Monica, REVISITED

She was the 22-year-old intern who nearly bought down a president. Now, decades on, Monica Lewinsky is reframing her own story as a producer on the new series Impeachment. But reclaiming the narrative – an exercise she has spent half her life on – has been anything but easy, writes Jessica Bennett

- Jessica Bennett

This is surreal,” Monica Lewinsky kept saying. She was trying to make her way to her seat in a crowded room where everyone wanted her attention. It was a hot summer night in New York, and the city’s vaccinated elite were practically vibrating with energy.

The occasion was a July screening and reception to promote Impeachment, the latest instalment of Ryan Murphy’s American Crime Story anthology series, which revisits the events leading up to the impeachment of then-president Bill Clinton through the perspectives of the women involved. Lewinsky is a big part of that story, of course. So are Linda Tripp, the friend who exposed Lewinsky’s affair with the president; Paula Jones, who had accused him of sexual harassment; and, to a lesser extent, Hillary Clinton. But Lewinsky is the only one who is a producer on the show.

Lewinsky, 48, had skipped the screening portion of the evening – no need to rewatch the most humiliating period of her life with a roomful of strangers, she joked – and had a video session with her therapist. But she agreed to attend the reception afterwards. It took place in the old Four Seasons restaurant – once a nexus of Manhattan’s famous and powerful, some of whom had returned to their old haunt for the event.

There was Tina Brown, the celebrated editor who in 1999 published the first interview with Hillary Clinton about the affair, in Talk magazine, and would later remark how gracious Lewinsky had been when they spoke that evening. Calvin Trillin, another stalwart of New York’s media elite, rose as the room offered Lewinsky a roaring standing ovation.