Ex-intern rules on impeachment drama
With friends like Linda Tripp, who needs …
Surely, you can fill in the rest. For those of us on the Ryan Murphy train for the past two months — with his 10-part limited series “Impeachment: American Crime Story” doing for the Monica Lewinsky/Bill Clinton saga what he did previously with the O.J. Simpson storm and the Gianni Versace bloodbath — it’s something we know all too well. The show fills out the story largely via the prism of the two women caught up in its cobwebs: busybody Tripp, who put the scandal into motion, and lovelorn Lewinsky, the unsuspecting friend. (Notably, Lewinsky is one of the producers of the show.)
The betrayals, the machinations, the legal somersaults — you get it all in the series (reaching its penultimate episode next week). At the same time, it also delivers a delish tapas tray of characters who still pierce the body politic and, amazingly, had their own origins during those Clinton years: a young lawyer named Brett Kavanaugh, for instance, or Trump-era characters like Kellyanne and George Conway, or cultural figurines like Ann Coulter.
The show being one of the only things I care to discuss lately, I thought to myself: why not call up my friend, Kate Casey? A White House intern around the same time as Lewinsky, Casey — now a podcast supremo living in Orange County — was, I know, watching “Impeachment” as avidly as I. And I just knew she’d have opinions.
“Sarah Paulson has somehow transformed into Linda Tripp, it’s almost eerie,” she started to tell me, reinforcing what I have been telling everyone who will listen: that Paulson has disappeared so thoroughly into Tripp, you don’t even see Paulson.
“She even nailed her gait, the way she hunched her shoulders ... the way she hid behind her thick bangs,” Casey continued. “I think the filmmakers have done a great job of telling Linda’s story, which is often overlooked. She’s a fascinating character. In the end she believed deep in her soul she was saving America, which is obviously bonkers. She considered herself a hero. I think she was the victim of her own pursuit of justice … based on this unreasonable hatred for the Clintons.”
Some of the other performers in this Shakespearean drama aren’t as successful. “While I think Clive Owen is a fine actor, I don’t think he captures the charm of President Clinton. But can we discuss the great Mira Sorvino as Marcia Lewis (Monica’s mother)? She’s riveting. Also, the set designers deserve an Emmy for the reconstruction of the Oval Office and Marcia’s apartment at the Watergate.”
For Casey, watching the show has been like entering into a rabbit-hole of her personal history, in some ways: in the summer of 1997, she had an internship in the Office of the Press Secretary at the White House, with her job involving arriving at dawn to clip newspapers from across the country, using scissors (ah, the pre-digital age!), which then — badge dangling around her neck — she would hand-deliver to the various offices, including the Oval.
Not only that, but a different setting in the series — the location where Tripp was wired up by FBI agents working with the lead prosecutor, Ken Starr — was in the same Pentagon City complex where Casey worked a few hours each week at a candy shop on the top floor. What’s more, another job that Casey had two years later was at Tony & Joe’s, around the corner from the Watergate apartment complex (where Lewinsky famously lived).
“Imagine my surprise as the story of Monica Lewinsky began to unravel in the press by January of 1998. While I was walking the halls delivering newspaper clips, Linda Tripp was secretly recording conversations with Monica. I was walking around those offices as they were all privately bracing for impact.”
Asked if there are ways that this series reflects her own winding perspective on the scandal, Casey — whose podcast “Reality Life with Kate Casey” is a must-stop, twice a week, for smart conversation on all things reality TV and documentary — says now: “I remember being frustrated by it all because it felt like the country was moving in such a great direction. There was optimism. This just felt dark, especially for me who thought up until that point that politics was still a noble profession.
“At the time I could not fully comprehend the complexities or the power dynamics at play. I am still trying to unpack it! This story consumed the news. Wall-to-wall coverage. Now you can see the veiled misogyny in the way the press covered the scandal. Monica was slutshamed. Hillary was called a moronic wife for staying with her husband. Linda Tripp was deemed basically insane. What about the guy? In retrospect, I think what I was most naive to was how powerful people cover for one another.”
“One thing I have always appreciated,” she went on, “is that Monica Lewinsky (played by Beanie Feldstein in the show) has referred to it as a mutual relationship. She has always taken responsibility for her part. Then I think about the humiliation. She was basically Hester Prynne. How long must someone be publicly shamed? Can’t we let people move past their mistakes and give them grace? She graduated from the London School of Economics. She has illuminated the world to creating a safer, more compassionate socialmedia environment. Maybe cut her some slack?”
OK, so how hard is it to land a White House internship? “It is very competitive,” Casey said. “You are at an advantage if you apply during the school year and you go to school in D.C., which I did. I went to Trinity College. I had also previously interned for Al Gore, so I am sure that helped my chances.” (Because it is unpaid, it’s an internship that often attracts rich kids, but Casey always had multiple jobs at the time, too.)
Noting that the show seems to adequately capture the claustrophobic, super-gossipy nature of Washington, she agreed: “Yes, I think Washington D.C. is like Hollywood, but with less attractive people. In Hollywood, the person who worked in the mail room becomes a major agent. In Washington D.C., a legislative aide becomes a chief of staff.”
Finally, a question that haunts me: what is with Linda Tripp and Christmas? (In the series, we see her throwing one of her super-over-the-top Christmas parties, complete with life-size gingerbread city!)
“You know she opened up a Christmas shop years after the scandal?” Casey reminded. “I wondered if there is some back story about her childhood — and how Christmas was the only time she was happy? Am I reading too much into this? She was like a Real Housewife of Columbia, Maryland!”
“Impeachment: American Crime Story” continues Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on FX Canada, and can also be streamed.
Twitter: @shinangovani