Photo: Chaiel Schaffel/WBZ NewsRadio
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — On Saturday, Lifetime premiered its new movie about Karen Read titled, “Accused: The Karen Read Story,” but one shot in the movie had people calling out its inaccuracies.
The film shows a “Free Karen Read” billboard. The problem? It appears in a pre-Big Dig Boston. An image of the billboard was superimposed onto the old Boston Garden, a building that was demolished in 1998. It also features the former Central Artery, complete with cars from the ‘80s and ‘90s.
Not only did the scene cause a stir of negative reactions online, people in the Greater Boston Area said the shot turned them off of the film all together.
“It definitely looked photoshopped,” said one woman. “It doesn’t seem sincere with that photo being in there.”
“It looks bad, it immediately looks photoshopped, clear as day,” said one man.
“[My family and I] laughed and my brother-in-law pointed it out immediately, he was like ‘wait a minute’,” said another woman.
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There wasn’t any positivity for the movie, even outside of the Boston Garden scene.
“I thought it was terrible, terrible acting, that movie was all over the place,” said one watcher.
The movie follows the real-life events of Read, who was accused of hitting her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, with her SUV and leaving him for dead in a snowbank back in January 2022. Last year, she was found not guilty of all charges except for OUI.
“Arrow” actress Katie Cassidy plays the titular role, and Luke Humphrey plays John O’Keefe.
The Lifetime film isn’t the only adaptation of Read’s story as Pittsfield native and “Hunger Games” star, Elizabeth Banks, is set to star as her in an upcoming limited series for Prime Video.
The movie is currently available to stream on Lifetime’s website.
WBZ NewsRadio’s Chris Fama (CFamaWBZ) reports.