Los Angeles, Jan 11 (IANS): "The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story" creator Ryan Murphy has broken his silence on the official statement from the Versace family which denounced the upcoming new season of the FX anthology series.

While the family called the new season of "American Crime Story" a "work of fiction," Murphy said the family is lying, reports aceshowbiz.com.

"The Versace family has said it's a work of fiction -- it is not a work of fiction. 'The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story' was based on a non-fiction book by Jeffrey Toobin.

"'Versace' is based on a non-fiction book by Maureen Orth that has been discussed and dissected and vetted for close to 20 years," said Murphy.

"She worked for Vanity Fair. Maureen Orth is an impeccable reporter and we stand by her reporting. Our show is based on her reporting so, in that way, it is not a work of fiction, it's a work of non-fiction obviously with docudrama elements. We're not making a documentary," Murphy added.

Murphy said that despite the official statement, Donatella Versace, Gianni's sister and vice president and chief designer of the Versace Group, sent "a very large arrangement of flowers" to star Penelope Cruz when she was representing the show at the 2018 Golden Globe Awards.

On Tuesday, the Versace family issued an official statement that "The Versace family has neither authorised nor had any involvement whatsoever in the forthcoming TV series about the death of Mr. Gianni Versace".