The character Lacey on Hulu's The Act is based off Aleah Woodmansee, Gypsy Rose Blanchard's neighbor in real life. Woodmansee was one of the only people who knew that Gypsy met men online and that she later had a relationship with Nicholas Godejohn, the man that helped Gypsy murder her mother,
Though her name has been changed to Lacey, it's apparent that Gypsy's across-the-street neighbor and friend in The Act is a stand-in for real-life neighbor and friend Aleah Woodmansee. (Just as Chloë Sevigny's character, Mel, is doubtless a doppelgänger for Aleah's mother, Amy Pinegar.)
On the show, Lacey's mom Mel (Chloë Sevigny) is a fictionalized version of Aleah's mother, Amy Pinegar. It's true that Aleah Woodmansee was the only one who knew that Gypsy Rose Blanchard had a secret Facebook account. Gypsy used her Facebook alias "Emma Rose" to message boys.
"It is possible that Gypsy Rose presents with puberphonia (high-pitched voice after birth), a class of psychogenic voice disorders," says Jayne Latz, an executive communication coach and president and founder of Corporate Speech Solutions.
"I am unable to watch The Act. However, I feel it is very unfair and unprofessional that producers and co-producer Michelle Dean has used my actual name and story without my consent, and the life rights to do so. Therefore, there will be legal action taken against the show's creators.
And immediately after treating her like a literal child, Dee Dee is angry right back because Gypsy has started her period early. The offense was apparently that Gypsy didn't immediately alert her mother to this fact. Also, it's not exactly as if Dee Dee has made Gypsy very self sufficient after all these years.
In 2010, Dee Dee was telling everyone that Gypsy Rose was 14, but she was actually 19 years old. By then, she knew she wasn't as sick as her mother claimed — as she was well aware that she could walk.
However, Gypsy wasn't actually unwell — her mother had been lying about her symptoms. Experts believe Dee Dee's behavior stemmed from the mental disorder Munchausen syndrome by proxy; because Dee Dee wanted to be a caretaker, she feigned and induced illness in her daughter.
Rod and Gypsy have reconnected since she's been in prison.
"It's a hundred times better, honestly," he said. "We email each other. She can call me anytime, and she does. I'm keeping tabs on all of her accomplishments in school.
In addition to being told she had leukemia, muscular dystrophy and epilepsy, Gypsy Rose Blanchard never even knew her real age. You'll see in the trailer a fictionalized moment when her mother Dee Dee Blanchard (played by Patricia Arquette) is asked Gypsy's age.
The motion is granted, which upsets Nick, as he claims he only did it to be with her. Mel visits Gypsy at the prison; she informs Gypsy that she and Lacey have decided not to continue their association with her. Flashbacks depict the night of Dee Dee's murder; Gypsy's last conversation with her mother is shown.
The Act, a new Hulu series, presents a fictionalized version of the story of Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard and her daughter, Gypsy Rose, whose strange case gained national publicity following a viral 2016 BuzzFeed story by Michelle Dean and a 2017 HBO documentary, Mommy Dead and Dearest.
And with Blanchard disapproving of their relationship the pair conspired to murder her, police concluded. Godejohn was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison, and Gypsy Rose was convicted of second-degree murder. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison but is up for parole later this year.
Gypsy never thought she was going to get caught
She was also seen expressing immediate regret at the murder of her mother, and was desperately attempting to cover her up.
In the show, Lacey never showed up to visit Gypsy, but in reality, the story with the actual Lacey goes a bit differently. Lacey is actually based on a woman named Aleah Woodmansee, who did have that big sister relationship with Gypsy that Lacey had in The Act.
The character Scott is loosely based on a real relationship the actual Gypsy Rose had. According to the BuzzFeed article the show is based on, Gypsy left a scif-fi convention with a man she met there (though they had apparently been talking online before that), and they went back to his hotel room.
For Gypsy, she's made it clear that she no longer has any romantic feelings for Nick in interviews, eventually learning the fairy tale love stories she grew up obsessed with are just that: fairy tales. "In the Disney movies, everything's a fantasy, it's a fairy tale.
In Hulu's new show, The Act, Dee Dee Blanchard says her daughter Gypsy Rose has a sugar allergy, in addition to many other health issues. Dee Dee says Gypsy's sugar allergy is so severe that it could kill her-but it turns out, Gypsy has no such allergy.
Dee Dee was a perpetrator of Munchausen by proxy, in which a caretaker or parent fakes, exaggerates, or induces an illness to attract attention. Her daughter Gypsy realized that she wasn't actually sick, and plotted with an online acquaintance to kill her mother.
Despite all of this medical attention, Gypsy was fine. More than fine, in fact. "There were certain illnesses I knew I didn't have. I knew I could eat and I knew I could walk, but I did believe my mother when she said I had leukemia," she admitted to ABC News in 2018.
When Gypsy was a child, her mom Dee Dee told her that she suffered from leukemia and a host of other health issues. Gypsy revealed in a 20/20 interview that the only medical condition she actually has is a lazy eye.
But, according to a 2016 BuzzFeed News investigation on the true story, it's unclear whether Gypsy's teeth were rotting because of poor dental hygiene, malnutrition, or the medications she didn't need—or a combination of all three. Gypsy says a medication called Tegretol for epilepsy caused her "teeth to crumble."
As for her teeth, they did rot and were subsequently removed, likely due to the removal of Gypsy's salivary glands. According to Gypsy, her mother used a numbing agent to numb her gums, causing her to drool, which helped convince doctors to remove the glands.
Dee Dee's years of abuse impacted Gypsy Rose physically, mentally and emotionally. She was 23 when Dee Dee was killed, but had been told by her mother that she was just a teenager with the mental capacity of a 7-year-old.