Monica Lewinsky on Post-Clinton Weight Loss
Netlore Archive: Did Monica Lewinsky really say THAT on Larry King Live?
Description: Email hoax/Joke
Circulating since: Jan. 2000
Status: False
Email example contributed by J. Nicolleta, 22 Jan. 2000:
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Here's the first quotable quote of the century.
Monica Lewinsky (on CNN's Larry King Live discussing her miraculous Jenny Craig weight-loss): "I've learned not to put things in my mouth that are bad for me" |
Comments: Does anyone else smell a joke writer at work here? On January 3, 2000, Monica Lewinsky did indeed appear on Larry King Live, where her new job as spokesperson for Jenny Craig Weight Loss Programs was discussed. She did not, however, utter the words attributed to her above (see for yourself).
Rather, it's a simple and obvious joke playing off the juxtaposition between Lewinsky's current enterprise and her well-publicized "sexual relations" with President Bill Clinton when she was a White House intern during the 1990s. Among the intimate details of that affair which became public knowledge through the Kenneth Starr investigation was the fact that Clinton and Lewinsky's "lovemaking" consisted mainly of oral sex -- an irony just waiting to be exploited, given Lewinsky's new occupation. It didn't take long, as you can see.
Demonstrating once again that even journalists can fall prey to Internet misinformation, the alleged exchange between Lewinsky and King was quoted as fact in Amy Reiter's Salon magazine gossip column dated January 31, 2000, only to be retracted days later.
Further reading:
Transcript: Larry King Live w/ Monica Lewinsky
January 3, 2000Altoids, Oral Sex and the Presidency
Urban legend meets White House scandal
