After scooping up an armload of awards-season hardware for American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson, the busiest man at FX, Ryan Murphy, is contemplating what comes next. With both Season 2 (covering the Katrina disaster) and Season 3 (dealing with the Gianni Versace murder) coming in 2018, Murphy has already cast his eye as far as Season 4 and optioned Jeffrey Toobin’s 2000 book A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Sex Scandal That Nearly Brought Down a President. That’s right: Monica Lewinsky and the Clintons might be coming back into the limelight.
Another Toobin book, The Run of His Life: The People v. O. J. Simpson, served as the main inspiration for Season 1 of the series, with a fictionalized version of the New Yorker contributor himself (portrayed by Chris Conner) popping up in several episodes. And while Seasons 2 and 3 of American Crime Story remain uncast, The Hollywood Reporter claims that Murphy and his producers are already meeting with actresses to portray both Lewinsky—a Vanity Fair contributor—and her colleague, Linda Tripp.
Given how effectively The People v. O. J. Simpson re-examined a court case America thought it knew so well, it’s entirely possible that Season 4 of American Crime Story will paint all the players in the Clinton impeachment hearings—Lewinsky, Tripp, the Clintons, even prosecutor Kenneth Starr—in a new light. The case, and Starr’s approach in particular, underwent intense scrutiny at the time, with several critics accusing the prosecution of political motivations. A criminal case centering on a Clinton that’s harsher than it might otherwise be because of politics? However will we find a modern parallel?
The title for Toobin’s book comes from Hillary Clinton’s 1998 claim that a “vast right-wing conspiracy” had been working “against my husband since the day he announced for president.” Though the Lewinsky case ultimately did not bring down a presidency, it did forever tar Bill Clinton’s era in the White House. Clinton was acquitted by the Senate, and two other charges of perjury and abuse of power failed in the House—with Toobin concluding, in his book, that the president’s behavior was “shabby, but not illegal.”
If the seasons of American Crime Story track the way FX president John Landgraf announced they would at the Television Critics Association winter press tour last week, then we can expect Season 4 to premiere in 2019—at the midway point of Donald Trump’s presidency. What better time, then, to re-litigate the tarnished Clinton legacy?
