After bringing the house down during her March TED Talk on cyberbullying, Monica Lewinsky may now be taking her message of compassion to TV.
The Hollywood Reporter writes,
The former White House intern was invited to serve as a guest co-host following her successful TED talk on March 19 about cyberbullying and the price of fame.
[…] Sources say The View is still a month or two away from making any cast decisions for next season, but producers are looking at going back to five female co-hosts instead of the current four.
Given Lewinsky’s valuable personal experience with cyber bullying and her newfound outspokenness (in a recent Vanity Fair, she described online harassment as “a strange combination of schadenfreude and othering people”), I’m really excited to see her being offered high-visibility positions, even if The View itself isn’t my jam.
It’s harder to reduce someone to “a tramp, tart, slut, whore, bimbo, and, of course, That Woman” when they’re afforded an opportunity to appeal to our humanity and share their experiences, and I think the evolution of Lewinsky from punchline to respected personality could have positive ramifications for women on the Internet overall.
What do you guys think?
[Update] A rep from The View has given this statement to Mediaite:
After her TED talk we invited Monica to be a guest to talk about her anti-bullying campaign. We’d love to have her on the show.
[Update April 2nd 3:00 EST] Lewinsky’s representative Dini Von Mueffling has told Mediaite that her client will not be appearing on the show: “Monica has been invited as guest several times in the past few years, but has not gone on. She is not trying out for a position as a host.”
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