Monica Lewinsky says she never imagined that one day she’d become a Halloween costume.
But even at the height of the sex scandal involving former President Bill Clinton, the former White House intern says, “I have never gone to a Halloween party where I’ve bumped up against, well, myself.”
Lewinsky, now 42 and a Vanity Fair contributing editor, reflects on what it’s like “when someone begins the year as a private person and ends it in the aisles of a costume store” in a piece for the magazine published Wednesday.
{mosads}While she hasn’t come face-to-face with a beret-wearing trick-or-treater, Lewinsky says she did get a taste of what it might be like when she watched the 2008 flick “Made of Honor.”
“It opens with a scene in which Patrick Dempsey, dressed as Bill Clinton, mingles at a Halloween party — with three Monica Lewinskys — all clad in blue dresses and berets, holding cigars.”
The anti-cyberbullying advocate adds, “(Cringe factor: 10.)”
Pointing to costumes inspired by former local NCAA chapter president Rachel Dolezal, Cecil the lion, and Cecil’s killer, dentist Walter Palmer, Lewinsky writes, “In the age of social media and the irresistible, almost-pathological drive to curate our images, the costumes we choose must deliver a message about who we are, how clever we are, and how fabulous our lives are. But there is a fine line between clever and cruel.”
Once one of her favorite holidays, Lewinsky says now Halloween offers her a single day out of the year that people don’t tend to ask her: “’Are you Monica Lewinsky?’ — a question that is preceded, less and less frequently, by the charming disclaimer, ‘No offense, but…’ And instead, I hear, ‘Great costume!’”