Bill Clinton’s got a visitor in the first teaser for Impeachment: American Crime Story
FX's take on the Monica Lewinsky scandal is making its way to the Oval Office on September 7.
TV News Bill Clinton
It’s been three years since the last installment of American Crime Story hit the airwaves at FX, and while The Assassination Of Gianni Versace may not have caught the public attention quite as strongly as 2016's groundbreaking The People Vs. O.J. Simpson, it was still more than strong enough for us to be excited for the show’s return. And while the series bounced between a couple of different topics for its long-anticipated new seasons—including a scrapped attempt to illustrate the institutional failures that accompanied Hurricane Katrina in the early 2000s—it eventually settled on the juiciest one imaginable: A re-enactment of the 1995 Bill Clinton sex scandal, one of the most defining episodes in ’90s politics.
Now we’ve got our first promo for the upcoming season, Impeachment, and it’s a tease in the truest sense: We don’t get a straight look at either Beanie Feldstein as 22-year-old intern Monica Lewinsky as she walks some papers—and a gift—to the Oval Office, or at Clive Owen’s Bill, who’s waiting on her. That’s to say nothing of the typically sterling (and absent) rest of the cast, including Edie Falco as Hillary Clinton, Sarah Paulson as Linda Tripp, or Margo Martindale as Lucianne Goldberg. But the teaser does lay out the premise, which is as hook-y now as it was when it took over the collective American brain in the mid-’90s: Powerful president, young intern, global scandal, etc., all summed up in that final line: “Mr. President: Miss Lewinsky’s here to see you.”
American Crime Story, like The People Vs. O.J. Simpson, is based on a non-fiction book by Jeffrey “Thanks For Letting Me Back On CNN” Toobin. Billy Eichner, Anthony Green, Betty Gilpin, and Colin Hanks are all expected to co- or guest star as a variety of politicians and pundits of the era. The series premieres on FX on September 7.
75 Comments
Wait, Clive Owen is playing Bill Clinton?*sets DVR*
I haven’t watched this show, but yeah…Betty Gilpin and Colin Hanks? Count me in!
Betty Gilpin said she’s no longer in this.
I found a video where Gilpin does her Ann Coulter impression. Can’t really judge how good of a job she does since I tend to avoid listening to selfish hate-spewing malcontents.
I don’t think she got the voice quite right. I noticed in the comments that someone repeatedly said “She has absolutely zero talent.” You can probably guess what kind of videos he’s uploaded.
He? No, that was Ann.
OMFG, that’s spot-on, down to the Reagan accent and the randomized eye-popping.
Stay away from some of the other sites in this collective.
It’s accurate. It’s actually kinder than Coulter deserves.
Oh my God. This (and she) are brilliant. Thank you for sharing!
Really, why not?
“I am not going to be in it anymore,” Gilpin said. “COVID-wise. It sucks. The schedules just didn’t line up…I listened to all those Ann Coulter audiobooks for nothing.”Not sure if someone else will be playing Coulter.
Hate to hear that…seems like she’s had a rough go of it here lately; that one movie got canceled by RWNJ’s, then GLOW got canceled, and now this. Probably one of my favorite actresses at the moment.
In a just world, Gilpin would be the lead in tons of high-profile things.
In a perfect world, she’d also have superpowers and a never-ending pot of gold.
Probably the biggest blow IMO is playing “the Wife” in that Chris Pratt Amazon Prime sci-fi movie.
https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/cobie-smulders-ann-coulter-impeachment-american-crime-story-1235035552/
I listened to all those Ann Coulter audiobooks for nothing.”
FX should cut her a fat check for that alone. Actors gain or lose weight for roles all the time. Listening to Ann Coulter is psychological torture.
Weird choice, especially after they got John Travolta for the OJ season. I mean, he played a Clinton surrogate in “Primary Colors.” Why not have him play the genuine article?
Because he burnt the goodwill from The People vs O.J. Simpson when he starred in Fred Durst’s The Fanatic.
But he made it back with Die Hart!
I understand the rest of the cast, but I cannot understand Clive Owen as Clinton. Clive Owen!? Clive!? OWEN!?!? I’m not saying he’s a bad actor, but he’s never struck me as versatile, and Clinton is a thousand miles from Clive Owen. Particularly because Clinton is so difficult anyway – his whole thing is that ineffable aura of charisma, without which his behaviour and how people react to him just doesn’t make sense. Not a lot of actors can pull that off.
And yeah, Travolta did it in Primary Colours. Travolta may not be a versatile actor himself, but one thing he did have back then was charisma, and it’s a great performance. Sadly he’s too old now for 90s-era Clinton (and too weird an actor, going by recent perfomances). Though it would be interesting to see him play contemporary Clinton!Anyway, maybe Owen can pull this off, and it’ll be great if he does, but I’ll remain skeptical until he proves me wrong…
they had me the same way with “Edie Falco as Hillary Clinton.” she should KILL in this role, looking forward to seeing her unleash her righteous fury on Bill for his bullshit the same way she did with Tony Soprano back in the day.
SAMESIES! I just finished my umpteenth rewatch of The Knick, and got hyped as soon as I saw that.
I also somehow missed that Beanie Feldstein would be playing Lewinsky. My interest in this just went from essentially zero (I’m 46, I lived through this shitstorm and didn’t particularly want to re-live it) to… well, not zero, anyway.
Hmm, well, the OJ miniseries was pretty great, and maybe they can pull off the same trick here. Thing have changed so much that we’re not exactly going to be shocked by a show that says “turns out Bill Clinton is a massive fucking creep who frequently abused his power,” so I hope the post-script sequence for the final episode is just a series of photographs of Republican senators who all pretended this was the worst thing that ever happened to the integrity of the Oval Office while going on to enable Trump.
It Clinton had been convicted, AL Gore would have been president, and as incumbant, probably beaten George Bush. The second Iraqi war would not have happened. Hillary would have faded into irrelevance and if Trump still managed to get into the Whitehouse the Clinton example could not be used to prevent his conviction. So they should play this as a tragedy.
I hope that somewhere in the multiverse there’s a version of planet Earth that matches your description, especially as our own Earth increasingly resembles the Nazi planet from that Arrowverse crossover from a few year’s back
The second Iraqi war would never have happened, but I’m not convinced Fox News wouldn’t have whipped up their viewers into a xenophobic frenzy, especially with their opposition in the White House. And a Republican Senate was never going to not prevent Trump’s conviction; McConnell proved he’s a liar when he seated Amy Coney Barrett. 9/11 really fucked this country up, and the GOP has been devoted to enacting its dystopian vision of America for decades.Still would have loved an Al Gore presidency.
Clinton was wildly popular for a modern president even after impeachment. Gore ran away from Clinton during the campaign, which was just one of a few mistakes he made (hiring lunatic Naomi Wolf as an advisor was another). Hillary is a smart, talented, ambitious woman that wouldn’t have ‘faded into irrelevance’ and if the ‘Clinton example’ was used to defend Trump, it was used by the same lying people who hated Clinton.Recreating something that the majority of Americans hated and didn’t watch at the time seems pretty stupid, but I guess they’re hoping on picking up an audience from the same type of quality people that click on ‘You won’t believe what she looks like now!’ ads
There’s a ton of money in the anti-Clinton conservative hellscape and this show seems hungry for it.
My star is for your first sentence. I did not like the Clintons – they drove me from the Democratic Party into the arms of the Greens – but Bill was hugely popular. I thought an OJ show would be stupid, but then I read all these reviews that made it sound good to great, and I watched it and it was. I will give this a chance.
A bit of a revisionist take on the popularity of the impeachment proceedings. Did the majority of Americans hate it? Arguably, yes. But it was highly watched.
I suspect they are planning to do what they did with People vs. OJ, which was give a voice to Marcia Clark and the way she was treated by the media, but with Lewinsky. It’s easy to forget how much she was used as a punchline – She was dumb. She was fat. She was to blame. She was a home wrecker. In reality, she was a 22 year old. I’ve actually heard her speak a few times, and she does a good job of both taking responsibility for things she could have done better while also highlighting how the whole thing highlight a pre-Me Too way of treating men in power.
Hillary being Senator really helped. She had no competition once Rudy dropped out. But if he stayed, he could have won ( riding on his 9/11 stuff). If he wins, maybe Hillary doesnt try for office. But her Senate win gets her to SecState and Presidential nominee.
If Gore does a better job campaigning in New Hampshire he wins without Florida.Hell, if he asks Clinton to actually help him on the campaign trail he probably wins it.
If Al Gore was president, he would have probably been impeached for the same behavior as Clinton in his second term. Joe Lieberman would have been president when the financial crisis struck, and Hillary would have ran against him in the primary and probably kicked his butt because the Democratic Party really did not like Lieberman.Hillary would win the presidency with Joe Biden as her VP. She would be dogged by unhinged attacks throughout her two terms, but she would leave a legacy of healthcare reform, a judicial branch filled with judges who view abortion as a guaranteed, and a strong stance against Russia’s antidemocratic descent into oligarchy.
Joe Biden would have had to run against Donald Trump in 2016, and (without the benefit of Trump’s disastrous handling of Covid) would have lost the election. The four years under Trump would have unfolded pretty much the same way, but Senator Barack Obama would have defeated Trump in 2020.
Heads up: embedding links doesn’t work on Kinja anymore.
Look at it this way: as an encumbent, Al Gore would indeed have won reelection in 2000. After 9/11, he’d still have invaded Afghanistan and launched a War on Terror, but he’d have taken international allies with him, and he wouldn’t have invaded Iraq. He’d have been re-elected in 2004, and become the second-longest-serving President in history, with a 10-year term. He wouldn’t have slashed taxes, and he’d have used bipartisan support to push through sane and compassionate social security reform, leaving the country far more financially secure, and allowing him to invest in infrastructure. As a result the economy would have boomed even harder than in our timeline, and he’d have used that prosperity
to sell Americans on tackling climate change, introducing reforms at
least a decade earlier than in our timeline. He’d have used his trifecta after 2004 to push through sweeping healthcare reform (led by Hillary Clinton as Secretary of Health) that went further than our own ACA (it would have included a public mandate). He’d have reduced civil liberties, but less than Bush did, and he’d have avoided some of the norm-breaking authoritarian moves Bush made (like the mass-sacking of US attorneys and attempting to put his personal family lawyer onto the Supreme Court), and as a result Congress, and politics, would be at least a little bit more collegiate. HOWEVER……in 2008, after 16 years of Democrats and after a huge financial crash blamed squarely on those 16 years of uninterrupted Democrat rule, and with a personal scandal errupting, John Edwards* would have been absolutely steamrollered by Mike Huckabee. Huckabee would have been skeptical about further bank bailouts, and would have absolutely rejected the slightest hint of fiscal stimulus. The US economy, and the world, would have been plunged into a Great Depression, lengthened by Republican insistence on ‘austerity’ as the only solution (as conservative leaders did in the rest of the world). Despite four years of abject misery, Huckabee would have been narrowly re-elected in 2012 on a platform of “you can’t trust the Democrats – they caused this mess, and now they want us to go even further into debt!”. Meanwhile, he’d have reversed many of Gore’s achievements. Clinton would have won in 2016, but after four years fighting against a deadlocked Congress (particularly a Republican-dominated Senate) and getting little done, she’d probably have lost to… I don’t know, Romney? Graham?… in 2020.As the proverb says, whether the story has a happy ending or a sad one depends on where you stop the telling…*sidenote on my guesses on candidates:
– in 2004, Gore would have had the wind at his sails after 12 years of Democrat boom and with the post-9/11 flag-rally still just about going (despite his unpopular refusal to invade Iraq/Iran/etc). He’d have decided he didn’t need Liebermann, who by then he was sick to the teeth of working with, and would have tried to recapture the Clinton/Gore brand by hiring Edwards as VP – a young, charismatic southerner who combined left-wing credentials with populism. [then again, would he have even needed to pick Liebermann in the first place, if he was already established as President himself? Maybe not. Don’t know who he’d have picked, then. Richardson? Maybe he was too tainted by the impeachment?]
– in 2008, Edwards would have run against Clinton for the nomination, but Clinton had little to offer – sitting VP beats wife-of-the-disgraced-yet-still-popular-former-President. Obama would have seen the writing on the wall, however, and not run at all, keeping his powder dry.
– in 2008, Republicans, geed into a frenzy by 16 years of Democrat rule, wouldn’t have gone with a moderate like McCain… but they would have recognised a need to win back the populist white southern vote, particularly going up against Edwards. Huckabee, a hardline southerner with religious appeal, would have been the perfect vessel for them. He came surprisingly close as it was!
– in 2012, Obama, now more experienced, would have optimistically seen a chance against Huckabee and gone for it, believing the public would surely understand that Huckabee’s policies were making the Depression worse, if the economic theory were properly explained to them. He’d have fought a good fight but lost, ruling him out of the race in 2016, by which time in any case he’d have lost his ‘bright young thing’ appeal. Though he’d look younger than in our timeline, and might well be currently plotting a new campaign in 2024…
– Clinton’s support would never have gone away, and with Edwards and Obama out of the equation would probably have had 2016 a clear run for her (other than a token effort by Bernie Sanders).
– …this is too much thought to have put into an off-the-cuff hypothetical, isn’t it!?
All I know is that you should never do that with a cigar.
Meats & vegetables, fine.
Bill Clinton’s got a visitorHow many times has he had crabs???
I would think “based on a true story” would be unnecessary here, but OK.
Am I the only person who finds this project in extremely poor taste? Wait until people are dead, for God’s sake!
that there are Republicans who harp on this while conveniently forgetting T***p had sex with a porn star right after his wife gave birth and then paid her $130k to keep her mouth shut…let’s just say it doesn’t dissuade me that it’s not a cult LOL.
I wish I could forget her describing his penis as a small, sad mushroom.
I thought Beanie Feldstein was one of the lesser-known Little Rascals.
Honestly you had me at “Betty Gilpin.”
Dang, sorry to disappoint you but because of COVID scheduling issues she had to drop out! I just read an article that said Cobie Smulders has replaced her, which is still cool cuz she’s a good actor as well.
This project is dead to me
I will not accept this hurting of adorable Beanie Feldstein (even if it’s fictional)!
this makes me excited for summer to end?
You should have taken Bond, Clive. Now you’re doing crap like this
My first thought watching the teaser was “Is it really necessary for Monica to relive this whole thing again?” Once the promos ramp up, articles and tweets will follow and we’re back in this conversations, except there’ll be full grown adults who weren’t around in the late 90’s who will be rehashing previously worn out thought about this whole thing and I feel bad for Monica.
Monica’s producing it.https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/monica-lewinsky-inks-producing-deal-with-20th-tv-exclusive-1234967358/
I must have missed that part. I’m glad to hear it.
I guess I can tolerate this, as long as the next season is “Insurrection”.
Who can we cast as the Qanon Shaman?