Monica Lewinsky

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Monica Lewinsky bigraphy, stories - American woman involved in President Bill Clinton's sex scandals

Monica Lewinsky : biography

July 23, 1973 –

Monica Samille Lewinsky (born July 23, 1973) is an American woman with whom United States President Bill Clinton admitted to having had an "improper relationship" while she worked at the White House in 1995 and 1996. The affair and its repercussions (which included Clinton’s impeachment) became known as the Lewinsky scandal.

After the scandal subsided, Lewinsky put out a line of handbags under her name, became an advertising spokesperson for a diet plan, worked as a television personality, and moved to London and obtained a Master’s degree in Psychology.

Early life and education

Monica Samille Lewinsky was born in San Francisco, California, and grew up in an affluent family in Southern California in the Westside Brentwood area of Los Angeles and in Beverly Hills. Her father is Bernard Lewinsky, an oncologist, who is the son of German Jews who escaped Nazi Germany and emigrated to El Salvador and later the United States. Her mother, born Marcia Kaye Vilensky, the daughter of a Lithuanian Jewish father and a Russian-Romanian Jewish mother; is an author who uses the name Marcia Lewis. Monica’s parents’ acrimonious separation and divorce during 1987 and 1988 had a significant effect on her. (Her father later married his wife, Barbara; her mother later married R. Peter Straus, a media executive and former director of the Voice of America under President Jimmy Carter.)

The family attended Sinai Temple in Los Angeles and Monica attended Sinai Akiba Academy, its religious school. For her primary education she attended the John Thomas Dye School in Bel-Air.At Pacific Hills School (formerly Bel-Air Prep) she won the "Outstanding Junior of the Year" award. by Leonard Gill, March 15, 1999. Memphis Flyer book review. Retrieved December 18, 2006. She then attended Beverly Hills High School, but for her senior year transferred to, and graduated from, Bel Air Prep (later known as Pacific Hills School) in 1991.

Following high school graduation, she attended Santa Monica College, a two-year community college, and worked for the drama department at Beverly Hills High School and at a tie shop. In 1992, she began a five-year affair with Andy Bleiler, her married former high school drama instructor. In 1993, she enrolled at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, graduating with a psychology degree in 1995.

With the assistance of a family connection, Lewinsky got an unpaid summer White House internship in the office of White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta. Lewinsky moved to Washington, D.C. and took up the position in July 1995. She moved to a paid position in the White House Office of Legislative Affairs in December 1995.

Subsequent life

The affair led to pop culture celebrity for Lewinsky as she became the focus of a political storm.In June 1999, Ms. Magazine published a series of articles by writer Susan Jane Gilman, sexologist Susie Bright, and author-host Abiola Abrams arguing from three generations of women whether Lewinsky’s behavior had any meaning for feminism. , , . In 1999, Lewinsky declined to sign an autograph in an airport, saying, "I’m kind of known for something that’s not so great to be known for."

On March 3, 1999, Lewinsky was interviewed by Barbara Walters on ABC’s 20/20. The program was watched by 70 million Americans, which ABC said was a record for a news show. She cooperated with Andrew Morton in his telling of her life and her side of the Clinton affair in Monica’s Story. The book was published in March 1999 and also was excerpted as the cover story in Time magazine. Lewinsky made about $500,000 from her participation in the book and another $1 million from international rights to the Walters interview, but was still beset by high legal bills and living costs. Lewinsky made a cameo appearance as herself in two sketches during the May 8, 1999, episode of NBC’s Saturday Night Live, a program that had lampooned her relationship with Clinton over the prior 16 months.