"Monica Lewinsky says her White House liaison is a liability on the dating scene."

All because of a single shot web on her dress.

No other presidential mistresses were ever treated as badly as Monica was.

yeah i feel bad for her. i don't think it's fun to be monica lewinsky.

what the shit @ my first post itt

Ned had your number?

yes

I was the buffet and he just couldn't resist the dessert

And when electricsound told me that on the phone I was intrigued.

Halfway through Impeachment (or at least I hope so--on the fifth episode). I'll finish, because I'm averse to bailing past a certain point, but pretty bad, I'd have to say. The thing I really don't get is that Lewinsky is listed as one of the producers: this is how she wants to see herself portrayed? I also don't get that it's supposed to be based on Jeffrey Toobin's A Vast Conspiracy. Over a decade since I read that, but I remember it as a polemic defense of the Hillary Clinton phrase that provided the book's title; I don't remember it as specifically being about Lewinsky and Tripp.

Maybe getting a producer credit (and the compensation attached to it) was the price she demanded to be cooperative. What she could do for them is give firsthand expertise on lots of details. Seems unlikely she contributed enough money or insider connections to be given personal control over how she was portrayed.

I think I made it through three eps before deciding life's too short.

Still plowing ahead, finished 8/10 episodes. Seventh and eighth were pretty compelling, although I wouldn't say the performances got much better.

The Rolling Stone reviewer thought Paulson as Linda Tripp was terrible, and the actresses playing Lewinsky and Paula Jones were the best thing about the series. For me, the complete opposite. Lewinsky comes across as a breathless 14-year-old (why I asked above if she was happy seeing herself portrayed that way), and the creators seem especially cruel towards Jones; Tripp, on the other hand, does have some shading, even if her motivations at any given moment can be obscure.

They lay on the prosthetics so much in this, it often takes me an episode or two to recognize certain actors and actresses. Weirdest sighting yet is Patrick Fischler (Jimmy Barret in Mad Men, Lynch favourite) as Sidney Blumenthal. I don't know what Clive Owen is doing. He's not Clinton.

The most fascinating casting to me is Edie Falco as Hillary. Takes her a while to show up. I find it hard to gauge the accuracy, I have such strong images of performer and character. The fascination is in the symbolism. The wife of both Bill Clinton and Tony Soprano: intentional or just circumstantial, I can't think of a clearer signal that the makers view WJC as a monster.

Maybe getting a producer credit (and the compensation attached to it) was the price she demanded to be cooperative. What she could do for them is give firsthand expertise on lots of details. Seems unlikely she contributed enough money or insider connections to be given personal control over how she was portrayed.

the NYT profile of lewinsky last year was kind of confusing on her intentions & the extent of her involvement imo. it said that the show was going ahead with or without her, she would have preferred it not get made at all, but she accepted the producer credit when the showrunner ran into her at a party & offered it to her. the article was much about her difficulty finding steady paying work so i'm sure the check was a major factor.

but theres also this: "There is Lewinsky the producer, who advised on everything from dialogue to wardrobe, said Brad Simpson, an executive producer, and who — despite the creators’ best efforts to not center the show on sex — encouraged them to include that infamous moment when she flashed her thong at the president (even though it makes her cringe).

of course, he y could be shining the truth there to make it look like she was more hands-on than she was, since its better for everyone if it seems like monica was super involved. so who knows.

Interesting. The actress who plays Lewinsky, Beanie Feldstein, has gotten better the last couple of episodes, but I don't think they do her any favours before that.

Glad I stuck around. The best scene in the whole thing, I thought, was Lewinsky's Grand Jury testimony in E9, especially when she asks the FBI guy to step out of the room. The most chilling line, having to do with Juanita Broderick, came later in the same episode. Funniest scene was when--still relatively early internet days--the Starr Report is posted online and no one can load it (Lewinsky's mother describes a little spinning hourglass). When the Broderick interview finally airs, the film gives it a Don't Look Up spin.

Without giving her a pass on taping her friend, I think the series is ultimately sympathetic to Tripp. I'm sure I would have taken notice when she died in April 2020.

Laura Ingraham and Lindsey Wagner were dating at one point? Uh, okay. Lovely couple.

Lindsey Graham, I mean! (Where the fuck did that come from?)