Arts & Entertainment

Gianni Versace’s lover bashes Ricky Martin’s portrayal in ‘American Crime Story’

Antonio D’Amico says the murder scene is inaccurate

Published

9 years ago

August 2, 2017

Mariah Cooper

(Screenshot via YouTube.)

Antonio D’Amico, Gianni Versace’s partner of 15 years until his murder in 1997, is not happy with the way he is being portrayed in “American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace.”

An on set photo from the scene of Versace’s murder is circulating the internet and D’Amico says it’s completely inaccurate to what really happened.

A post shared by ¡Estereopop! ?? (@estereopop) on Jul 31, 2017 at 4:03pm PDT

D’Amico told The Observer that the “American Crime Story” team did not reach out to him for research.

“The picture of Ricky Martin holding the body in his arms is ridiculous,” D’Amico says. “Maybe it’s the director’s poetic license, but that is not how I reacted.”

D’Amico was drinking coffee on the veranda of the mansion when Versace was shot. He and the butler rushed outside to find Versace laying on the steps.

“The house had stained glass windows so we couldn’t see what had happened from inside, so we had to open the gate,” D’Amico says. “I saw Gianni lying on the steps, with blood around him. At that point, everything went dark. I was pulled away, I didn’t see any more.”

However, D’Amico is open to helping Martin and the “American Crime Story” team make the portrayal more accurate.

“It’s getting to know the small things about a relationship,” D’Amico says. “For example, Gianni was so ordered and focused at work but in his private life everything was disorganized. He’d leave the bathroom in a mess. At a certain point I said ‘enough’! And when it came to cooking, he didn’t even know how to [boil] an egg.”

Up Next

Bulleit Bourbon founder’s lesbian daughter claims family is homophobic

Don't Miss

‘Call Me By Your Name’ trailer showcases passionate summer affair

FUND LGBTQ JOURNALISM

Online Culture

Clavicular charged in alleged rape of teenage influencer

Online personality’s real name is Braden Peters

Published

11 hours ago

September 23, 2026

Joe Reberkenny

Braden Peters a.k.a. "Clavicular" (Screen capture via NBC News/YouTube)

Online personality Clavicular, whose real name is Braden Peters, has been accused of rape.

According to NBC, Aleksandra Vasilevna Mendoza, an 18-year-old influencer known online as Alorah or Alorah Ziva, accused Peters of sexual assault, and the case is making its way through the court system.

The alleged incident occurred on May 23, 2025, when Mendoza was 17.

According to a criminal complaint from the Chatham (Mass.) Police Department, Peters called her an Uber to his family’s home. Once there, he allegedly got her drunk on vodka while they livestreamed on Twitch and then raped her. His mother and grandmother were allegedly in the house.

The documents allege Clavicular committed rape, drugging a person for sexual intercourse, and procuring and providing liquor to a person under 21.

According to court documents acquired by NPR, Mendoza began communicating with Peters on Instagram, where he paid her to appear on his livestreams to help her “make her name known on social media.”

According to those documents, Peters arranged for the minor to come to Cape Cod home to participate in a videostream for his 437,000 followers on Kick, 1.2 million followers on TikTok, and more than 1 million followers on Instagram.

At his home, Peters allegedly instructed Mendoza to say she was 18 on his videostream and to claim the alcohol on camera was water instead of vodka. Mendoza said she felt peer-pressured to drink the spirit and that she became noticeably intoxicated after a couple of drinks.

The allegations go on to state that after stopping the stream, Peters and Mendoza kissed on a couch and then had sex in his bed without her consent. Mendoza said she did not receive a sexual assault forensic exam after the incident. NPR does not name alleged victims of sexual assault.

The charges come months after Mendoza sued Peters in Miami, accusing him of sexual battery in connection with the events of May 2025. The civil lawsuit also separately alleges that he injected her face with a non-FDA-approved fat-dissolving substance during a November livestream in Florida.

Peters is known for his “looksmaxxing” concept of vanity, which is at the core of his online presence. The “looksmaxxing” culture he has helped cultivate combines elements of incel culture and heterosexuality, with the stated goal of attracting the opposite sex. He has gone as far as to say he has undergone “bonesmashing,” or hitting his own face with a hammer; taken anabolic steroids to more rapidly grow muscle; and used crystal meth as an appetite suppressant.

At the same time, looksmaxxing has been described as having elements of homoeroticism, with “looksmaxxers” appearing more concerned with impressing other men than women. Peters has multiple times pointed to openly gay actor Matt Bomer as the gold standard for male facial aesthetics.

Peters’s arraignment is scheduled for Oct. 14.