Ryan Murphy is going to need his own network soon. Not only is he working on season 7 of American Horror Story, he’s also bringing us Scream Queens, the eagerly anticipated Feud (premiering March 5 and I can’t wait – I mean LOOK AT THIS) and more seasons of American Crime Story. And with the latter, he’s tapped one of the biggest political scandals of the 90s to earn him even more Emmys.
The Hollywood Reporter announced that the busy writer/director/producer has optioned Jeffrey Toobin’s 2000 bestseller A Vast Conspiracy, detailing the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky scandal. The author has worked with Ryan before. His book The Run of His Life served as the foundation for the first season of ACS, which dealt with the trial of OJ Simpson. Jeffrey served as a consultant to the show’s writers during the production of the series.
As you may recall, Monica, a White House intern during the Clinton presidency had an on/off sexual affair with the President over the course of her 1995-1997 internship. Monica spilled the beans about the affair to her co-worker/confidante Linda Tripp, who secretly recorded the conversations. Once the news came out, the scandal led to Clinton’s impeachment hearings, the infamous quote, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky” and lots of jokes about cigars and a stained blue dress.
Ryan is said to be on the fast track regarding the casting of the series’ two main characters, Monica and Linda. I can see one of Ryan’s go-to actresses, Lea Michele, as Monica. Can’t you? As for Linda Tripp, my dream casting would be John Goodman in drag, as he was great playing her on Saturday Night Live back in the 90s.
If you’re already excited about this series, you may want to temper your enthusiasm, since the Clinton/Lewinsky season of ACS won’t be coming your way for at least a few years. As previously announced, season two of ACS will deal with Hurricane Katrina and season three with the murder of famed designer Gianni Versace. FX Networks CEO John Landgraf announced during the Television Critics Association press tour last week that Katrina will run first in 2018 with the Versace series debuting six months later.
I, for one, am excited to see the Versace and Lewinsky stories revisited on the small screen. And Feud is going to be spectacular. I just hope Ryan doesn’t stretch himself too thin and put out any sub-par product. But I doubt he’s capable of that.
Photo credit: WENN.com, Getty Images
Is Feud going to be like Psychobitches? Cos if so, I will watch. I loved that.
I watched her Ted talk a while ago and I cane out with a reasonable amount of sympathy for her. She was 22 during the time of the affair and she was slut shamed repeatedly by major media outlets and by powerful and important people for years afterwards, probably to this day.
I have seen this too and my only thought on this now is “man give this woman a rest”.
Agreed.
My first thought on this was, “Can we just leave her alone?!” Her biggest mistake was trusting Linda Tripp, not the other business.
I agree. Don’t do it, Ryan.
But why shouln’t he??? He will probably change people’s perceptions, like he did with Marcia Clark.
I lived through this episode. What happened to all the women was truly appalling. They were slut-shamed by the media, by pundits, by the establishment, by Clinton’s defence team. ‘Bimbo eruptions’ they called it. And the infamous James Carvill quote,’if you drag a hundred dollar bill through a trailer park, you’ll never know what you’ll find!’
https://thisisthenewnormal.wordpress.com/2016/05/22/if-you-drag-a-hundred-dollar-bill-through-a-trailer-park-you-never-know-what-youll-find/
…..but Monica went through a special kind of of torture that i’m surprised she survived with her sanity intact. To be set up and betrayed by that Linda Tripp woman, to have the FBI snatch you off a street and keep you in a hotel room and threaten you with everything unless you cooperate with their investigation, to be matched into court in leg irons like you are a criminal…….And AFTER all that, to be forever slut shamed by the world……..
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2806237/FBI-interrogators-mistreated-Lewinsky-newly-public-government-report-found.html
I’m so grateful for women like Anita Hill who stood their ground when they were slut shamed for daring to accuse a powerful man of ergregious behaviour, and i feel sick when i see David Brock on TV supporting any political candidate he was king of the slut shamers in the 90s.
Considering what he did to rehab Marcia Clark’s image with ACS, I’m curious how that will be handled.
The more I think about that scandal, the more upset I am with her treatment.
She was 22 and he was the president, there is a huge power imbalance there and it makes me think much less of Bill.
Detritus: the way she was treated has always made me less judgemental about her having an affair with a married man, whether that was by design as accused or by accident as she claimed.
The punishment didn’t fit the crime and to watch it in real time and everyone treat her as an afterthought in the scandal whilst slut shaming her……it upsets me deeply even now.
Right on about Anita Hill. She is a true heroine.
Not to mention, the “fresh meat” culture that has developed around interns and young workers in DC.
Hmm I don’t know. At 22 I knew better than to get with married men, let alone the POTUS. She’s entitle to do whatever she wants, but it’s really not just Bill’s fault here.
She’s aged beautifully. I hope she gets paid a lot of $ for this, her life was basically ruined and I still want to punch Linda in the face. I can’t stand that woman.
Great hair..and I still recall how women went crazy over that Club Monaco lipstick she wore on her interview — it was the only time I ever went out and bought something because of a “celeb” I am ashamed to say. But it was a pretty color.
Linda Tripp and The House Managers. All deserving of a good punch.
I was just thinking that. She looks terrific. She’s never married, has she?
I will admit, I was also one of those people that ran out and got that lipstick. It was the best color ever. That is the only lipstick I’ve ever owned in my life that got worn down to the nub. I was beside myself when Club Monaco stopped making it.
Ugh, Ryan Murphy is definitely capable of putting out sub-par products. Glee season 4-6, AHS season 5-6 and The New Normal all come to mind.
That said, the second season of AHS (Asylum) is still my favorite season of any show ever, and OJ Simpson was outstanding.
Don’t forget Nip/Tuck.
Murphy has great ideas, but most of his shows tend to go off the rails halfway through each season. He burns through his good material way faster than he should. Some never recover after that first dip (Glee), some have wildly varying quality throughout (AHS) and some are just garbage (Scream Queens). The OJ show is the first thing he’s done that held together without any major missteps, and that’s because it being based on a true story meant he couldn’t add a bunch of nonsense storylines to it.
He reminds me a bit of Moffat. Great creative’s, but they desperately need someone editing them.
That is exactly how I feel about him too. He’s very good at coming up with ideas, and I appreciate that he creates roles for actresses older than 25, but I actually think he’s a crappy storyteller. He has no follow through, and cannot maintain a narrative.
Totally agree the OJ thing only worked because it was a true story and based on someone else’s work.
I have zero interest in the Monica Lewinsky story.
The OJ story was simply amazing, I mean they nailed it, I love bio pics so I cant wait for the Versace and Monica stories.
Please please please no more Lea Michele. I beg you, Ryan. Please no.
I thought next season was going to be about JonBenét Ramsey? Oh, well. I’m sure this will be good!
Poor thing. I’m sure she would love to have this all left behind in the past. It’s awful to have to relive this again and again. It wasn’t pretty the first time it won’t be this time either.
Scandal?? Was it really that big of a scandal worthy of a tv show, hmmm I have to be honest at the time it happened I remember members of the British parliament being caught in a lot worse situations (binds, oranges and a cupboard come to mind for one), and it being more a mild joke, overseas at least. Unfortunately her mistake gets to be viewed by lots of people, she better get paid well haha.
If you have to ask, you don’t know much of what went on.
Like I said overseas it was more of a mild joke. I hope that ACS continues as well as the first one, I liked AHS 2 but really could not get into any of the following ones.
1) a president guilty of serially harassing women isn’t a joke.
2) you totally missed what the scandal was really about. It was a flashpoint for repeated attempts of rival politicians to take down Bill Clinton in their own attempt to grab power. The way Linda Tripp set her up? Ken Starr? It was a total and complete abuse of power all around. I mean, there’s a reason why the book they’re basing it on is called ‘A Vast Consipiracy’
I was in college at the time and I remember it was HUGE. And it was not a story that just hung around for a few weeks and then died out. It went on and on for almost 2 years.
Local news will always ping more than international news, but the Paula Jones/Monica/Ken Starr episode was big news in Britain. It was always treated as breaking news especially on sky.
The OJ trial and this episode are the two events that made sky because they were covered wall to wall for their entire duration.
I’m British and I remember it as being a huge, huge scandal here – certainly not a “mild joke.”
It was much more than a scandal. It was huge.
Please please leave Monica alone. I feel soooo bad for her. She was in her early 20s when her life was forever ruined.
This! Really I’ve seen her speak about her experience (TED talk, etc.) and she is a lovely, intelligent, compassionate woman. Hate to see her dragged again by this series.
If I recall, this incident went far beyond Bill Clinton simply being caught with his pants down – it was a flashpoint for Republicans who were desperate to try to take him down. It’s a bigger scandal than people realized, not because of the salacious details, but because it really was a crazy conspiracy.
And Monica Lewinsky was humiliated enough. She had sex with someone she shouldn’t have and has paid for it for the rest of her life.
I agree.
She commited no crime! Why are they even picking up this story!?
Ankhel, I’m fairly certain the crime isn’t Monica, but the way she was set up as a way to get to Bill Clinton (and likely Hillary). It’s an interesting story, but it sucks that it utterly ruined Lewinsky.
No kidding, she made a mistake and paid dearly for it. I remember being utterly appalled at the way she was treated.
I hope she has made a nice life for herself.
Alison Tolman as Monica Lewinsky would be great, and she has previous working relationship with FX from Fargo.
Republicans always put party over country and were thrilled they might impeach and get rid of a president who did a pretty good job for the country. In some ways this can be viewed as a national pastime to humiliate Hillary Clinton over and over again. I guess Trump verbally assaulting her and threatening her with jail time and hinting NRA zealots might simply kill her just wasn’t enough.
Can they like stop telling us about what the seasons will be about when they aren’t airing until 2018?? What’s with that anyways??
What was the crime?
Bill Clinton lied while under oath.
I won’t be able to watch this. I felt bad for Monica Lewinsky when this happened. Sure, she made a bad decision, but she was so young and vulnerable at the time. The people surrounding her should have guided her, protected her, not tape recorded, used and abused her. This episode in her life has haunted her for decades – she hasn’t been able to have a career, find a husband, have a family, etc. I won’t give Linda Tripp any attention – I loathe that woman. She could have helped Monica way back when & instead, she betrayed the poor girl.
I think this is in really poor taste.
I feel like this is going to be some type of twisted win for “low info voters” (that guy’s) supporters
as further dumbass justification that hillary shouldnt have been president…. also this is going to bring so much pain AGAIN for hillary, which idc if monica was slut shamed, she AND HE knew it was wrong.
It already happened we have the transcript….let it be and lets focus on the Jon Benet Ramsay