Actress denies affair with Bill Clinton
Gay and lesbian icon Gina Gershon is smokin’ mad about a new Vanity Fair article alleging her friendship with former President Bill Clinton might have gone to the next level … and her lawyers are letting the magazine know she’s not going to take it lying down.
The article implies Clinton has engaged in a series of extramarital affairs with high-profile women. The feature notes rumors of questionable relationships between Hillary Clinton’s husband and Gershon and billionaire heiress Belinda Stronach, among others.
In a letter written to Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, penned by Lynda B. Goldman, counsel for Gershon representing the Los Angeles based firm Lavely & Singer, Gershon vehemently denied allegations made by journalist Todd S. Purdum in the article “The Comeback Id”.
Purdum claims Clinton’s “episodic friendship” with billionaire auto-parts heiress and Canadian Parliement member Belinda Stronah has long served as fuel for tabloid rumours.
More recently, “high-end Hollywood dinner-party gossip” has linked the former president to actress Gina Gershon. In addition, Purdum says there has been talk of several other ‘female friends’ Clinton has been rumoured to be associating with.
The letter from Gershon’s rep in response to the article reads, in part: “My client has the utmost admiration and respect for both the President and Senator [Hillary] Clinton, and she is extremely offended by the false and defamatory inference that she engaged in an adulterous relationship with the President.”
In a 2,476 word memo released on Sunday, Bill Clinton’s office vehemently attacked the Vanity Fair article’s commentary on his private relationships, his business connections and his health status.
The memo, provided by Clinton aide Jay Carson, called the Vanity Fair article “a tawdry, anonymous quote-filled attack piece,” which “repeats many past attacks on [Clinton], ignores much prior positive coverage, includes numerous errors, and ultimately breaks no new ground. It is, in short, journalism of personal destruction at its worst.”
The memo also stated that Vanity Fair has a “long history of libel and a loose relationship with the facts” and blasted the publication for the “obvious conflict of interest” caused by allowing Todd Purdum to author the piece on Clinton.
According to Clinton’s office, Purdum is married to fromer White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers, which is a conflict “that would likely not be contemplated at more reputable publications.”
In a more personal response to the Vanity Fair article, Clinton called writer Todd Purdum a “scumbag,” “sleazy” and said “he’s a real slimy guy.”
“[Purdum’s] one of the guys that propagated all those lies about Whitewater for Kenneth Starr,” Clinton said, according to the Huffington Post. “He’s just a dishonest guy, can’t help it.”
Hillary Clinton’s campaign office apologised for her husband’s remarks about the Vanity Fair article author, saying the former President’s language was “inappropriate.”
By Adam Higgins and Ann Turner © 2008 GayWired.com; All Rights Reserved.
