Big news: a new series of American Crime Story is being produced focussed on the Bill Clinton sex scandal and following impeachment. But even bigger news: Monica Lewinsky has been named as one of the producers - that's right, the woman that he had an affair with.
Speaking to Vanity Fair, Lewinsky said that she had been persuaded to take part in the re-telling of the story as an opportunity to 'reclaim my narrative' she went on to say 'People have been co-opting and telling my part in this story for decades,' Lewinsky said. 'In fact, it wasn’t until the past few years that I’ve been able to fully reclaim my narrative, almost 20 years later.
Monica Lewinsky was a 22-year-old White House Intern when her Defense Department Co-Worker Linda Tripp recorded telephone conversations in which Lewinsky confided details of her personal relationship with Bill Clinton, 27 years her senior. The two began a sexual relationship in 1995 that continued to 1997, which Clinton famously denied - stating 'did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky'.
'This isn’t just a me problem.' Lewinsky said 'Powerful people, often men, take advantage of those subordinate to them in myriad ways all the time. Many people will see this as such a story and for that reason, this narrative is one that is, regretfully, evergreen.'
#Metoo didn't exist in 1998, at the time when the Clinton-Lewinsky story broke - setting in motion the events that led to Clinton's eventual impeachment.
The fact that Monica Lewinsky has been given a voice in the re-telling of the story signals an important step forward, in a world where 'the other woman' in any infidelity scandal has become syntax for 'fair game'. Cue: unfair stereotypes, being cast as the villain and subjected to relentless media scrutiny and ridicule (just look at Rebecca Loos and David Beckham, or Jude Law and Daisy Right - forever stripped of her name and known simply as 'the nanny').
The highly problematic dynamic of an older, powerful man engaging in an affair with a younger and more junior female member of staff was critically overlooked in Lewinsky's case in 1998. But now that we live in an age where powerful male figures are held more accountable for their actions and decisions, there's no doubt that the time has come to address that narrative that plays out around these scandals - and the gender prejudices that that they perpetuate.
Titled Impeachment: American Crime Story, the series is slated to premiere in the US in September 2020, with an expected air date in the UK shortly after. The cast is set to be just as impressive as the series itself: with Sarah Paulson portraying Linda Tripp, and Beanie Feldstein undertaking the role of a younger Monica Lewinsky.
Forget everyone's true crime obsession - our new (and far more healthy) appetite in 2019 is stories reclaimed by the women who were a part of them, through a lens which doesn't discriminate or fetishize the subjects of the story. Needless to say we have high hopes for Impeachment: American Crime Story.