Truth about Jayne Mansfield's tragic death to be exposed in emotional new documentary
Mariska Hargitay's Hollywood star mother Jayne Mansfield died when she was just a toddler.
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Law and Order: SVU star Mariska Hargitay is stepping behind the camera to direct a feature length HBO documentary about her Hollywood bombshell mother Jayne Mansfield. The movie titled My Mom Jayne will be the first time she has publicly investigated her mother's story and legacy, nearly sixty years after her death.
The star, who has portrayed Olivia Benson in the police procedurial for 26 years since it's launch in 1999, explained her motivation for making the TV film. “This movie is a labor of love and longing. It’s a search for the mother I never knew, an integration of a part of myself I’d never owned, and a reclaiming of my mother’s story and my own truth. I’ve always believed there is strength in vulnerability, and the process of making this film has confirmed that belief like never before." Mariska, 61, was only three-and-a-half-years-old when Jayne died in a horror car accident in 1967.
She and her two brothers, Miklós and Zoltán, were also in the car, asleep in the backseat at the time of the smash.
Mariska sustained a zigzag scar on one side of her head, while her brothers escaped with minor injuries.
Jayne Mansfield was a Hollywood sex symbol in the 1950s and was originally viewed as an alternative to Marilyn Monroe although she would not achieve the same superstar status relegated largely to B-pictures.
She married former Mae West Muscle man and Mr. Universe winner Mickey Hargitay in 1958. The couple appeared in many movies together including Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? and The Loves of Hercules.
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However their marriage didn't last and they divorced in 1964 after welcoming three children Mariska and her two brothers. Jayne also had two other children.
The official documentary release says the film “follows Mariska as she seeks to know, understand, and embrace her mother for the first time.
"Through intimate interviews and a collection of never-before-seen photos and home movies, she grapples with her mother’s public and private legacy and discovers the layers and depth of who Jayne was, not only to her audience but to those who were closest to her.”
The documentary will premiere in June on HBO and will later be available to stream on Max.
