clothing line, Halston Limited, and opened his own couture boutique, which was frequented by many celebrity clients including Elizabeth Taylor, Lauren Bacall, and Liza Minnelli.

Minnelli, who was a close friend of Halston, appears in Murphy's TV show and is played by Krysta Rodriguez. The casting of Ewan McGregor as Halston has proved to be controversial since he is a straight actor playing a gay role, but Murphy called McGregor "the only choice" to play the famed designer.

McGregor also defended his own casting, explaining that Halston's sexuality is only a small part of who he was and that the series is not about Halston's sexuality but his life and career.

"If it had been a story about Halston's sexuality more, then maybe it's right that gay actors should play that role. But in this case - and I don't want to sound like I'm worming out of this, because it's something I did think a lot about - I suppose ultimately I felt like it was just one part of who he was," McGregor said.