Posted on 11/13/2018 8:11:29 AM PST by yesthatjallen
Monica Lewinsky is opening up for the first time in years about her relationship with former President Bill Clinton, though even decades later she feels “uncomfortable” discussing it.
“I don’t talk about this very often, and I still feel uncomfortable talking about it because I think it’s not as if it didn’t register with me that he was the president, obviously it did,” Lewinsky says in a preview clip released Tuesday for A&E’s “The Clinton Affair.”
“But I think in one way, the moment we were actually in the back office for the first time, the truth is is that I think it meant more to me that someone other people desired, desired me,” continues Lewinsky. “However wrong it was, however misguided. For who I was in that very moment at 22 years old, that was how it felt.”
The six-part documentary — which debuts Sunday at 9 p.m. — explores the ins and outs of the scandal that rocked the country.
Lewinsky was a 22-year-old White House intern when she became romantically involved with the then-commander in chief in the 1990s. The series’ airing coincides with the 20th anniversary of the 1998 impeachment proceedings of Clinton.
Blair Foster, the doc’s director, says nothing was off-limits with Lewinsky in the more than 20 hours the A&E team spent with the Vanity Fair contributor. The filmmaker says even those who lived through and closely followed the Clinton and Lewinsky saga are likely to learn more about it.
“My first response was most people know how the story goes. But then I started on the project and very, very quickly I said oh I have no idea how this story goes. It’s far more complicated and nuanced than a lot of people realize and remember,” says Foster.
The series includes interviews with countless players, including former independent counsel Ken Starr, former deputy White House press secretary Jennifer Palmieri, former White House volunteer Kathleen Willey, and an array of journalists including Michael Isikoff, Peter Baker and more.
“I don’t know of any other project that has such a full collection of accounts from all aspects,” says Foster. The Emmy Award winner tells ITK that former President Clinton and Hillary Clinton declined to participate.
The three-night documentary also contains never-before-seen footage of Lewinsky on a receiving line in a white sundress shaking Clinton’s hand. “There’s footage of [Lewinsky’s] family visiting him in the Oval Office after a radio address. There’s footage of her wearing the blue dress, meeting with him in the Oval Office,” says Foster.
The 49-year-old filmmaker and "Get Me Roger Stone" producer says she didn’t know what to expect when meeting Lewinsky, who kept a low profile for years before recently reemerging in the public eye as an anti-bullying advocate.
Foster says, Lewinsky, now 45, is “an incredibly smart, and charming, and bright person and I think how she has been depicted in the media at that time and in the intervening years to say it’s inaccurate and a disservice to her is an understatement. I would say that actually about a lot of people in the series.”
“I do feel like looking at this series is really looking at kind of the origin story in a lot of ways of where we are now, and in particular the deeply partisan era that we find ourselves in,” says Foster.
“We’re living in very partisan times, and that everyone views things through party lens and not just a party lens but a very us-versus-them mentality.”
In a line in the documentary referring to 1998, Foster recalls, “somebody says everything was seen through this political lens, there was very little humanity. I thought what if we look through everything not through a political lens but just as this lens of humanity? I feel like that was starting to erode then, and it certainly has continued to erode.”
Nonetheless, says Foster, “The Clinton Affair” should be “heroin for political junkies.”
I don't see Matt Drudge listed but I do see Michael Isikoff.
It will be interesting to see if Isikoff and the director try to make it appear he broke the story.
Isikoff really wants credit for 'breaking' this story.
I wonder if her “look back” was accompanied by an overwhelming urge to spit.
Boring retread.
What can we learn from looking at the Lewinski business yet another time?
Now, if they wanted to do an A&E special on Juanita Broadderick, that might actually be interesting ...
Liberals think that Monica is the only woman from Clinton’s past. They have never heard of the others.
Yep. Monica actually probably had a choice, either volunteer or get raped if Bill wanted her. His history shows that he had no qualms about rape..
Monica must be hurting for cash. This is a big nothing burger. Who cares?
But for that, Lewinsky would still be the punchline of a joke and not some kind of Joan of Arc.
A six-part documentary. Then she complains that it’s all the media focuses on.
Monica did not know that Clinton had expressed himself on her dress. She went out to dinner with people with the explosion on her dress, but nobody pointed it out. I guess it was not an abnormal look for her.
I was learning how to create a website for my business in the post impeachment Clinton/Lewinski era. I learned you could hide keywords used to help search engines find you in very simple ways - like white text on a white background. Visitors couldn’t see them, but Google could. I viewed the source of Lewinski’s site where she was selling purses she had designed. She was capitalizing on scandalous phrases hidden on her site associated with her “time” spent with Bill Clinton. I’ve never been able to muster up much sympathy for her after seeing that.
Huh. So, A&E has a show that does not involve Scientology or storage lockers in any way?
She must be broke & with no prospects!
Why would she want to attention to this again?
Is Monica the 'victim' of Bill Clinton?
Is Bill the 'victim' of the media?
The cast of characters all get their chance to create their own personal narratives.
Oh I say! Steady on!
Swallow, no stain.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.