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Marketing Team Orchestrates Blitz Worthy of Patton

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TIMES STAFF WRITERS

In the beginning was the book deal. When Linda Tripp first approached New York literary agent Lucianne Goldberg two years ago, she hoped to write a nasty tell-all about President Clinton’s scandal-plagued White House.

Tripp’s proposal went nowhere--but now the woman she so famously betrayed is about to cash in on her own book deal, big time. Not to mention television deals, foreign magazine deals and other lucrative promotions that, conservatively speaking, could make Monica S. Lewinsky a cool $3 million in a hurry.

“That’s how the cookie crumbles,” said Goldberg, who persuaded Tripp to secretly tape Lewinsky, thus triggering the scandal. “This country’s appetite for the salacious, the sexy and the personal is truly a bottomless pit, and in our culture people can cash in automatically on celebrity.”

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But the Marketing of Monica didn’t happen overnight. It required a team of high-priced attorneys, publicists, broadcast executives and publishers on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, all of whom devised a strategy that eventually rivaled a military operation in its attention to timing and detail.

Like any war, there were winners and losers, and some media organizations that tried but failed to make a deal with Lewinsky now criticize her, blasting the “commercialization” of a woman whose celebrity has reached its marketing apex.

Not a minute has been wasted: In recent days, the public’s appetite for this evening’s much-ballyhooed ABC-TV interview with Lewinsky has been whetted by a stream of press leaks and prime-time promos. When Barbara Walters’ two-hour broadcast begins, an event expected to attract from 30 million to 50 million viewers, the multimillion-dollar campaign will kick into high gear.

On Thursday, bookstores across America begin selling “Monica’s Story,” (St. Martin’s Press, $24.95) a 288-page confessional penned with best-selling author Andrew Morton. More than 400,000 copies have been shipped, an unusually high figure, even for a big celebrity book.

The title is already No. 10 on the bestseller list of Amazon.com, the nation’s largest online bookseller, based on heavy advance sales.

Campaign Next Heads for England

This weekend, Lewinsky is scheduled to jet to England, where she’ll sign books in London’s fashionable Harrod’s Department Store, pose for pictures and give interviews to foreign magazines. By then, yet another interview with her will have aired on British TV and it will be shown subsequently in other countries.

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Lewinsky is still bound by her immunity agreement with independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr and is limited in what she can say about the investigation while on American soil. Thus, she is not embarking on a national book tour, leaving Morton to do his own interviews and comment on her story. Once abroad, however, Lewinsky faces no such restraints and will be free to promote the book, along with magazine deals.

“This is the most intricately designed, complicated operation I’ve ever been involved in,” said Lynn Goldberg, the high-powered New York publicist for “Monica’s Story” and a veteran of big-ticket celebrity promotions. “I’ve never had to coordinate so many different products and timetables on behalf of one person before . . . and I’m beginning to think that I should have gone to West Point to really do this the right way.”

Along with Goldberg, Monica Inc. enlisted John Scanlon, a top New York publicist; Richard Carlson, a former top official in the Bush and Reagan administrations, and Richard Hofstetter, an influential Manhattan entertainment lawyer. Attorneys and publicists for British publisher Michael O’Mara, who bought the original rights to Lewinsky’s book and sold them to St. Martin’s, were also involved in the marketing blitz.

In some respects, this is merely the latest--and perhaps splashiest--celebrity extravaganza to dominate the media. But the fierce political passions that have driven the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal from the beginning, and a host of behind-the-scenes economic rivalries, also have turned it into an ugly spectacle, filled with hypocrisy and venality.

“All these people [lawyers and publicists] are sitting there pimping this girl, and it’s disgusting,” said publisher and TV host Judith Regan, who tried but failed to broker a multimillion-dollar deal with Lewinsky on behalf of her own Regan Books, a division of HarperCollins, and Fox TV.

Monica “isn’t a victim. . . . She’s an adulterer and she should be walking around with a scarlet A,” the outspoken publisher said. Concerned that Lewinsky “seemed more interested in making money than contemplating the deep meaning of her actions,” Regan will publish “Monica’s Untold Story: An Amorality Tale” on Friday. The parody, written by “Anonymous,” features vivid illustrations of Lewinsky, Clinton and other characters, many of which are in questionable taste.

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ABC officials said they did not pay Lewinsky for tonight’s appearance, but they stand to gain tens of millions in ad revenues. Indeed, the network had sought a staggering $750,000 to $800,000 for some 30-second spots on the show, far higher than the usual cost for commercials on “20/20.”

Meanwhile, Lewinsky is expected to pocket $600,000 from her book deal, before royalties; an additional $660,000 from her interview with European TV; plus other royalties as additional foreign rights are sold to her book and television interviews.

The table is set for a boffo event, but will the public bite? “Monica’s Story” might climb to the top of bestseller lists, but some publishing observers question whether it will stay there, given the appearance later this month of books by former White House aide George Stephanopoulos and Newsweek reporter Michael Isikoff, who first uncovered the scandal.

“The real challenge the publisher faces is motivation,” said Stuart Applebaum, senior vice president for Random House. “Sure, we’ll all tune in on Wednesday because it’s free. The question is, will people want to spend their hard-earned money to learn more about Monica? A lot will depend on how winningly and sympathetically she comes across on your TV screen.”

‘A Very Good Gamble for Advertisers’

Similarly, TV experts say Walters’ ABC-TV interview may turn into a media event--replete with “Monica parties” in homes across America--but they caution that it might be hard to reach the astronomical ratings envisioned by some boosters.

Despite the high rates charged by ABC, the Lewinsky show “is a very good gamble for advertisers,” said Bill Carroll, vice president for the Katz Television Group, a consulting firm. “This is truly an event, it’s water-cooler conversation, and we don’t have too many of those in America anymore. . . . If you are associated with that, it can be good for business.”

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As for the ethics of it all, one of Lewinsky’s harshest critics concedes that the celebrity gravy train is a fact of life. Even if she didn’t get a book deal for Tripp.

“The bottom line is, Monica has been managed very well,” Lucianne Goldberg said with a sigh, adding that she has no intention of writing her own book but will soon host her own syndicated radio show.

“Most pudgy little princesses from California don’t get themselves into this kind of a jam and make all this money,” the agent said. “I mean, she been very, very lucky.”

CENSURE INSIGHT: Capital insiders had unusually little effect on impeachment drive. A8

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

From the cover of her book, due out Thursday.

Book advance: $600,000

Book royalties: 10% of sales

Retail price: $24.95

Advance copies shipped: 400,000

British TV interview: $660,000

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