FIRST LOOK: Clive Owen and Edie Falco make incredible transformations into Bill and Hillary Clinton on set of Impeachment: American Crime Story
- Though the project has been filming over over the last couple weeks in Los Angeles , it was the first time 56-year-old Owen and 57-year-old Falco were seen as the 42nd president and first lady
- The series – titled Impeachment: American Crime Story – will dive into Bill’s infamous affair with his White House intern and the following Impeachment trial which occurred from December 1998 to February 1999
- Clinton became the second president in history to ever get impeached after leaked audio tapes exposed the affair and rocked the nation
- The series also stars Beanie Feldstein (Book Smart) as Monica, and Sarah Paulson as Linda Tripp — the woman whose audio recordings of the explicit conversations led to the trial
- Mira Sorvino was tapped to play Monica’s mom Marcia and Annaleigh Ashford will play Paula Jones — the woman whose 1994 sexual harassment lawsuit against Clinton set the stage for impeachment
- The star-studded cast will also be rounded out by Betty Gilpin as Ann Coulter and Billy Eichner as Matt Drudge
- The political sex scandal took place in 1998, when a news report emerged claiming that then-President Bill Clinton had had an affair with Monica while she was a White House intern
Clive Owen and Edie Falco made incredible transformations into Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton for Ryan Murphy’s star-studded anthology series about the infamous Monica Lewinsky scandal.
Though the project has been filming over over the last couple weeks in Los Angeles, it was the first time 56-year-old Owen and 57-year-old Falco were seen as the 42nd president and first lady.
The series – titled Impeachment: American Crime Story – will dive into Bill’s infamous affair with his White House intern and the following Impeachment trial which occurred from December 1998 to February 1999.
First look: Clive Owen and Edie Falco were spotted in character as Bill and Hilary Clinton on the set of Impeachment: American Crime Story, which follows the infamous Clinton-Lewinsky sex scandal
By his side: ‘I made a decision to stay with my husband. I think some people thought I made the right decision and some people thought I made the wrong decision,’ she shared in her Hulu docu-series; pictured 1998
Clinton became the second president in history to ever get impeached after leaked audio tapes exposed the affair and rocked the nation.
Owen was seen slipping into costume as he sported a brown suit jacket and a yellow button down with khaki pants and brown loafers.
And as he geared up for a long day on set he clasped a cup of coffee in hand, later making his way through the production lot with a black leather backpack.
The UK born actor was seen sporting Clinton’s signature silver locks and was suited up in a face mask while ahead of shooting scenes.
And Edie looked a dead ringer for the former first lady as she was spotted in a crisp striped button down with a blonde bob while getting some light hair and makeup touches.
National news: The highly anticipated series will dive into the famed scandal and the 1998 trial which led to Clinton being the second president in history to get impeached
Mr. President: Owen was seen slipping into costume as he sported a brown suit jacket and a yellow button down with khaki pants and brown loafers
Rocky marriage: Hilary spoke out years later saying she ‘didn’t want anything to do with him’ after the affair news broke
The series also stars Beanie Feldstein (Book Smart) as Monica, and Sarah Paulson as Linda Tripp — the woman whose audio recordings of the explicit conversations led to the trial.
Mira Sorvino was tapped to play Monica’s mom Marcia and Annaleigh Ashford will play Paula Jones — the woman whose 1994 sexual harassment lawsuit against Clinton set the stage for impeachment.
The star-studded cast will also be rounded out by Betty Gilpin as Ann Coulter and Billy Eichner as Matt Drudge.
White house intern: Book Smart star Beanie is stepping into the role of Lewinsky who called the relationship with Bill a ‘gross abuse of power’
Leaked tapes: Sarah Paulson is starring as Tripp — the woman who recorded audio tapes of affair conversations which exposed the situation as she shared this image of herself in character last month
Wow! The 46-year-old actress donned a brown power suit with a white turtleneck to portray the infamous White House employee who recorded conversations with Monica Lewinsky after she confided in Tripp about an affair with president Bill Clinton
The political sex scandal took place in 1998, when a news report emerged claiming that then-President Bill Clinton had had an affair with Monica while she was a White House intern.
At the time the trysting began in November 1995, Clinton was 49 years old and Lewinsky was 22.
Clinton would initially deny having sexual relations with Lewinsky, claiming in a January 1998 deposition that the two were never alone together in the White House.
Transformed: Last month, Mira Sorvino (left) transformed into Monica Lewinsky’s mother Marcia Lewis (right), as she headed to film the Ryan Murphy drama in Los Angeles
Unknown to Clinton, however, Lewinsky had already revealed the details of the affair to her friend Linda Tripp, saying there were nine sexual encounters through March of 1997; several included oral sex and at least one involved Clinton penetrating her with a cigar.
The Clinton-Lewinsky affair became public a day after Clinton’s sworn testimony, when Tripp gave Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr tapes of Lewinsky admitting to her relationship with the president.
He was impeached in 1998 on charges of lying under oath and obstruction of justice. The Senate acquitted him along party lines, with no Democrats casting ‘guilty’ votes.
At the time, Americans’ views on the impeachment proceedings were seen as a political Rorschach test.
Timeline of Bill Clinton/ Monica Lewinsky sex scandal
November 1995 – President Bill Clinton, 49, engages in an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, 22
March 1997 – The affair ends, according to Lewinsky. She said they had engaged in sexual encounters on nine occasions
September 1997 – White House employee Linda Tripp begins recording her conversations with Lewinsky after she confided in Tripp about the affair
January 7, 1998 – Lewinsky signs an affidavit stating that she never had a sexual relationship with Bill Clinton. This was at the request of attorneys representing Paula Jones, who had accused Clinton of sexual harassment in 1994
January 17, 1998 – News of the scandal first breaks on the Drudge Report
January 21, 1998 – The Drudge Report publishes allegations that Lewinsky had kept a ‘garment with Clinton’s dried semen’. The story is picked up by major news outlets
January 26, 1998 – President Clinton denies the affair while standing with his wife Hillary at a White House press conference. He says the famous line: ‘I did not have sexual relations with that woman’
January 27, 1998 – Hillary Clinton appears on the TODAY Show where she defends her husband and calls the claims ‘a vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced his run for president’
February 6, 1998 – President Clinton says in a press conference that he will not resign from office
August 3, 1998 – A blood sample is taken from President Clinton for DNA testing against stains from Lewinsky’s blue dress
August 6, 1998 – Lewinsky begins to testify before the grand jury
August 17, 1998 – Clinton testifies to the grand jury where he admits to ‘inappropriate intimate contact’. He speaks to the nation in a televised address, finally admitting that he had a relationship with Lewinsky
October 2, 1998 – Transcripts of Monica Lewinsky and Linda Tripp’s taped phone conversations are released
December 11, 1998 – The House Judiciary committee votes to impeach, approving two articles of impeachment, including lying to a grand jury and obstruction of justice
December 12, 1998 – Clinton says he won’t resign and denies lying under oath
December 19, 1998 – The House of Representatives votes to impeach President Clinton. Clinton vows to remain in office until ‘the last hour of the last day of my term’
January 7, 1999 – The Senate begins its trial of President Clinton
February 12, 1999 – The Senate acquits President Clinton on both charges of perjury and obstruction of justice
Republicans castigated Clinton for carrying on an affair with Lewinsky and lying about it both publicly and under oath while Democrats saw the episode as an attack on their party’s young, fresh face, waged over personal weaknesses instead of policy.
But the Senate acquitted President Clinton on both charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.
Despite their direct connection to the 1998 scandal, Hillary and Bill only play minor roles in the third installment of the anthology series, which is currently without a set release date.
He infamously said he ‘did not have sexual relationships with that woman,’ before he confessed to ‘inappropriate intimate physical contact.’ He was later acquitted at his Senate trial.
Bill said that the affair was a way to ‘manage [his] anxieties,’ calling it a ‘stupid thing,’ in retrospect.
And throughout it all Hillary stood by his side though she admitted she ‘didn’t want anything to do with him,’ when the affair news broke.
‘I made a decision to stay with my husband. I think some people thought I made the right decision and some people thought I made the wrong decision,’ she shared in her Hulu docuseries Hillary.
And Monica has continued to incur a scarlet letter from the incident but told Vanity Fair that though their relationship was consensual it was a ‘gross abuse of power.’
‘Any abuse came in the aftermath, when I was made a scapegoat in order to protect his powerful position,’ she shared, adding that she regrets the affair.
Series creator: The anthology series is from the mind of Murphy who is known for Pose, The Politician and famously American Horror Story; pictured September 2019
Where are they now?
The latest series of American Crime Story, called ‘Impeachment’, will focus on the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal, which saw President Bill Clinton impeached for his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinksy, that lasted between 1995 and 1997.
But now, 24 years on, where are the key players in the scandal and subsequent impeachment hearing that gripped the nation?
Monica Lewinksy
At the centre of the scandal with President Bill Clinton was White House intern Monica Lewinksy, 22 at the time, who later said she had sexual encounters with Bill Clinton on nine occasions from November 1995 to March 1997.
In the years after the scandal, she struggled to stay out of the spotlight, and after a number of TV apprances, she moved to London study social psychology at the London School of Economics.
She graduated with a Master of Science degree, and her thesis was titled, ‘In Search of the Impartial Juror: An Exploration of the Third-Person Effect and Pre-Trial Publicity.’
For the next decade, she did what she could to stay out of the spotlight, living in London, Los Angeles, New York, and Portland, but remained notorious and recognisable, and struggled to find work.
In 2014, she wrote an article for Vanity Fair titled ‘Shame and Survival’, and later joined the magazine as a contributor.
Monica Lewinksy, pictured in 2019
In October 2014, she took a public stand against cyber-bullying, referring to herself as ‘patient zero’ of online harassment, and has become an activist on the issue. She has delivered TED talks and has called for a more compassionate Internet.
In 2019, she was interviewed by John Oliver on his HBO show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, where they discussed the importance of solving the problem of public shaming.
The pair considered how her situation may have been different if social media had existed at the time that the scandal broke in the late 1990s.
Linda Tripp
Lind Tripp, a friend, colleague and confidant of Lewinksy, was an American civil servant, working in the Pentagon’s public affairs office.
She secretly recorded Lewinksy’s confidential phone calls in which Lewinksy told her about the relationship she was having with the then-President of the United States.
Tripp gave the tapes to in exchange for immunity from prosecution for wire tapping, and eventually both Clinton and Lewinsky had to appear before a grand jury to answer questions.
Pictured: Linda Tripp speaking to the press outside of the Federal Courthouse 29 July 1998 in Washington, DC
When asked if she had any last words in the trial, Lewinksy simply said: ‘I hate Linda Tripp.’
From 2004, Tripp and her husband, Dieter Rausch lived in Middleburg, Virginia. There, they ran a German winter-themed year-round Christmas store called the Christmas Sleigh.
Speaking in 2018, she said she was the ‘victim of ‘a real high-tech lynching’, and in 2020 she sadly died of pancreatic cancer on April 8, 2020, at the age of 70.
Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton left the White House on January 20, 2001 – being replaced by George W. Bush – surviving the impeachment trial and calls to resign.
Since then, he has continued to be active in public life, giving speeches, fundraising, and founding charitable organizations.
He has also spoken in prime time at every Democratic National Conventions, and campaigned on behalf of Democrat party candidates.
He has written numerous books and has been a paid speaker at a number of events, often earning six figure pay-cheques as a result.
In 2018, Clinton said he did not owe Monica Lewinksy an apology in light of the #MeToo movement, but later backtracked.
‘The important thing is that was a very painful thing that happened 20 years ago and I apologized to my family, to Monica Lewinsky and her family, to the American people,’ he said.
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton arrives with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol for the 59th presidential inauguration in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021
Hilary Clinton
After the evidence about her husband’s affair became impossible to deny, Hillary Clinton issued a statement reaffirming her commitment to their marriage.
She has since gone on to continue her political career, serving as a U.S. Senator from New York, and later as U.S. Secretary of State under president Barack Obama.
She famously lost the democratic presidential election nomination against Barack Obama in 2008, and the presidential election against Donald Trump in 2016.
Like her husband, she has written a number of books and has appeared at numerous speaking events, and since January 2020, she has been the Chancellor of Queen’s University Belfast in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Ken Starr
Kevin Starr is an American lawyer who served as a United States circuit judge and 39th solicitor general of the United States, and whose investigation eventually led to the impeachment of President Clinton.
Since then, he has gone on to be involved in a number of other high-profile cases.
In 2007, Starr joined the legal team defending Palm Beach billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, who was criminally accused of the statutory rape of numerous underage high school students.
Ken Starr, an attorney for President Donald Trump, speaks during the impeachment trial against Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 27, 2020
Epstein would later agree a plea bargain, but in 2019 committed suicide facing fresh charges.
In 2020, Starr was announced as a member of President Donald Trump’s legal team for his Senate impeachment trial. He argued before the Senate on Trump’s behalf on January 27, 2020. Trump was acquitted, only to be impeached again in January 2021.
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