World

Brits Not Exactly Mad For Monica

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

March 4, 1999 / 5:27 PM EST / CBS

She was interviewed on British television Thursday night. And, on Sunday, Monica Lewinsky will begin a book-signing tour of England with an appearance at London's famous Harrod's department store.

But on Friday, she was knocked off the front pages in London by a boy named Brooklyn, a baby born last night to "Posh Spice" Victoria Adams and her soccer-star fiance, reports CBS News Correspondent Richard Roth.

The Lewinsky seen on British TV, said one critic, was "Monica Lite" - no tears and no revelations, aside from the admission that she had briefly contemplated suicide.

In a country where American imports include Oprah Winfrey and Jerry Springer, Lewinsky's tell-all interview, for which Britain's Channel 4 paid $600,000, inspired less curiosity than cynicism. Most people are saying they were aware of the interview, but many didn't watch it. The audience was estimated at about 3 million people, which isn't even close to the 20 million who watched the television interview with Princess Diana a few years ago.

Still, celebrity sells in London as well as in New York and some British bookstores opened overnight to accommodate the literary crowd.

And can France be far behind? For that part of the world, Lewinsky may be able to sell a love story. Says one Frenchman, "We just want to know what wasÂ…the romance, what happened between this intern and the most important man in the world."

For that story, say French media executives, a world audience is willing to pay a fortune. The British TV company that paid Lewinsky $600,000 for the exclusive interview in England has earned more than $1.5 million in advertising and foreign resales.

CBS News Correspondent Mark Phillips reports that dignity and distance might be Lewinsky's PR strategy in the U.S. But, in Great Britain, it's been less dignity than dollars.

If this was checkbook journalism, the British TV interviewer says, that's show business.

"She was a commodity. Everybody knew the first time out she had a value," said Lewinsky's British interviewer, Jon Snow."I was a bit queasy about it, but in fairness, she deserves the money."

No commercial opportunity is being missed. In fact, in memory of that famous dress, the manufacturers of "Vanish," a stain remover, purchased one of the advertising slots during Thursday night's TV interview.