Milking Monica -- The titillation never stops
Chidanand Rajghatta
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WASHINGTON, March 2: To a glut of initial public offerings (IPOs) that animate the American market these days, add an unusual one. Monica Inc is being formally launched on Wednesday. The only profiteers will be the marauding media and Lewinsky, but millions are going along for the ride.
The opening salvo in the marketing of Monica is her first full-length interview on Wednesday night to Barbara Walters, ABC's long-serving prima donna who hosts the program 20/20. Walters, an aging anchorwoman with a gravelly voice, has the reputation of being able to reduce strong men to schmaltz. The network buzz hath it that Monica is putty in her hands. She laughs, she cries, she giggles, she sniffles, and there is nary a dull moment in the two-hour long prime time interview slated for Wednesday (9 pm to 11 pm US Eastern Standard Time -- Thursday morning 7.30 am to 9.30 am IST).
ABC stands to cream a whopping $ 35 million from the interview. The network is peddling air-time for the 20/20 slot at a trifling $ 800,000 fora 30-second spot, four times the rate for a normal ad and only a notch below the $ 1 million per spot it charges for the Academy Awards ad binge. The interview itself will be less than 90-minutes to allow a good half hour of ads and promotionals.
According to the grapevine, the Walters interview is intimate without being a sobfest. Walters has said in brief teaser comments that Monica gets emotional and teary-eyed on occasions but it is not 'a huggy, kissy piece.' She talks about her feelings for Clinton, about Ken Starr, about Hillary Clinton, and yes, about the infamous thong. One ABC executive said the interview revealed a more complicated and subtle story, belying the 'cartoon quality' that the media had reduced it to.
The ABC interview precedes by a day a similar two-hour Monica interview conducted by Jon Snow of the British Channel Four at Monica's mom's New York apartment overlooking Central Park. The British network has already reaped a bonanza from that interview having resold the rights toseveral networks across the world, including TV stations in Israel and Singapore.
And that's not all. While the two interviews will saturate the airways over the next 48-hours, efforts are also on to whip up some froth for the launch of Monica's Story, the kiss-and-tell biography penned by Lady Diana's chronicler Andrew Morton.
Other components of the impending Monica-mania: Time magazine looks set to beat Newsweek and the rest of the pack with an interview soon. The British style magazine Marie Claire will put her on cover with an inside fashion photo spread by the renowned Patrick Demarchelier. Interviews are also in the pipeline with cash-rich publications like Paris Match, which has bought first rights in France for extracts from her book, as also Bild in Germany, The Daily Mirror in London, New Age in Australia and Corrier della Serra in Italy.
The late night joke: President Clinton is going to order serial bombing of several countries to drown out the Monicadin.
Some publications are already beginning to hail readers. This week's Hello! magazine, a photo-journal that circulates in Britain, Spain and France, carries a twenty-page photo spread of Monica Domestica -- the young lady working in the kitchen, garden etc. In one arresting picture, she is nestled in an overstuffed sofa, knitting, with a basket of yarn below her.
Meanwhile, the real yarn also goes on sale Thursday. Monica's Story has already logged a 350,000 advance order on the internet bookseller Amazon.com. Publishing industry executives seem to think the book will sell around a million copies and make the bestseller list for a few weeks before it is remaindered. Monica will get a 10 per cent royalty on US sales f the book, prized at $ 24.95, besides the 1.5 million advance she collected.
While Monica did not get a sou for the ABC interview, she is also reportedly getting $660,000 for her Channel Four talk and 75 percent of the proceeds from its sale to other countries. All this isexpected to take care of her legal bills which is said to total anywhere between $ 2 million to $ 3 million.
Unlike Clinton's other near-nemesis Gennifer Flowers though, Monica will not make the usual tour of chain book stores with the usual interviews and autograph signing hoopla. The immunity agreement she signed with Ken Starr apparently prevents such events. Instead, the book's author Andrew Morton will hawk it across the US. But there are no such restrictions for Monica outside the US and the circus is actually expected to take place in Europe later this month where Monica's PR team is said to have scheduled dozens of appearances.
Indeed, the young Lewinsky appears to learnt very quickly how to deal with international attention and make the best of it. She has gathered a formidable team of publicity experts including Lynn Goldberg, a longtime publishing professional whom St Martin's hired for her book project; John Scanlon, a New York whiz who has represented former Philippine president CorazonAquino; Richard Carlson, a former top official in the Bush and Reagan administrations; and Richard Hofstetter, a Manhattan entertainment lawyer. They will cost her a packet, but Monica is obviously banking on making a packet plus.
(1999 Indian Express Newspapers)
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