Bill was able to go missing for a quickie.
Negative attention has plagued Bill Clinton this month, from the launch of A&E’s scathing new six-part documentary “The Clinton Affair” to a scolding new interview with one of the key players in that series and that scandal — former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
And so the thunderous ovation he received from a friendly crowd as he walked onstage at Knight Theater was surely a welcome respite for the former president, who sat down with bestselling novelist James Patterson on Thursday night to celebrate the presidential potboiler they penned together. (Or perhaps we should say penciled; more on that later.)
Guided by moderator Roy Neel — who was Chief of Staff for Al Gore when Gore was a Senator and later became Clinton’s Deputy Chief of Staff — Clinton and Patterson talked in detail about the book’s development, its characters and its plot; periodically, though, the ex-Commander in Chief also offered his unique worldview on hot-button issues and reflected on decisions he made while in office.
During the latter part of the 66-minute conversation, Clinton did mention the word “Scandal” …. but he was talking about the juicy ABC political drama that had its series finale this past April. (More on that in just a minute, too.)[…]
“I remember the first woman president on television was played by Geena Davis (on ABC’s “Commander in Chief” from 2005-06). … I thought she was quite good. … But after I watched about three episodes, I realized that it was gonna be very difficult for the series to work. Not because she wasn’t an incredible president … but because you can’t make some wildly exciting, entertaining thing happen once a week. … And by the third or fourth week, crazy things were happening. “The West Wing” worked because it was an ensemble. There is something really worth telling that happens to somebody in the White House in the West Wing every day, don’t you think? Something. So I really thought about this a lot when we were writing this book. … Look, I enjoyed the first season or so of ‘House of Cards,’ and am a big fan of Robin Wright, so I’m glad she got to be president. Kerry Washington I like very much, and her husband Nnamdi Asomugha is a friend of mine and a wonderful man, so I love ‘Scandal.’ But I hated what it made people think about politics. By far, the most realistic political show on television is ‘Madam Secretary’ (starring Téa Leoni, on CBS). It’s the one that’s most like the way it works, and I find it interesting. But it’s not one of the top shows or anything, because they don’t kill somebody every time you turn around. And so I think that it’s a challenge.”