People who lived through the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky scandal of 1998, which ultimately led to the impeachment of the U.S.’s 42nd president, will remember that it was never not on TV while it was happening—high drama in real-time that played out via the 24/7 news cycle. Soon, we’ll get to relive it, albeit in truncated form, via a cast of ringers calling out to us from an uncanny valley. On September 7, FX will premiere the 10-episode limited series Impeachment: American Crime Story. It’s the third installment of the Ryan Murphy-produced true-crime drama show, following 2016's The People v. O. J. Simpson and 2018's The Assassination of Gianni Versace. The trailer for the upcoming Clinton/Lewinsky-focused season debuted Thursday.
This one is reportedly based on the 1999 book A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Sex Scandal That Nearly Brought Down a President, written by Jeffrey Toobin, whom you may remember from his time masturbating on Zoom in front of his coworkers. (This is already going great!) Beanie Feldstein is Monica Lewinsky, which ???? Edie Falco is Hillary Clinton, which ?????
Sarah Paulson and a few pounds of prosthetics are Linda Tripp.
I know that facial expression well. It’s what I looked like watching this trailer.
Monica Lewinsky is a producer on this, which, fine! After being widely demonized at the time of the scandal, during which it was revealed that as an intern she had sex (though not intercourse, she maintained) with her boss, Clinton. The astronomical imbalance of power was largely ignored in the press at the time, and obviously mainstream understanding of such matters has shifted enough to make such a story ripe for reassessment.
That said, since Lewinsky’s 2014 essay for Vanity Fair, “Shame and Survival,” said reassessment has been taking place. (Lewinsky described herself later that year as “patient zero” for online harassment.) Will this American Crime Story installment, in which beloved actors dress up funny and re-dramatize one of this country’s most indelible real-life dramas, add much to our understanding of the power dynamic and the right-wing glee at the prospect of taking down a Democrat president? Unlikely! I suspect that as with the O.J. season, infotainment will once again transform into entertainment in a way that doesn’t strike me as ethically sound. But no one seems to care about that much, so let’s just all have fun and not hurt each other.
DISCUSSION
I was in the minute I heard Monica is producing, since that means 1: she may actually get a fair shake in this narrative for once and 2: it’s about time she gets to tell her own story.
That said, I was a bit put off by the actress selected to play her. She may be incredible and I will withhold my incredibly shallow judgment until I see her in motion of course, but my initial reaction was: young Monica was much more conventionally attractive than this actress is.
Don’t get me wrong: I understand that the pervasive media narrative at the time was that Monica was some hideous, unlovable, fat cow, but like... looking back at photos of her from that time, she was really beautiful. Sure, round faced (but I’d argue that round face is what made her age so well all these years later, too), but she legitimately looks like what you imagine Snow White would look like, with great, symmetrical features.
Idk, maybe this is just throwing me because usually, folks are played by actors much hotter than they are in biopics. Hell, in this show, freaking Linda Tripp is played by Sarah Paulson, ffs. I may also be a little judgy of this because not all chubby brunettes are Monica Lewinsky (I went to a Clinton book signing once and was told by multiple dudes in line that I am “just Bill’s type.” Y’all, I look NOTHING like Monica Lewinsky and the literal only similarity is we are both chubby brown haired girls).
Anyway, I feel like a big ol’ asshole for even thinking this, but here we are. I’m sure Beanie Feldstein is going to do AMAZING and none of the above is an indictment of her (she is beautiful, but just very different than Monica, imho).