A new 10-part television drama series is set to revisit the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky saga and the national controversy that emerged in its wake.
“No one, as far as we know, from the Clinton camp has seen this series,” executive producer of Impeachment: American Crime Story, Brad Simpson, said at Friday’s virtual Television Critics Association (TCA) panel ahead of the airing of the show on September 7.
Brad Simpson added that neither the 42nd POTUS, nor the ex-First lady, Hillary Clinton, were consulted on the series that chronicles Clinton’s presidency, his relationship with his wife and the sex scandal that soured his tenure. Speaking of Hillary Clinton, Simpson said:
“Of course, I’m curious what they would think. I don’t imagine she will watch, no matter how emphatic we are to her.”
“Impeachment,” which released a new trailer on Friday, stars Clive Owen as Bill Blinton, Edie Falco as the First Lady, and Beanie Feldstein as White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
Mega-producer Ryan Murphy optioned Jeffrey Toobin's book about Bill Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky, A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Sex Scandal that Nearly Brought Down a President, in 2015.
On Friday, Simpson said at the time “we all thought Hillary was going to be President, we are all living in a very different world now.”
Ryan Murphy’s anthology series “American Crime Story” debuted in 2016 with its first instalment “The People v. O.J. Simpson”. The second, two years later, was “The Assassination of Gianni Versace”.
The 1990s-set new series will also not depict any sex scenes between Lewinsky and Clinton, stopping at just a simple kiss between the characters.
“It was always my instinct to write it the way you saw it… Because the graphic sexual detail was the headline in 1998, it felt like… first of all, something that much of the audience already knew,” writer Sarah Burgess was cited as saying by the Wrap.
More explicit insights into the relationship are revealed during Lewinsky’s phone calls with former White House employee Linda Tripp, who is played by Sarah Paulson.
Executive producer Nina Jacobson emphasised that it was always intended to avoid “graphic sexual detail”:
“…We are very mindful of what we show when, and why, and what we don’t show, and why. And it definitely was a very calculated instinct and I think a really good one from Sarah and something that I think we knew early, early on, collectively, that we wanted to approach it the way it ultimately is approached.”
She added: “Like you mentioned the blue dress, like, everyone knows precisely the mechanics of that and what that is.”
Booksmart” star Beanie Feldstein, 28, revealed she felt like a “bodyguard” for the real-life Lewinsky, who, incidentally, co-produced the series.
“Honestly, we had more of a friendship than we did a working relationship. She was really giving with me in that she would answer anything I had questions about, but it was easier and more useful for me to just kind of be around her spirit.”
EP Brad Simpson was also cited as saying that Monica Lewinsky was the main consultant “in terms of outside consultants on the show this season.”
In the late 1990s, America was rocked by a political sex scandal involving 49-year old then-President Bill Clinton and 22-year old White House intern Monica Lewinsky. The two embarked upon a sexual relationship that continued sporadically from 1995 until 1997. During that time, Lewinsky was transferred to a job at the Pentagon, where she confided in coworker Linda Tripp about her affair with the president. Tripp secretly taped some of her conversations with Lewinsky.
In 1998, the extramarital affair became public. Bill Clinton denied the relationship initially, however, later admitted to “inappropriate intimate physical contact” with Lewinsky. The House of Representatives impeached the president for perjury and obstruction of justice, but he was acquitted by the Senate.