Hollywood is a bizarre place filled with unexpected things; that is, except for the litany of remakes, reboots, sequels, and spinoffs hitting theaters that are shoved down our throats at a nauseously rapid rate.
Every year millions of people try to make their mark on Hollywood and the good majority is unsuccessful in this quest – either because they can’t get a movie made, or once it is made, it turns out to be complete trash.
And now Monica Lewinsky has just entered the Hollywood scene to produce the last television series you’d ever expect from her.
It seems like forever ago when then-President Bill Clinton was caught in a lie about having sexual relations with his White House intern Monica Lewinsky. It was a theatrical display that went on for years in the late 1990s that resulted in his impeachment on December 19, 1998, although he was never removed from office.
Monica Lewinsky became insta-famous when this was going down for the most aggressively unpopular reason imaginable. In a recent interview on John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight,” Lewinsky talked about the trials and tribulations of that notoriety when it became national news. That’s what you get when you mess around like that though, right?
But that won’t stop her from producing an FX television series about what happened.
On Tuesday, FX used its time at the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour to announce that season three will focus on the saga of the Clinton presidency scandal with Monica Lewinsky on board to produce.
It will be called “Impeachment: American Crime Story.” The FX production will star frequent Murphy muse Sarah Paulson as Linda Tripp; Beanie Feldstein (“Lady Bird,” “Booksmart,” “What We Do in the Shadows”) as Lewinsky; and Annaleigh Ashford (season two of ACS, Masters of Sex) as Paula Jones. Sarah Burgess penned the script for the season, which is based on Jeffrey Toobin’s best-seller “A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Sex Scandal That Nearly Brought Down a President.”
If you’re not familiar with FX’s “American Crime Story,” it’s essentially an anthology series centered around America’s most notorious crimes and criminals. You might remember the first season was “The People v. O.J. Simpson,” and the second being “The Assassination of Gianni Versace.”
FX CEO John Landgraf said during the announcement, “This franchise re-examines some of the most complicated, polarizing stories in recent history in a way that is relevant, nuanced and entertaining. Impeachment: American Crime Story will likewise explore the overlooked dimensions of the women who found themselves caught up in the scandal and political war that cast a long shadow over the Clinton presidency.”
“Long shadow” is a bit of an understatement. Any wise person can tell you it completely ruined his presidency and he single-handedly made Democrats untrustworthy; ultimately leading to a victory for George W. Bush.
What’s likely happening with Lewinsky being a “producer” on the project is specifically for optics reasons. The stigma amongst non-industry working professionals is that people have no idea what they do, but they oversee the entire production and given the fact that this is Lewinsky’s first time doing it, then it’s by design to give the project credibility.
She also may be serving as a producer so that when the production is in principal photography, if there’s ever a moment that seems unrealistic, they’ll ask her expertise on realism.
That’s probably it.