AFFAIR OF THE STATE

The infamous Bill ClintonMonica Lewinsky sex scandal is dramatised in Ryan Murphy’s latest American Crime Story

- JUDY EWENS, STEVEN PERKINS

In 1995, 22-year-old college graduate Monica Lewinsky started an unpaid internship at the White House. Three years later, her affair with Bill Clinton would make headlines around the world, and lead to the impeachment of an American president – the first in more than a century.

These real-life events are dramatised in Impeachment, the third instalment in Ryan Murphy’s American Crime Story anthology, following his previous Emmy-winning series on the OJ Simpson murder trial and the killing of fashion designer Gianni Versace. Lewinsky, now 48, is a producer on the 10-part drama, which begins on BBC2 this week and which is largely based on the book A Vast Conspiracy by journalist Jeffrey Toobin. Beanie Feldstein plays Lewinsky, while the starry cast includes Clive Owen as Bill Clinton and Edie Falco as Hillary Clinton.

TEMPTATION

Feldstein says she understands why Lewinsky got involved with the married president who, at 49, was more than twice her age.

‘When Clinton shone his light on you, there was no better feeling in the world,’ says Feldstein. ‘When that man put his spotlight on you, the world fell away.’