by Grace Alexander

Created on: April 29, 2010

Katie Holmes and Greg Kinnear make an unlikely couple as the President and First Lady in a new miniseries about the Kennedys… but hey, it's just the History Channel, not Hollywood.

Katie first made her mark in the teen series 'Dawson's Creek' and has participated in several films including 'First Daughter'.  She later made headlines following her controversial conversion and marriage to high profile actor and Scientologist Tom Cruise, and birth of her daughter Suri. Katie promises to be a poised and elegant Jacqueline, and has already been photographed posing with her hair styled in the classic Jackie O French twists and flips.

Many feel that the casting is spot on, pointing to supposed similarities that make Katie's life a parallel to Jackie's. Of course, Jackie grew up in New York, became stepdaughter to the heir of the Standard Oil fortune and married the leader of  the free world, while Katie was a simple Ohio girl who broke into acting and ended up married to a psycho. That said, the similarity could play out later assuming Tom Cruise manages to get himself assassinated.

Kinnear, on the other hand, is better known for character parts in dramatic films and dark comedies and including 'Stuck on You', 'Nurse Betty', 'Little Miss Sunshine', Sabrina and Baby Mama. He is viewed skeptically by the masses who doubt his ability to carry off the part of John F. Kennedy. Many point to his age, saying the 47 year old actor is a year older than Kennedy was when he died, and will have difficulty portraying a young and vibrant JFK (Kinnear was actually born just a few short months before Kennedy's tragic death in 1963.)

Every decade has its own Kennedy film or miniseries, with an ever changing cast of actors and actresses taking on the roles of the assassinated President and his wife Jackie, during an era that was to come to be known as 'Camelot'. The early '80s saw a young Martin Sheen take on the role of John F., facing Blair Brown (better known these days as the indomitable Nina Sharp in the hit series FRINGE; oddly, Katie's original costar Joshua Jackson from 'Dawson's' plays the lead in the same scifi drama).

Oliver Stone's controversial 'documentary' dominated the '90s; 'JFK' became the template for conspiracy theorists and further strengthened many American's views that Kennedy had indeed, been murdered by parties other than Lee Harvey Oswald. Countless other movies and documentaries have been made surrounding the life and death of JFK and Jackie's subsequent remarriage to Onassis, as well as the drama surrounding other members of the Kennedy family.

The new Kennedy miniseries is expected to air in 2011, and is hyped to be a balanced look at that period in history; the History Channel (which will be hosting the miniseries) reported: "The family's personal drama will be part of the saga along with major events of their time." Tom Wilkins and Barry Pepper will co-star.

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