NEW YORK -- First it was a White House internship. Then a job with Revlon that never materialized. Earlier this year, she started a pocketbook-making business. Now, Monica Lewinsky, the woman known for her relationship with President Clinton, is marching down yet another professional path: as a television pitchwoman for a diet plan.
Starting Sunday, Lewinsky's very familiar face and form will appear in commercials for Jenny Craig Inc., the diet company, as part of a $7.2 million advertising campaign.The commercials, which are also her first national television forays since a March interview with Barbara Walters, will air that day during the Brian Boitano Holiday Skating Spectacular on NBC, and will be shown subsequently during daytime talk shows like "Oprah" and "The Rosie O'Donnell Show." The campaign, which includes cable television and Internet ads, will run at least through March.
In taking this step, Lewinsky appears to be following the example of Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, who sought a kind of public redemption and financial redress through a similar arrangement with Weight Watchers, another diet program.
Shortly after her divorce from Prince Andrew, the duchess signed a lucrative deal with Weight Watchers International, then a unit of the H.J. Heinz Co., to appear on television and in print ads for the program. Heinz has since sold the Weight Watchers instruction business to a unit of Artal Luxembourg S.A., although it continues to make and sell Weight Watchers food products.
It is unclear whether Lewinsky will give the program a hoped-for lift or drag it down because of the negative publicity that her presidential dalliance generated. For many Americans, the episode marked a low point in conduct for everyone involved.
In a rough cut of the Jenny Craig commercials, Lewinsky says she's lost 31 pounds.