It’s been over 25 years since the Republican-controlled Congress under the leadership of Newt Gingrich tried to remove President Bill Clinton for his extramarital affair with Monica Lewinsky. Ironically, Gingrich was having an affair at the same with Callista Besik, who would go on to be his third wife. He resigned in early January and was replaced by Dennis Hastert, who later was convicted on child molestation charges.
Yet, you don’t hear anything these days about Gingrich asked for a divorce as his second wife, Marianne Ginther, had been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. He had an affair with Ginther while his first wife was suffering from cancer. And Hastert was two heartbeats away from the Presidency as House Speaker. But you don’t hear about it. But mention Monica Lewinsky and people know. It was the subject of various books and TV shows. Now, Lewinsky, who was the subject of so many crude jokes and online video games that had Clinton ejaculating on her, is getting the attention and apologies she has long deserved. It was a mutual sex affair between Clinton and Lewinsky.
Yet, it was obvious that Linda Tripp had a bone to pick with the Clintons, following the suicide of her supervisor Vince Foster. The only thing worse Clinton did by defeating George H.W. Bush was being re-elected. Gingrich along with Russ Limbaugh and other conservative pundits helped feed the firestorm that people had looked the other way at when reports FDR, JFK and other Presidents had extramarital affairs.
For a long time, something that had been kept secret among frat boy and locker room humor was now in the mainstream. I always wondered how someone would explain this to their children. The Starr Report was right there on the Internet for anyone to look at and if what happened with the cigars dd happen, it was hard to avoid it. Now, 25 years later, Stormy Daniels, real name Stephanie Gregory Clifford has gone down the same path Lewinsky went, but she’s had a rougher road.
I’ve wonder what would happen if a parent found their children Googling Stormy Daniels and the porno websites pop up. They’re keeping up on current events. Hopefully, they have safe search enabled. For the most part, Daniels kept quiet. She says her and Trump had sex once and another time, he sexually assaulted her. However, she didn’t report it. Why would she? How would you try to convince anyone at the time Trump is a sexual predator. It wasn’t like Daniels was a Sunday school teacher. And Trump at the time was just a game show host.
And there’s the rub. Lewinsky was just a civil servant at the time, just out of college in her early to mid-20s. However, she was portrayed horribly. I still think it was an insult to have Beanie Feldstein play her in Impeachment. It’s nothing against Feldstein, but it echoes the comments people had about Lewinsky’s weight at the time. Now, no one would care. But casting Feldstein whose shape is more portly in physical appearance is like a slap in the face to both Lewinsky and Feldstein.
Stormy, directed by Sarah Gibson, is streaming on Peacock and it takes a more sympathetic approach to Daniels, mainly because that’s how she should be portrayed. Pornography has existed for centuries. You can find it on ancient pottery, coins and sculpture. When the motion pictures became famous, European filmmakers were showing nudity and even “stag” movies were often shown at men’s social clubs. Black and white movies of being at nudist resorts or especially gay men doing exercises were in existence for a long time. I even have old VHS copies of what is advertised as “vintage porn.”
When Daniels was born, porno theaters were in full swing. Major film critics did reviews of them in publication. Many porno actors of the 1970s even said they saw it as the next step in filmmaking. Harry Reems of Deep Throat fame tried to break into the mainstream as famous actors like Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson supported him against indecency charges.
Then, Ronald Reagan was elected in the 1980s and the HIV/AIDS crisis put a stop to the Sexual Revolution. With the home video market, it made it easier to obtain porno movies, or adult films, without fear of being arrested. And despite what some people think, a lot of strip clubs/bars have very strict rules about how dancers can operate. Daniels started out as a dancer in Louisiana dive strip clubs before gradually working her way up to movies.
She detailed all these events in her memoir, Full Disclosure. But the documentary focuses more on her battles beginning in 2018 to current time. Gibson does her best to show a more candid look of the actress/director/dancer and how it’s affects her life, mainly with her rocky marriage to Brendon Miller, also known as Glendon Crain which was his porn name. Daniels says she has to keep all TVs off whenever her daughter is around, out of fear of finding out until the time is right to tell her everything. Her daughter’s face is obscured for the few scenes where she’s on screen.
Full Disclosure goes into more details about Daniels’ life and upbringing. I’m glad Gibson doesn’t show much of Miller, mainly because he’s a huge dick. There is one hard scene to watch as they fight over the phone. Yet, I kept wondering what was Miller expecting. The thing with Trump happened before they even met. He’s perfectly fine with her being married twice before and having done sex scenes, but you almost get the sense Miller cares more about how this looks for Trump than how it looks for his wife.
I know a lot of people will criticize Daniels for what she does. But by 2018, she wasn’t even acting in movies, but directing. She was dancing but a lot of women are dancers. It just goes to show how we blame women for something that men want anyway. While clubs have strict guidelines over what patrons and dancers can do, it seems the dancers are the ones who get in trouble with the law. The patrons just get removed for their actions. It doesn’t seem right.
And this being done in the world of the digital social media age, Daniels is subjected to a lot of hatred, threats and harassment. At one point, she reads off a post where someone writes that even if she did get raped, she still should’ve kept her mouth shut. Others threatened violence as she has bodyguards around her. However, the reason Daniels said she came forward was that she was initially worried about her safety. It’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation.
Daniels was sexually abused as a child and neglected and abused by her parents. Her mother’s voice is heard once denying all the stuff Daniels has said. Yet, a childhood friend, Travis Partin, backs up Daniels’ words. In many ways, the documentary is how people can turn their back on you once they get what they want. Daniels was seen as nothing but a piece of meat. She’s been a registered Republican since 2010. Sadly, in the end, things go from bad to worse as lawsuits leave her heavily indebted. Even a documentarian Denver Nicks has some end goal in mine as it’s mentioned they briefly had a relationship.
Michael Avenatti, who was the lawyer initially representing her as her book, Full Disclosure, hit the shelves, is revealed to have been channeling monies and residuals through a separate account. In the end, she finds help from Tulsa-based attorney Clark Brewster, who she says hasn’t billed him. Oh, I’m sure he’s getting some prestige out of taking on the case. I’ve spoken with Brewster on a few occasions during my time as a news editor on other cases. He takes these types of cases to get his name and face out there.
Talk show host/comic/actor Jimmy Kimmel as well as Seth Rogen, Judd Apatow, and Rachel Maddow are interviewed as talking heads supporting Daniels. Daniels had appeared in both The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up and The Pineapple Express, of which Rogen and Apatow were both involved.
I would recommend you read Full Disclosure before or after you see the documentary as it covers more about her life. As an adult movie actress and exotic dancer, Daniels was obviously targeted by Trump. I have some friends who do OnlyFans and other videos. They say people just think those who do it are sex maniacs and men can do or say whatever they want. That’s not the case. Why should women be held to a certain set of standards if we’re not going to hold men to the same.
Trump has said that he’s “grabbed women by the pussy.” He’s said that if Ivanka wasn’t his daughter, he’d be dating her. He even said to a 10-year-old girl that he would be dating her in another 10 years. This isn’t hearsay. He actually said it on recordings. If any other Presidential candidate had said this, they would have resigned a long time ago. This shows you how far down the rabbit hole people have gone to overlook the real problems.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 