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The Kardashians Reportedly Had an Issue with This People vs. O.J. Simpson Scene

The E! stars call it “ridiculous.”
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by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Cosmopolitan

The new FX series The People v. O.J. Simpson touches on reality television’s great irony—that Robert Kardashian, the camera-shy moral center of Simpson’s defense team, was responsible for siring reality television’s foremost stars and attention seekers. The deliciously campy drama really leans into this coincidence during a handful of scenes—no more so than in one that aired Tuesday night when Robert, visibly uncomfortable by the media circus surrounding the Bronco chase, is forced to read his friend’s suicide note on live TV. In a dramatic contrast as in-your-face as any publicity stunt Kardashian’s family would pull, the series smash cuts to Kardashian’s four children—Kourtney, Kim, Khloé, and Robert—gleefully watching the press conference from home, and cheering on their father in spite of the tragic circumstances surrounding his television cameo.

On Wednesday, though, TMZ and the Kardashian’s own network, E!, report that family members were upset by that scene because, as a source tells E! News, the cheering “never happened.” TMZ confirms the family’s disappointment, adding that “Kim was watching and thought the scene was over-the-top and ‘ridiculous.’”

TMZ continues, “We’re told the sisters absolutely remember watching their dad reading O.J.’s letter during the news conference, and they were certainly used to people, in general, screwing up their name—but the cheering while watching TV simply ‘never happened.’”

“That said,” E! adds, “the Kardashians are generally happy with how the FX series is portraying their late father.”

During VF Hollywood’s conversation with series show-runners Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, the duo explained why they ended up including the Kardashian kids in scenes at all.

“They were there and certainly one of the things we wanted to talk about in the show was the beginning of the 24-hour news cycle and the creation of reality TV, with characters like Kato Kaelin and Faye Resnick . . . the first reality-TV stars,” Karaszewski told us. “Robert Kardashian is a major major part of the O.J. Simpson trial. It wasn’t as much embellishing [by including scenes of the family]. . .if you were in the Kardashian household and all this media frenzy was going on, how would that affect you? [The kids] really are only in five minutes of the 10 hour-long episodes. By showing a little tiny bit you can see how what happened in ’94, ’95 affected the future Kardashian empire.”

“To be able to throw in a few moments of satirical irony,” Alexander added, about driving home the parallels of the trial and reality TV. “The fact that Robert got pushed onto the TV screen by Shapiro, and for us to show his kids probably [seeing] their dad on TV . . . that could have started it.”

Related: Watch the Real Robert Kardashian Read O.J. Simpson’s Suicide Letter Live on Air