Bill and Monica's Fast Track
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20.
The Times of London reported on
its front page Monday that mere hours after being introduced to Monica
Lewinsky, President Clinton was having "a sexual encounter" with her: "Those
who worked in the White House were later astounded to learn the speed at which
the President first had sexual contact with Monica Lewinsky." In a preview of a
TV profile titled The Full Monica to be shown on Britain's Channel 5
next Sunday, the Times said she made eyes at him on the second day of
the November 1995 government shutdown, when interns were given extra duties,
and that they met later the same day at a staff birthday party. "At eight that
evening Mr. Clinton beckoned her into a private office and asked if he could
kiss her," the paper went on. "She agreed. Two hours later, he again asked her
to join him, and this time she performed a sexual act."
The Times said that
it was given access to material in a documentary by an award-winning British TV
producer, Anthony Geffen, whose team spent months interviewing people close to
Lewinsky. It quoted Dick Morris, the president's former special adviser, as
saying the White House strategy in dealing with the Monica crisis was one of
"deceit, denial and delay. ... The poor woman was like a ping-pong ball being
battered back and forth between these two heavyweights [Clinton and Kenneth
Starr], and I feel nothing but compassion for her. If she gets three million
dollars, she deserves ten for what she's been through."
Morris
reportedly said he doesn't believe Congress will impeach the president for
lying under oath about his relationship with Monica, "but they might well
impeach him if evidence comes forward from woman after woman after woman, of
private detectives scurrilously, sometimes illegally, perhaps under physical
intimidation, working on stopping these women from telling the truth. That
could really revolt the American people as, frankly, it does me, and that might
cause him more serious trouble than sex ever did."
The Israeli press was split over Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu's chances of getting the support of his government
colleagues on the Wye agreement. The liberal Ha'aretz led its front page
Monday with the headline "PM Facing Tougher Fight Than Expected." Having spoken
with several ministers on the phone, Netanyahu has discovered that the
opposition to the agreement is much broader than he thought it would be. The
conservative Jerusalem
Post , on the other hand, reported that Netanyahu was confident he could
sell the agreement to his right-wing critics.
In an editorial titled "Time
Out for Trust," Ha'aretz said the Israeli government "deserves, at this
stage, a certain grace period to demonstrate to the world that it is capable
both of meeting its commitments and [of] effectively dealing with the radical
right over this highly problematic issue." For the time being, it added, "[t]he
opposition would be well advised to hold off its support for elections." In an
article titled "Inexcusable" in the Jerusalem Post , columnist Aaron Lerner
condemned the Wye agreement as forfeiting Israel's right to determine
independently whether the Palestinians are keeping their part of the
bargain.
In an
editorial Sunday, Le
Monde of Paris said that Netanyahu's readiness to sabotage the negotiations
by demanding the release of Jonathan Pollard "augurs badly for the application"
of the Wye agreement. But the paper said that the progress made was "still
better than the status quo, which every day seemed more and more to resemble a
war in disguise."
Bangkok's Nation reported last Friday
that the Thai film board has recommended that Anna and the King , a new
version of The King and I starring Jodie Foster, not be filmed in
Thailand because it would violate the country's lèse-majesté law. This law can
result in prison sentences of up to seven years for people who commit acts
injurious to the reputation of the Thai monarchy. The paper said Rupert
Murdoch's 20 th Century Fox could face another controversy over its
application to film The Beach , starring Leonardo DiCaprio, on Phi Phi
Island. "It has told the Royal Forestry Department that it would plant some 100
coconut trees on the national park island for the filming," the Nation
said.
In
Germany, the weekly magazine Der Spiegel revealed that unpublished films
of Adolf Hitler have surfaced in the United States. It said that color films of
Hitler shot by his chief pilot, Hans Baur, who buried them in a garden in
Munich toward the end of World War II, were found by an American sergeant, who
has kept them in his house for the past 50 years.
