In Todd Haynes’ Netflix drama “May December,” the subject of a decades-old tabloid sex scandal is visited by a famous actress set to portray her in a film.

Julianne Moore plays Gracie Atherton-Yoo, who was 36 years old when she was caught having sex with Joe, a 13-year-old boy who worked with her at a pet store. After having his first child from behind bars, Gracie began her life with Joe (Charles Melton), who is now the same age Gracie was when they first met. Gracie and Joe have three children together, the youngest of them about to graduate high school, and are settling into quiet suburban life when Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman) arrives at their waterfront home to study her subject and rock the boat.

If the story feels ripped from the headlines, that’s because the film is loosely inspired by the Mary Kay Letourneau tabloid scandal of the late-1990s.