Monica Lewinsky, We Hardly Knew You

We spent a year imposing identities on her. Now we meet her for real

When Monica left her videotaped deposition at the Mayflower Hotel last week, she was her usual Garboesque self: a shock of black hair, a fashion statement and silence. Unlike her pursuers on Capitol Hill, who brake for cameras, she plows determinedly through the crowd--never a comment, never a pose, never a clue. This encourages others to cast her in whatever role suits their favorite story line: starstruck ingenue, thong-flashing temptress, duplicitous home wrecker, innocent victim, Vanity Fair vamp or troubled product of a broken home in need of ministering, the kind only a President can give.

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