People in the News for June 9, 1998

Martha Stewart -- she may not be a compliant White House intern or large-haired trailer park bimbo, but she still has her presidential uses. On Monday, the prim lifestyle maven hosted a chichi fund-raising luncheon ($5,000 a plate) and, for cheapskates, a dessert reception ($1,500 per person), on behalf of some Democratic weasel in Connecticut. President Clinton attended, which undoubtedly meant that his Secret Service retinue not only had to frisk Stewart for hidden glue guns, but, more importantly, had to stuff their pockets with extra marinated artichokes, smoked salmon, sugar-snap peas and tarragon chicken salad tea sandwiches. We think the president spoke for everyone present when he exclaimed, Ya'll gonna finish eating that? "I loved the food," he gushed. "I know it's all supposed to be light, but if you eat enough of it," it's filling. Then, referring to Stewart's popularity rather than the cumulative effect of one tarragon chicken salad tea sandwich after another, he said, "There's no telling how much she's broadened my base today."

Updates

There is much ado about a fuchsia boa in Monica Lewinsky's camp these days. Her new lawyers apparently have their writs in a bunch over her impending photo spread in Vanity Fair. Word is she vamps in bare shoulders and a fuchsia boa in one picture and frolics on a beach in another. Although she didn't give the magazine an interview, and therefore probably didn't say anything damaging, attorneys Plato Cacheris and Jacob Stein feel the photos may hinder her efforts to avoid criminal charges in the Clinterngate scandal. The shoot was approved by Lewinsky's previous counsel, William Ginsburg, who thought it would boost her spirits. "She was becoming very depressed," he said at the time. "She needed to feel good about herself. This was a good opportunity to do that." "She was a real natural," says a Vanity Fair spokeswoman. "She was easy to work with." There's no telling how much this will broaden her base.

Compiled by Scott Dickensheets

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