Monica Lewinsky
Encyclopedia
Monica Samille Lewinsky (born July 23, 1973) is an American woman with whom United States President Bill Clinton
admitted to having had an "improper relationship" while she worked at the White House
in 1995 and 1996. The affair and its repercussions (which included the impeachment of Bill Clinton
) became known as the Lewinsky scandal
.
area of Los Angeles and in Beverly Hills
. Her father is Bernard Lewinsky
, an oncologist
, who is the son of German Jews who escaped Nazi Germany
and emigrated to El Salvador
and later the United States. Her mother, born Marcia Kaye Vilensky, the daughter of a Lithuanian Jewish father and a Russian-Romanian Jewish mother; is an author who uses the name Marcia Lewis. Monica's parents' acrimonious separation and divorce during 1987 and 1988 had a significant effect on her. (Her father later married his wife Barbara; her mother later married R. Peter Straus, a media executive.)
The family attended Sinai Temple
in Los Angeles and Monica attended Sinai Akiba Academy, its religious school. For her primary education she attended the John Thomas Dye School
in Bel-Air. She then attended Beverly Hills High School
, but for her senior year transferred to and graduated from Bel Air Prep
(later known as Pacific Hills School) in 1991.
Monica Lewinsky attended two-year community college Santa Monica College
, and worked for the drama department at Beverly Hills High School and at a tie shop. In 1993, she enrolled at Lewis & Clark College
in Portland, Oregon
, graduating with a psychology degree in 1995.
Taking advantage of a family connection, Lewinsky moved to Washington, D.C. to work at the White House
as an unpaid summer intern
starting in July 1995 in the office of White House Chief of Staff
Leon Panetta
. She moved to a paid position in the White House Office of Legislative Affairs in December 1995.
that, according to her testimony, involved fellatio
and other sexual contact in the Oval Office
, but that did not involve actual sexual intercourse
.
Clinton previously had been confronted with allegations of sexual misconduct during his time as Governor of Arkansas, including a civil lawsuit filed against Clinton by former Arkansas state employee, Paula Jones
, alleging that he had sexually harassed her. Lewinsky's name surfaced during the discovery phase of Jones' case, when Jones lawyers sought to show a pattern of behavior by Clinton that involved sexual relationships with other government employees.
In April 1996, Lewinsky's superiors transferred her from the White House to The Pentagon
because they felt she was spending too much time around Clinton. Lewinsky confided in a co-worker named Linda Tripp
about her relationship with the President. Beginning in September 1997, Tripp began secretly recording their telephone conversations regarding the affair with Clinton. In January 1998, after Lewinsky had submitted an affidavit
in the Paula Jones case denying any physical relationship with Clinton, and attempted to persuade Tripp to lie under oath in the Jones case, Tripp gave the tapes to Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr
, and these tapes added to his ongoing investigation into the Whitewater controversy
. Starr broadened his investigation to include investigating Lewinsky, Clinton, and others for possible perjury
and subornation of perjury
in the Jones case. Noteworthy for its revelation of Tripp's motivations was her reporting of their conversations to literary agent Lucianne Goldberg
. Tripp also convinced Lewinsky to save the gifts that Clinton had given her during their affair, and not to dry clean what would later be known as "the blue dress." While under oath, Clinton denied having had "a sexual affair", "sexual relations", or "a sexual relationship" with Lewinsky.
News of the Clinton–Lewinsky relationship broke in January 1998. On January 26, 1998, Clinton claimed "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky" in a nationally televised White House news conference. The matter instantly occupied the news media and Lewinsky spent the next weeks hiding from public attention in her mother's residence within the Watergate complex
.
Clinton had also said, "there is not a sexual relationship, an improper sexual relationship or any other kind of improper relationship" which he defended as truthful on August 17, 1998, hearing because of the use of the present tense, famously arguing "it depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is" (i.e., he was not, at the time he made that statement, still having a sexual relationship with Lewinsky). Under pressure from Starr, who had obtained from Lewinsky a blue dress with Clinton's semen
stain, as well as testimony from Lewinsky that the President had inserted a cigar tube into her vagina
, Clinton stated, "I did have a relationship with Miss Lewinsky that was not appropriate." Clinton denied having committed perjury because, according to Clinton, the legal definition of oral sex
was not encompassed by "sex" per se. In addition, relying upon the definition of "sexual relations" as proposed by the prosecution and agreed by the defense and by Judge Susan Webber Wright
, who was hearing the Paula Jones case, Clinton claimed that because certain acts were performed on him, not by him, he did not engage in sexual relations. Lewinsky's testimony to the Starr Commission, however, contradicted Clinton's claim of being totally passive in their encounters.
Both Clinton and Lewinsky were called before a grand jury
; Clinton testified via closed-circuit television, Lewinsky in person. Given an opportunity to offer final words on the matter, Lewinsky told the jury, "I hate Linda Tripp."
On March 3, 1999, Lewinsky was interviewed by Barbara Walters
on ABC's 20/20; the program was watched by 70 million Americans, which ABC said was a record for a news show. She cooperated with Andrew Morton
in his telling of her life and her side of the Clinton affair, Monica's Story
. The book was published in March 1999 and also excerpted as the cover story in Time
magazine. Lewinsky made about $500,000 from her participation in the book and another $1 million from international rights to the Walters interview, but was still beset by high legal bills and living costs. Lewinsky made a cameo appearance as herself in two sketches during the May 8, 1999, episode of NBC's Saturday Night Live
, a program that had lampooned her relationship with Clinton over the prior sixteen months.
By her own account, Lewinsky had survived the intense media attention during the scandal period by knitting
. In September 1999, Lewinsky took this interest further by beginning to sell a line of handbags bearing her name, under the company name The Real Monica, Inc. They were sold online as well as at Henri Bendel
in New York, Fred Segal
in California, and The Cross in London. Lewinsky both designed the bags—described by New York
magazine as "hippie-ish, reversible totes"—and traveled frequently to supervise their manufacturing in Louisiana
.
At the start of 2000, Lewinsky began appearing in television commercials for Jenny Craig, Inc. The $1 million endorsement deal, which required Lewinsky to lose 40 or more pounds in six months, gained considerable publicity at the time. Lewinsky said that despite her desire to return to a more private life, she needed the money to pay off legal fees and that she believed in the product, while a Jenny Craig spokesperson said of Lewinsky, "She represents a busy active woman of today with a hectic lifestyle. And she has had weight issues and weight struggles for a long time. That represents a lot of women in America." The choice of Lewinsky as a role model proved controversial for Jenny Craig, and some of its private franchises switched to an older advertising campaign. Jenny Craig stopped running the Lewinsky ads in February, concluded her campaign entirely in April 2000, and only paid her $300,000 for her involvement.
Also at the start of 2000, Lewinsky moved to New York City, living in the West Village and becoming an A-list
guest in the Manhattan
social scene. In February 2000, Lewinsky appeared on MTV's The Tom Green Show
in an episode in which the host took her to his parents' home in Ottawa
in search of fabric for her new business. Later in 2000, Lewinsky worked as a correspondent for British Channel 5 on the show Monica's Postcards, reporting on U.S. culture and trends from a variety of locations.
In March 2002, Lewinsky–no longer bound by the terms of her agreement with the United States Office of the Independent Counsel
–appeared in the HBO special "Monica in Black and White", part of the America Undercover
series. In it, she answered a studio audience's questions about her life and the Clinton affair.
Lewinsky was the host of the reality television dating program Mr. Personality
on Fox Television Network in 2003. There she advised young women contestants who were picking men hidden by masks. Some Americans tried to organize a boycott of advertisers on the show, in protest of Lewinsky capitalizing on her notoriety. Nevertheless, the show debuted to very high ratings, and The New York Times
said that "after years of trying to cash in on her fame by designing handbags and other self-marketing schemes, Ms. Lewinsky has finally found a fitting niche on television." However, the ratings slid each successive week, and after the show completed its limited run it did not reappear. The same year, she appeared as a guest on the programs V Graham Norton
in the UK, High Chaparall
in Sweden, and The View and Jimmy Kimmel Live! in the U.S.
After Clinton's autobiography My Life
appeared in 2004, Lewinsky said in an interview with the British tabloid Daily Mail
:
By 2005, Lewinsky found that she could not escape the spotlight in the U.S., which made both her professional and personal life difficult. She stopped selling her handbag line and moved to London. In December 2006, Lewinsky graduated with a master's degree in social psychology
from the London School of Economics
where she had been studying since September 2005. Her thesis was titled "In Search of the Impartial Juror: An Exploration of the Third-person effect and Pre-Trial Publicity". She has since tried to avoid publicity.
Lewinsky did correspond in 2009 with scholar Ken Gormley
, who was writing an in-depth study of the Clinton scandals, maintaining that Clinton had lied under oath when asked detailed and specific questions about his relationship with her.
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
admitted to having had an "improper relationship" while she worked at the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
in 1995 and 1996. The affair and its repercussions (which included the impeachment of Bill Clinton
Impeachment of Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton, President of the United States, was impeached by the House of Representatives on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice on December 19, 1998, but acquitted by the Senate on February 12, 1999. Two other impeachment articles, a second perjury charge and a charge of abuse of...
) became known as the Lewinsky scandal
Lewinsky scandal
The Lewinsky scandal was a political sex scandal emerging in 1998 from a sexual relationship between United States President Bill Clinton and a 25-year-old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. The news of this extra-marital affair and the resulting investigation eventually led to the impeachment of...
.
Early life and education
Monica Samille Lewinsky was born in San Francisco, California, and grew up in an affluent family in Southern California in the Westside BrentwoodBrentwood, Los Angeles, California
Brentwood is a district in western Los Angeles, California, United States. The district is located at the base of the Santa Monica Mountains, bounded by the San Diego Freeway on the east, Wilshire Boulevard on the south, the Santa Monica city limits on the southwest, the border of Topanga State...
area of Los Angeles and in Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together...
. Her father is Bernard Lewinsky
Bernard Lewinsky
Bernard Lewinsky is a Salvadoran doctor and medical researcher. He is also a photographer, and many of his photographs are displayed at medical offices...
, an oncologist
Oncology
Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with cancer...
, who is the son of German Jews who escaped Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
and emigrated to El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
and later the United States. Her mother, born Marcia Kaye Vilensky, the daughter of a Lithuanian Jewish father and a Russian-Romanian Jewish mother; is an author who uses the name Marcia Lewis. Monica's parents' acrimonious separation and divorce during 1987 and 1988 had a significant effect on her. (Her father later married his wife Barbara; her mother later married R. Peter Straus, a media executive.)
The family attended Sinai Temple
Sinai Temple (Los Angeles, California)
Sinai Temple in the Westwood district of Los Angeles, California is the oldest and largest Conservative congregation in the greater Los Angeles area. Architect Sidney Eisenshtat designed the current synagogue building, constructed in 1956 and expanded in 1998...
in Los Angeles and Monica attended Sinai Akiba Academy, its religious school. For her primary education she attended the John Thomas Dye School
John Thomas Dye School
The John Thomas Dye School, nicknamed JTD, is an independent private coeducational nonsectarian elementary day school located in the Bel-Air area of Los Angeles, California, serving students in kindergarten through sixth grade....
in Bel-Air. She then attended Beverly Hills High School
Beverly Hills High School
Beverly Hills High School is the only major public high school in Beverly Hills, California. Beverly is part of the Beverly Hills Unified School District and located on on the west side of Beverly Hills, at the...
, but for her senior year transferred to and graduated from Bel Air Prep
Pacific Hills School
Pacific Hills School is a co-educational, college-preparatory independent school located in West Hollywood, California, serving the needs of a diverse student population in grades 6-12....
(later known as Pacific Hills School) in 1991.
Monica Lewinsky attended two-year community college Santa Monica College
Santa Monica College
Santa Monica College is a two-year, public, junior college located in Santa Monica, California.Santa Monica College was first opened in 1929 as Santa Monica Junior College. Current enrollment is over 30,000 students in more than 90 fields of study...
, and worked for the drama department at Beverly Hills High School and at a tie shop. In 1993, she enrolled at Lewis & Clark College
Lewis & Clark College
Lewis & Clark College is a private institution of higher learning located in Portland, Oregon. Made up of an undergraduate College of Arts and Sciences, a School of Law, and a Graduate School of Education and Counseling. Lewis & Clark is a member of the Annapolis Group of colleges with athletic...
in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, graduating with a psychology degree in 1995.
Taking advantage of a family connection, Lewinsky moved to Washington, D.C. to work at the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
as an unpaid summer intern
Intern
Internship is a system of onthejob training for white-collar jobs, similar to an apprenticeship. Interns are usually college or university students, but they can also be high school students or post graduate adults seeking skills for a new career. They may also be as young as middle school or in...
starting in July 1995 in the office of White House Chief of Staff
White House Chief of Staff
The White House Chief of Staff is the highest ranking member of the Executive Office of the President of the United States and a senior aide to the President.The current White House Chief of Staff is Bill Daley.-History:...
Leon Panetta
Leon Panetta
Leon Edward Panetta is the 23rd and current United States Secretary of Defense, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama since 2011. Prior to taking office, he served as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency...
. She moved to a paid position in the White House Office of Legislative Affairs in December 1995.
Scandal
Between November 1995 and March 1997, Lewinsky alleged that she had had nine sexual encounters with then-President Bill ClintonBill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
that, according to her testimony, involved fellatio
Fellatio
Fellatio is an act of oral stimulation of a male's penis by a sexual partner. It involves the stimulation of the penis by the use of the mouth, tongue, or throat. The person who performs fellatio can be referred to as the giving partner, and the other person is the receiving partner...
and other sexual contact in the Oval Office
Oval Office
The Oval Office, located in the West Wing of the White House, is the official office of the President of the United States.The room features three large south-facing windows behind the president's desk, and a fireplace at the north end...
, but that did not involve actual sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
.
Clinton previously had been confronted with allegations of sexual misconduct during his time as Governor of Arkansas, including a civil lawsuit filed against Clinton by former Arkansas state employee, Paula Jones
Paula Jones
Paula Corbin Jones is a former Arkansas state employee who sued U.S. President Bill Clinton for sexual harassment. The lawsuit was dismissed before trial on the grounds that Jones failed to demonstrate any damages...
, alleging that he had sexually harassed her. Lewinsky's name surfaced during the discovery phase of Jones' case, when Jones lawyers sought to show a pattern of behavior by Clinton that involved sexual relationships with other government employees.
In April 1996, Lewinsky's superiors transferred her from the White House to The Pentagon
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
because they felt she was spending too much time around Clinton. Lewinsky confided in a co-worker named Linda Tripp
Linda Tripp
Linda Rose Tripp was a central figure in the Lewinsky scandal of 1998 and 1999 that led to the impeachment and subsequent acquittal of U.S. President Bill Clinton.-Early life and government employment:...
about her relationship with the President. Beginning in September 1997, Tripp began secretly recording their telephone conversations regarding the affair with Clinton. In January 1998, after Lewinsky had submitted an affidavit
Affidavit
An affidavit is a written sworn statement of fact voluntarily made by an affiant or deponent under an oath or affirmation administered by a person authorized to do so by law. Such statement is witnessed as to the authenticity of the affiant's signature by a taker of oaths, such as a notary public...
in the Paula Jones case denying any physical relationship with Clinton, and attempted to persuade Tripp to lie under oath in the Jones case, Tripp gave the tapes to Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr
Kenneth Starr
Kenneth Winston "Ken" Starr is an American lawyer and educational administrator who has also been a federal judge. He is best known for his investigation of figures during the Clinton administration....
, and these tapes added to his ongoing investigation into the Whitewater controversy
Whitewater (controversy)
The Whitewater controversy was an American politics controversy that began with the real estate investments of Bill and Hillary Clinton and their associates, Jim and Susan McDougal in the Whitewater Development Corporation, a failed business venture in the 1970s and 1980s.A New York...
. Starr broadened his investigation to include investigating Lewinsky, Clinton, and others for possible perjury
Perjury
Perjury, also known as forswearing, is the willful act of swearing a false oath or affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to a judicial proceeding. That is, the witness falsely promises to tell the truth about matters which affect the outcome of the...
and subornation of perjury
Subornation of perjury
The legal term subornation of perjury describes the crime of persuading a person to commit perjury; and also describes the circumstance wherein an attorney causes or allows another party to lie...
in the Jones case. Noteworthy for its revelation of Tripp's motivations was her reporting of their conversations to literary agent Lucianne Goldberg
Lucianne Goldberg
Lucianne S. Goldberg née Lucianne Steinberger, also known as Lucianne Cummings is an American literary agent, author and the publisher of the website Lucianne.com. An avowed critic of U.S...
. Tripp also convinced Lewinsky to save the gifts that Clinton had given her during their affair, and not to dry clean what would later be known as "the blue dress." While under oath, Clinton denied having had "a sexual affair", "sexual relations", or "a sexual relationship" with Lewinsky.
News of the Clinton–Lewinsky relationship broke in January 1998. On January 26, 1998, Clinton claimed "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky" in a nationally televised White House news conference. The matter instantly occupied the news media and Lewinsky spent the next weeks hiding from public attention in her mother's residence within the Watergate complex
Watergate complex
The Watergate complex is a group of five buildings next to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C. in the United States. The site contains an office building, three apartment buildings, and a hotel-office building...
.
Clinton had also said, "there is not a sexual relationship, an improper sexual relationship or any other kind of improper relationship" which he defended as truthful on August 17, 1998, hearing because of the use of the present tense, famously arguing "it depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is" (i.e., he was not, at the time he made that statement, still having a sexual relationship with Lewinsky). Under pressure from Starr, who had obtained from Lewinsky a blue dress with Clinton's semen
Semen
Semen is an organic fluid, also known as seminal fluid, that may contain spermatozoa. It is secreted by the gonads and other sexual organs of male or hermaphroditic animals and can fertilize female ova...
stain, as well as testimony from Lewinsky that the President had inserted a cigar tube into her vagina
Vagina
The vagina is a fibromuscular tubular tract leading from the uterus to the exterior of the body in female placental mammals and marsupials, or to the cloaca in female birds, monotremes, and some reptiles. Female insects and other invertebrates also have a vagina, which is the terminal part of the...
, Clinton stated, "I did have a relationship with Miss Lewinsky that was not appropriate." Clinton denied having committed perjury because, according to Clinton, the legal definition of oral sex
Oral sex
Oral sex is sexual activity involving the stimulation of the genitalia of a sex partner by the use of the mouth, tongue, teeth or throat. Cunnilingus refers to oral sex performed on females while fellatio refer to oral sex performed on males. Anilingus refers to oral stimulation of a person's anus...
was not encompassed by "sex" per se. In addition, relying upon the definition of "sexual relations" as proposed by the prosecution and agreed by the defense and by Judge Susan Webber Wright
Susan Webber Wright
Susan Webber Wright is a United States federal judge, presently serving as a district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas...
, who was hearing the Paula Jones case, Clinton claimed that because certain acts were performed on him, not by him, he did not engage in sexual relations. Lewinsky's testimony to the Starr Commission, however, contradicted Clinton's claim of being totally passive in their encounters.
Both Clinton and Lewinsky were called before a grand jury
Grand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...
; Clinton testified via closed-circuit television, Lewinsky in person. Given an opportunity to offer final words on the matter, Lewinsky told the jury, "I hate Linda Tripp."
Subsequent life
The affair led to a period of pop culture celebrity for Lewinsky as a younger-generation focus of a political storm. In early 1999, Lewinsky declined to sign an autograph in an airport, saying, "I'm kind of known for something that's not so great to be known for."On March 3, 1999, Lewinsky was interviewed by Barbara Walters
Barbara Walters
Barbara Jill Walters is an American broadcast journalist, author, and television personality. She has hosted morning television shows , the television newsmagazine , former co-anchor of the ABC Evening News, and current contributor to ABC News.Walters was first known as a popular TV morning news...
on ABC's 20/20; the program was watched by 70 million Americans, which ABC said was a record for a news show. She cooperated with Andrew Morton
Andrew Morton (writer)
Andrew David Morton is a former British Fleet Street journalist, a notable writer and biographer.Before moving into a career in journalism, he attended grammar school, then studied history at the University of Sussex....
in his telling of her life and her side of the Clinton affair, Monica's Story
Monica's Story
Monica's Story is the authorized biography of Monica Lewinsky, written by Andrew Morton. Morton was also a biographer of Diana, Princess of Wales....
. The book was published in March 1999 and also excerpted as the cover story in Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine. Lewinsky made about $500,000 from her participation in the book and another $1 million from international rights to the Walters interview, but was still beset by high legal bills and living costs. Lewinsky made a cameo appearance as herself in two sketches during the May 8, 1999, episode of NBC's Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
, a program that had lampooned her relationship with Clinton over the prior sixteen months.
By her own account, Lewinsky had survived the intense media attention during the scandal period by knitting
Knitting
Knitting is a method by which thread or yarn may be turned into cloth or other fine crafts. Knitted fabric consists of consecutive rows of loops, called stitches. As each row progresses, a new loop is pulled through an existing loop. The active stitches are held on a needle until another loop can...
. In September 1999, Lewinsky took this interest further by beginning to sell a line of handbags bearing her name, under the company name The Real Monica, Inc. They were sold online as well as at Henri Bendel
Henri Bendel
Henri Bendel is an American upscale women's specialty store based in New York City that sells fashion accessories, cosmetics and fragrances, gifts and gourmet foods...
in New York, Fred Segal
Fred Segal
Fred Segal is an upscale Los Angeles, California based clothing retailer. There are currently two Fred Segal stores: one in Hollywood and the other in Santa Monica....
in California, and The Cross in London. Lewinsky both designed the bags—described by New York
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
magazine as "hippie-ish, reversible totes"—and traveled frequently to supervise their manufacturing in Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
.
At the start of 2000, Lewinsky began appearing in television commercials for Jenny Craig, Inc. The $1 million endorsement deal, which required Lewinsky to lose 40 or more pounds in six months, gained considerable publicity at the time. Lewinsky said that despite her desire to return to a more private life, she needed the money to pay off legal fees and that she believed in the product, while a Jenny Craig spokesperson said of Lewinsky, "She represents a busy active woman of today with a hectic lifestyle. And she has had weight issues and weight struggles for a long time. That represents a lot of women in America." The choice of Lewinsky as a role model proved controversial for Jenny Craig, and some of its private franchises switched to an older advertising campaign. Jenny Craig stopped running the Lewinsky ads in February, concluded her campaign entirely in April 2000, and only paid her $300,000 for her involvement.
Also at the start of 2000, Lewinsky moved to New York City, living in the West Village and becoming an A-list
A-list
A-list is a term that alludes to major movie stars, or the most bankable in the Hollywood film industry.The A-list is part of a larger guide called The Hot List that has become an industry-standard guide in Hollywood...
guest in the Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
social scene. In February 2000, Lewinsky appeared on MTV's The Tom Green Show
The Tom Green Show
The Tom Green Show is a North American television show that first aired in September 1994 on Rogers Television 22, a community channel in Ottawa, Ontario, until 1996, and was later picked up by The Comedy Network in 1997...
in an episode in which the host took her to his parents' home in Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
in search of fabric for her new business. Later in 2000, Lewinsky worked as a correspondent for British Channel 5 on the show Monica's Postcards, reporting on U.S. culture and trends from a variety of locations.
In March 2002, Lewinsky–no longer bound by the terms of her agreement with the United States Office of the Independent Counsel
United States Office of the Independent Counsel
United States Office of the Independent Counsel was an independent prosecutor — distinct from the Attorney General of the United States Department of Justice — that provided reports to the Congress under . The office was terminated in 1999 and replaced by the U.S...
–appeared in the HBO special "Monica in Black and White", part of the America Undercover
America Undercover
America Undercover is a television series of documentaries that airs on the cable television network HBO. Within the series are several sub-series, such as "Autopsy", "Real Sex" and "Taxicab Confessions". The series began in 1983 and, after a brief time being broadcast weekly in 2001, is now...
series. In it, she answered a studio audience's questions about her life and the Clinton affair.
Lewinsky was the host of the reality television dating program Mr. Personality
Mr. Personality
Mr. Personality is a reality television show that aired on the Fox Television Network with the premise that a woman must select a husband from twenty bachelors whose faces are covered by masks throughout the show, supposedly basing her decisions on who to eliminate solely based on their...
on Fox Television Network in 2003. There she advised young women contestants who were picking men hidden by masks. Some Americans tried to organize a boycott of advertisers on the show, in protest of Lewinsky capitalizing on her notoriety. Nevertheless, the show debuted to very high ratings, and The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
said that "after years of trying to cash in on her fame by designing handbags and other self-marketing schemes, Ms. Lewinsky has finally found a fitting niche on television." However, the ratings slid each successive week, and after the show completed its limited run it did not reappear. The same year, she appeared as a guest on the programs V Graham Norton
V Graham Norton
V Graham Norton was an entertainment programme shown on Channel 4 in the UK starring Graham Norton, broadcast every weeknight as a successor to the weekly So Graham Norton. It aired from 6 May 2002 to 26 December 2003. It featured celebrities who chatted with Graham and became involved in studio...
in the UK, High Chaparall
High Chaparall
High Chaparall is a Swedish television program which first aired in 2003 on the Kanal 5 network. The show is an interview/adventure series featuring the Swedish comedy duo of Filip Hammar and Fredrik Wikingsson. Although the pair continued to be provocative, this program proved to be less...
in Sweden, and The View and Jimmy Kimmel Live! in the U.S.
After Clinton's autobiography My Life
My Life (Bill Clinton autobiography)
My Life is a 2004 autobiography written by former President of the United States Bill Clinton, who left office on January 20, 2001. It was released on June 22, 2004. The book was published by the Knopf Publishing Group; the book sold in excess of 2,250,000 copies...
appeared in 2004, Lewinsky said in an interview with the British tabloid Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
:
By 2005, Lewinsky found that she could not escape the spotlight in the U.S., which made both her professional and personal life difficult. She stopped selling her handbag line and moved to London. In December 2006, Lewinsky graduated with a master's degree in social psychology
Social psychology
Social psychology is the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. By this definition, scientific refers to the empirical method of investigation. The terms thoughts, feelings, and behaviors include all...
from the London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
where she had been studying since September 2005. Her thesis was titled "In Search of the Impartial Juror: An Exploration of the Third-person effect and Pre-Trial Publicity". She has since tried to avoid publicity.
Lewinsky did correspond in 2009 with scholar Ken Gormley
Ken Gormley (academic)
Ken Gormley is the dean and a constitutional law professor at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He also serves as Counsel to Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP. He is an expert on Watergate and special prosecutors....
, who was writing an in-depth study of the Clinton scandals, maintaining that Clinton had lied under oath when asked detailed and specific questions about his relationship with her.
Further reading
- Berlant, LaurenLauren BerlantLauren Berlant is the George M. Pullman Professor of English at the University of Chicago, where she has been teaching since 1984. Berlant received her Ph.D. from Cornell University...
, and Duggan, Lisa. Our Monica, Ourselves: The Clinton Affair and the Public Interest (Sexual Cultures). New York: New York University Press, 2001. - Clinton, Bill (2005). My Life. New York: Knopf, 2004.
- Kalb, Marvin. One Scandalous Story: Clinton, Lewinsky, and Thirteen Days That Tarnished American Journalism. New York: Free Press, 2001.