Thursday, May 8, 2014

Revealed: My Lunch With Monica Lewinsky

Monica Lewinsky in Philadelphia
on the day of our lunch, April 6, 1998.
Yes, I did have lunch with Monica Lewinsky.
And, yes it was at the very height of the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal. You know what I'm talking about -- that scandal; the one that prompted the famous phrase "I did not have sex with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky."
My lunch with Monica occurred on April 6, 1998 when she was in Philadelphia with her then-lawyer William H. Ginsburg. Ginsburg came to town to address the Philadelphia Bar Association and he brought his famous client with him.
At the time I was Director of Communication for the bar association and thus responsible for media relations. Can you even begin to imagine the media frenzy that accompanied Monica's arrival in town? It was a circus!
And I was on tenterhooks trying to keep everything under control. Ponder how absurd it was to think that we actually could keep things under control.
Anyway, there I was right alongside Monica Lewinsky as she faced scads of TV and still cameras everywhere she went.
Yes, we had a chance to chat. And yes, we talked about that, sort of.
Actually I've never told this story publicly before. But yesterday I decided that with Monica Lewinsky back in the news again, after 16 years I would finally share the story with my friend Kevin Riordan of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Click here to read the story.

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