The Act is a dark new drama based on the disturbing true story of Gypsy Rose and Dee Dee Blanchard and their complex mother-daughter relationship that culminated in murder. The Hulu anthology series follows Gypsy, who was convicted of killing her mother Dee Dee in 2015. Gypsy claims Dee suffered from Munchausen Syndrome proxy, which caused her to force her daughter to take medications to induce sickness. Gypsy is played by Fargo's Joey King, and Dee Dee by Patricia Arquette. Hulu describes the series, which is due for release on streaming service Starzplay (available on Amazon Prime Video) on 14th June - as being about "a girl trying to escape the toxic relationship she has with her overprotective mother". But that's only on the surface... Munchausen Syndrome proxy is as a mental illness and a form of child abuse. The parent or caregiver of the child either fabricates fake symptoms or deliberately causes symptoms to make it appear as though the child is unwell. This is sometimes done to elicit sympathy and attention. Gypsy was wheelchair-bound, told by her mother she had leukemia, suffered seizures, and at one point had to be tube fed until the terrifying pretence eventually crumbled and resulted in the death of Dee Dee. This content is imported from Instagram. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. Using her mother's mental illness as her defence, Gypsy claimed Dee Dee held her against her will, physically and psychologically abused her, forced her take medications she didn't need and undergo unnecessary medical procedures. Friends and neighbours believed Gypsy was battling cancer, and Gypsy and Dee Dee received many donations from charities. Hulu Gypsy Rose pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and is serving a 10-year sentence, while Gypsy's boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn was found guilty of first-degree murder after a brief trial. The troubling case was also the subject of HBO documentary Mommy Dead and Dearest in 2017. You can watch The Act on Starzplay (Amazon Prime Video) from 14th June. Sign up to Amazon Prime Video now! Naomi Gordon Naomi Gordon is news writer mainly covering entertainment news with a focus on celebrity interviews and television. This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io<doc-sep>Hulu's upcoming show 'The Act' is based on the horrifying true story of an abusive and manipulative mother and her troubled daughter trying to escape the toxic relationship. Dee Dee Blanchard, the mother, suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSBP) and had her daughter Gypsy wrongly convinced that she was sick and suffered a range of medical conditions from when she was a child. Dee Dee convinced Gypsy that she was paralysed waist down and had her chained to the wheelchair for most of her life. Gypsy discovered the truth when she was almost 23 years old. She then plotted her mother's murder and escaped from her clutches with the help of her boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn who she had met online in the year 2015. A still of Joey King as Gypsy Blanchard and Patricia Arquette as Dee Dee Blanchard in the upcoming show 'The Act' (Source: YouTube) Dee Dee's body was found on June 14, 2015 and, days later, Gypsy was found by the police with the help of her friend Aleah Woodmansee who told police about Gypsy's boyfriend. 'The Act' stars Patricia Arquette as Dee Dee and Joey King as Gypsy. Buzzfeed contributor Michelle Dean, who wrote an in-depth story about the incident in 2016, a year after it occurred, is one of the writers and executive producers of the show. In the story, Dean outlined Dee Dee and Gypsy's relationship before the murder took place with testimonies from friends, neighbours and other people she spoke to. The series also takes inspiration from the HBO documentary 'Mommy Dead and Dearest' which released in 2017 and covered the incidents following Gypsy's arrest and incorporated her statements to the police. The documentary also features an interview with Gypsy after she was jailed in which she gave her account of the events and the life that she led. In the documentary, Nick (Nicholas Godejohn), Gypsy's boyfriend who committed the crime, revealed, "Honestly, she was the one who told me to." He was referring to stabbing Gypsy's mother. He stressed that he wouldn't have done if not for Gypsy. The Facebook post which read, "The B**** is Dead" followed by “I fucken SLASHED THAT FAT PIG AND RAPED HER SWEET INNOCENT DAUGHTER… HER SCREAM WAS SOOOO FUCKEN LOUD LOL,” was also revealed to have been authored by Gypsy herself. After Gypsy's arrest and subsequent interrogation, the county sheriff organised a press conference where he started saying, "Not all is as it appears". The same words are used at the start of the Hulu show and serve as a primer. Gypsy was arraigned on June 16, 2015 on charges of conspiracy to murder her mother and colluding with Nick. It was also the arraignment where friends and neighbours of Gypsy and Dee Dee realised that the girl they all knew as a 'sick child' was not sick at all. The officials also had to investigate the depth of financial frauds committed by Dee Dee over the years. The Blanchards were given free medical air-lifts, fully paid trip to Disney Land and a home to live in, all because of Gypsy's disabilities. On June 24, 2015 the prosecution presented the primary evidence it had against Gypsy and persecuted on the charges of murder in the first degree. Gypsy pleaded guilty resulting in a 10-year sentence. Greene Country prosecutor Dan Patterson had presented the text messages between Gypsy and Nick as evidence which proved that she had prior knowledge about the murder. She had wrote to Nick, "...we'll be happy soon. After this night, we will never bring it up." The most important detail the documentary added to the unravelling story of Dee Dee and Gypsy was a conversation with the former after she was sentenced to jail. She sits down for her 'first honest conversation' and exudes nervous excitement at the fact that she is doing something like this. When she was asked about her mother, Gypsy said that she was unique and overprotective. "I barely thought I was abused. You see when you have lived your entire life that way, you do not understand the difference," she explained about her situation. She had believed that she had asthma, epilepsy, hearing impairment, vision impairment, was paralysed from the waist down and more. She also recalled the amount of medication that she had had over the years, the first surgery that she remembered being performed on her and discomfort of using a breathing machine overnight every day for years. She added that her mother would calm her down before hospital visits and tell her 'to play with the dolls and not move your legs'. Gypsy also spoke about the time when she had first tried to run away from her mother. Her mother had not only smashed her things but also warned her that, if Gypsy were to try running away ever again, her fingers would be smashed too. She was tied to the bed with a dog leash and a pair of handcuffs for two weeks after the incident. In the documentary, Dean says that this was not just about two scheming people but it goes deeper than that. The documentary also records how Gypsy's father Rod Blanchard did not have any idea that Gypsy was a healthy child. In fact, he confessed how Dee Dee told him that Gypsy wouldn't live past her teenage years because of her medical conditions. Rod also laid out tens of pictures of Gypsy and of Gypsy with himself over the years as he spoke about the number of surgeries that she had got for various medical conditions, which might not even have existed. 'The Act', based on Gypsy's life, her struggles and her rebellion, premieres March 20 on Hulu.<doc-sep>Entertainment It Might Be Time To Say Goodbye To Sutton & Richard’s Relat... When The Bold Type returns for its fifth and final season, the relationship status of Sutton (Meghann Fahy) and Richard (Sam Page) will most definitely be<doc-sep>Hulu's New Series Will Explore The Twisted Murder Of Dee Dee Blanchard By Kristy Puchko | TV | February 14, 2019 | To the world, Dee Dee Blanchard and Gypsy Rose were a bubbly mother-daughter duo with a deep bond that saw them through incredible struggles, including the latter’s partial paralysis, intellectual disabilities, and leukemia. Their chipper attitudes and shining smiles made them media darlings, who were beloved by their community. But behind closed doors, secrets grew that would lead to a vicious murder. Their story will be explored in Hulu’s upcoming anthology series, The Act. Following in the footsteps of American Crime Story, The Act will focus on one crime each season. The first will be based on Michelle Dean’s Buzzfeed article, “Dee Dee Wanted Her Daughter To Be Sick, Gypsy Wanted Her Mom Murdered.” Academy Award winner Patricia Arquette will stars as Dee Dee, while Joey King will tackle the role of the controversial Gypsy Rose. EW has revealed the first look at this upcoming show along with the trailer below: The Blanchard case is one that deals in duplicity, manipulation, Munchausen by proxy, cyber romance, and murder. There’s no question who killed Dee Dee. But who’s responsible is a muddier matter that’s been debated by true crime enthusiasts and the documentary Mommy Dead and Dearest. Among the Overlords, this teaser has caused some unease. There’s a concern that The Act will be less interested in making sense of the murkier details or placing this crime in the context of the society that fostered it than it may be a garish exploitation of one family’s pain and terrible tragedy. It’s too soon to say either way. But points in The Act’s favor is that Dean is not only a producer but also a writer for the show. Dean told EW, “I’ve spent three years listening to people tell me how crazy they think the people at the heart of this story are, and they were never that crazy to me. They always seemed like human beings who had an emotional logic to what they did. Horrible things, but they did them out of truly human impulses. We made that into kind of a mission statement: We want people to understand the people behind the act.” The Act premieres on Hulu March 20. ← 'Killing Eve's Season 2 Trailer Has Arrived | Pre-Royal Meghan Markle Film, 'The Boys and Girls Guide to Getting Down', Acquired for Distribution → Kristy Puchko is the managing editor of Pajiba. You can follow her on Twitter. Header Image Source: Hulu<doc-sep>
Hulu released the first trailer for the upcoming show The Act on Tuesday, and Dee Dee Blanchard's family is reportedly upset about it. The show is a reenactment of the life of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, who had her mother, Dee Dee, killed after she kept Gypsy Rose sick for years. Dee Dee had Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, which is a psychological disorder in which a caretaker keeps those in their care ill. Though Gypsy Rose was seemingly ill much of her life, she found her independence as an adult through an online relationship. Her internet boyfriend killed her mother after Gypsy asked. The story has been featured before, most notably in 2017 HBO documentary Mommy Dead and Dearest. With news of the story's revival in The Act, Dee Dee's family said it's time to put the true crime spectacle to rest. Bobby Pitre, Gypsy Rose's cousin, spoke about the family's distaste for the Hulu version in a new interview with Radar Online. "Dee Dee's sisters think it's pretty f**ked up," Pitre said of the Hulu announcement. "They hate all of it. They don't know why people keep making stories about it." Pitre said the sisters think it's "time to leave it alone." Dee Dee was killed in 2015. Gypsy Rose and her then boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, are currently serving time in prison for the murder. Pitre expressed his own opinions on Dee Dee in the interview. "She was pretty f**king crazy. She deserved to die," he shared. "She'd be controlling Gypsy for sure. She had Gypsy right where she wanted her." For most of Gypsy's life, she was confined to a wheelchair. She was on a variety of medications for seizures and other illnesses, like muscle dystrophy, which she did not need. She said she's happier in prison than she was with her mother in a January 2018 conversation with ABC News. "Over here, I feel like I'm freer in prison than living with my mom," she explained. "Now, I'm allowed to live like a normal woman." In the interview, Gypsy revealed a list of medical conditions she believed she'd had as a child. They included "leukemia, asthma, vision and hearing impairment, muscular dystrophy and seizures." In prison, Gypsy Rose is working toward a high school degree. She will be eligible for parole when she turns 33 years old. She is now 27.