Monica Lewinsky Is Producing a TV Show All About Bill Clinton's Impeachment
Monica Lewinsky will executive-produce Impeachment: American Crime Story.
The latest installment of Ryan Murphy's franchise is slated for September 2020.
Beanie Feldstein and Sarah Paulson will star as Lewinsky and Linda Tripp.
A Murphy/Lewinsky ticket for 2020? It’s happening. Well, kind of.
FX announced Tuesday at the Television Critics Association summer press tour that Impeachment: American Crime Story, the third season of Ryan Murphy’s anthology series franchise, is a go with Monica Lewinsky attached to executive-produce.
Murphy—whose shows have helped turn the pop landscape into a playground of acceptance, inclusivity, and diversity—is following up the Assassination of Gianni Versace and The People v. O.J. Simpson with an episodic dissection of the salacious presidential sex scandal that dominated the late ’90s.
According to John Landgraf, chairman of FX Networks and FX Productions, Impeachment will “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,” per Variety.
Here’s everything else we know about the series so far.
When does Impeachment: American Crime Story premiere?
According to Deadline, production will kick off in February of next year, with the premiere day landing on Sunday, September 27—merely days before Election Day.
Is there a trailer?
No, but as soon as one drops you know we'll be busy dissecting every detail.
Who will be in the cast?
Beanie Feldstein—who you may recognize from Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart and Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird, and who is also Jonah Hill’s sister—will play Lewisnki as the 22-year-old White House intern who had an affair with the 42nd president of the United States.
Murphy anthology vet Sarah Paulson will play Linda Tripp, the civil servant who exposed the affair. And Annaleigh Ashford, from Masters of Sex and God Friended Me, will take on Paula Jones, the former Arkansas state employee who sued Clinton for sexual harassment.
The third season of FX's Emmy-winning anthology will focus on the Clinton presidency scandal. Ryan Murphy had previously told Lewinsky, "Nobody should tell your story but you." https://t.co/e0NoWxuF4z
— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) August 6, 2019
How did the project come together?
Having optioned Jeffrey Toobin’s 2000 deep-dive into the saga, A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Sex Scandal That Nearly Brought Down a President, Murphy wanted Lewinsky on board. “I told her, ‘Nobody should tell your story but you, and it’s kind of gross if they do. If you want to produce it with me, I would love that; but you should be the producer and you should make all the goddamn money,’” he said to The Hollywood Reporter.
Lewinsky, who partnered with A&E last year to tell her story in her own words over the course of a damning three-part docuseries, The Clinton Affair, told Vanity Fair she signed on to Murphy’s project because of his “dedication to giving a voice to the marginalized.”
Who's making sure the script is accurate?
Though it’s based on the CNN legal analyst’s best-seller, Dry Powder and Kings playwright Sarah Burgess penned the script, aiming to reinterpret and challenge the narrative as it was initially told in the press. “What brought it back around was really Sarah Burgess’s interpretation of the material, through the prism of these women,” Landgraf told the TCA, per AV Club.
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