FX’s “Impeachment: American Crime Story” tries to correct the cultural record regarding Monica Lewinsky from a post-MeToo lens.
Tell that to Paula Jones.
The limited series, featuring Lewinsky as a producer, revisits President Bill Clinton’s impeachment scandal, one that nearly derailed his presidency. The same culture that relentlessly mocked Lewinsky at the time is now putting her in charge of its retelling. She even got to walk the red carpet to promote the saga.
“All that matters to me is what [Lewinsky] thinks,” Beanie Feldstein, cast as Lewinsky in the series, told The Hollywood Reporter about her performance.
Except Jones, played by actress Annaleigh Ashford in the series, isn’t happy with “Impeachment.”
Jones sued President Clinton in 1994, claiming the then-Arkansas Governor exposed himself to her and requested oral sex in 1991 while she served as a state employee.
That suit empowered independent counsel Kenneth Starr to expand his Clinton investigation, eventually encompassing Lewinsky’s affair with the Commander in Chief.
Jones told “Inside Edition” on Sept. 14 that “Impeachment’s” version of her is both cartoonish and inaccurate. Worse, neither the production nor Ashford reached out to get her side of the story. Actors routinely connect with the real people they play on screen to prepare for the part.
Jones specifically mentioned a scene in which her husband asks for a role on a TV show amid the lawsuit. “That is so far from the truth,” she told Inside Edition of the scene.
It’s ironic that “Inside Edition” conducted an insulting interview with Jones back in 1998, during which anchor Deborah Norville uncorked this question to her.
“With all due respect, why would Bill Clinton care about you? So you turned him down,” Norville asked.
Media outlets have praised “Impeachment” for allowing Lewinsky to reclaim her voice, her public persona. Yet the reaction to Jones’ complaints, which aired weeks ago, generated scant media attention.
Few complained that she didn’t get a say in the finished product, or that the culture treated her poorly, too, during the height of the scandal. It’s hard to forget how former Clinton advisor James Carville described Jones back then: “If you drag a $100 bill through a trailer park, you never know what you’ll find.”
Jones, like Lewinsky, didn’t deserve what she endured in the late 1990s. Yet Hollywood appears comfortable letting her suffer a second wave of humiliation, courtesy of prolific TV producer/activist Ryan Murphy, a main producer on “Impeachment.”
It’s part of a larger pattern of inconsistency in La La Land, particularly in the post-MeToo era. We just witnessed the collapse of Time’s Up, a nonprofit created in the wake of producer Harvey Weinstein’s 2017 downfall.
Major Hollywood starlets, including Reese Witherspoon, Kerry Washington, and Jennifer Lawrence, supported the group engineered to aid sexual assault victims and fight gender inequity.
The group’s fuzzy financial picture drew some scrutiny, but the final straw came when its leadership helped shield Gov. Andrew Cuomo against accusations of sexual improprieties.
The same stars who rallied behind Time’s Up fell whisper silent as that news broke, even when this reporter directly asked some for comment.
Then again, they similarly said little when accuser after accuser shared their painful stories about Gov. Cuomo’s alleged behavior last year.
It’s not the only time Hollywood feminists displayed a curious approach to supporting “all women” post-Weinstein.
Celebrities railed against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in 2018 after Christine Blasey Ford alleged he assaulted her in 1982. Amy Schumer and Emily Ratajkowski purposefully got themselves arrested to protest Kavanaugh’s nomination.
The same stars stood down, though, when Tara Reade accused then-candidate Joe Biden last year of sexually assaulting her in 1993, providing far more details to buttress her story than Ford ever did.
The industry’s “Believe All Women” mantra faded to black while Biden’s campaign continued.
Many feminists similarly stood down in the late 1990s rather than excoriate President Clinton during the impeachment scandal, Hollywood starlets included.
They’re doing it again by not rushing to Jones’ side today.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.