Jennifer Aniston recently lamented about people who are "famous for basically doing nothing" but still have incredible careers and how they were "diluting the job of an actor."
In a sit down interview with for Variety Actors on Actors, Aniston discussed fame and what it looks like now versus what it looked like when her career first started.
She and Pam and Tommy's Sebastian Stan discussed Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee's stolen sex tape.
Aniston said:
"It really shaped so much of a new culture—this thing of people becoming famous for basically doing nothing but yet having these incredible careers."
She added:
"And then women’s reputation … I mean—Pam, Paris Hilton."
The video was edited to end her comment there, but the interview transcript shows another name mentioned.
Pay attention around the 9 minute mark.
The statement was problematic enough in the edited version considering both of those women were victims of literal crimes when intimate tapes were stolen and they were blackmailed and slut shamed.
But the transcribed conversation mentions another name—Monica Lewinsky.
The transcription quotes Aniston saying:
"This thing of people becoming famous for basically doing nothing. I mean—Pam, Paris Hilton, Monica Lewinsky, all those."
Lewinsky, another woman who was thrust into the public eye during a scandal, was an intern working for one of the most powerful men in the world when she was coerced into a sexual relationship with him.
In 2022 we would zero in on that man's targeted behavior as inappropriate. We understand the imbalanced power dynamic and how it impacts consent.
But this was 1998 and that powerful man was President Clinton, so Monica Lewinsky became a punchline instead. At least for a bit.
Like we said, it's 2022 now. People know better and speak up more.
The conversation around Lewinsky now looks more like this:
It's that exact tweet, actually, that Lewinsky used to subtly respond to Aniston calling out three women who became public figures after being violated as "famous for doing nothing."
Lewinsky didn't respond.
She didn't retweet.
She didn't screenshot it and share it on her Insta-stories or anything dramatic like that.
Monica Lewinsky just liked it.
She didn't have to do the heavy lifting on this one since Twitter was already dragging Jennifer Aniston for it anyway.
There are quite a few points in the interview where Aniston mentions the old ways, how things were done before, etc. Anistons parents were both actors, which is how she got her start in the industry.
So between the derisive tone about victims, lamenting the privilege and exclusivity of her youth, and complaining about them "diluting the job of actors" when many of her examples don't even act ... yeah ...
The dragging was real.
Neither Aniston nor Lewinsky has spoken further on it, nor has Variety explained why they chose to edit out Lewinsky's name from the video clip but left it in the article.
Pamela Anderson and Paris Hilton have not responded yet either.
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