The Real Lucy and Desi

Prime Video’s movie Being the Ricardos, starring Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem as Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, recounts the scandals that nearly undid America’s sweethearts

- ILEANE RUDOLPH

IN 1953, THE sitcom I Love Lucy was TV’s No. 1 series, and its two stars were adored by millions. But what if that had been the year the laughter died?

With the film Being the Ricardos, Oscarand Emmy-winning writer-director Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing) looks back to a period when Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz (Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem) could have lost their show and their marriage. “The script is inspired by the truth,” says producer Todd Black, “but boldly imagined.”

The showbiz couple thought their biggest challenge was Lucy’s real-life pregnancy. Defying tradition, they insisted that she would be pregnant on the program, a television taboo at the time. (It didn’t matter that their characters, Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, were married.)