A cursory glance at the official painting of Bill Clinton that is part of the National Portrait Gallery collection would easily miss an ode to the lowest point of his presidency — the Monica Lewinsky affair.
But it’s there, the artist revealed in an interview with the Philadelphia Daily News. Painter Nelson Shanks cunningly included a shadow over the fireplace cast from a blue dress on a mannequin.
Shanks said painting Clinton was his hardest assignment because “he is probably the most famous liar of all time.” So he added the sly nod to the Lewinsky scandal because it had cast a shadow over Clinton’s presidency.
“He and his administration did some very good things, of course,” Shanks said, “but I could never get this Monica thing completely out of my mind, and it is subtly incorporated in the painting.” He told the Daily News:
“If you look at the left-hand side of it there’s a mantle in the Oval Office and I put a shadow coming into the painting and it does two things. It actually literally represents a shadow from a blue dress that I had on a mannequin, that I had there while I was painting it, but not when he was there. It is also a bit of a metaphor in that it represents a shadow on the office he held, or on him.”
Shanks did not reveal this nine years ago when the portrait was unveiled. But perhaps now we could read between the lines of what he did say.
“I think the painting really feels like Bill Clinton,” he said then, according to The Washington Post. “It has — I would not call it swagger. . . . What? An informality? A looseness, a relaxed nature.”
Shanks alluded in the interview with the Daily News that Bill and Hillary Clinton are aware of the symbolism in the painting.
“And so the Clintons hate the portrait,” he said, adding that they wanted it taken down.
A Clinton spokesman refused to comment.
But the portrait was taken down about three years ago, a National Portrait Gallery spokeswoman told the Loop. No, she said, the Clintons did not ask for it to be removed.
Courting reality
The Washington as imagined in “House of Cards” requires some suspension of disbelief — but at least one scene this season mirrors real life.
Fans who watched this weekend may have noticed a rather convincing performance by a character playing a lawyer arguing before the Supreme Court.
The performance was hardly a stretch.
The man in the scene is Neal Katyal, the former acting U.S. solicitor general who filled in for Elena Kagan when she was nominated to the high court. He has argued 24 cases before the court. In the fourth episode, he’s up against actress Elizabeth Marvel, who plays the Underwood administration’s solicitor general, in oral arguments for a case about (small spoiler!) drone strikes.
Katyal exchanged e-mails with us Friday afternoon to discuss his experience playing, well, a version of himself. Turns out the celebrity lawyer — an Above the Law headline floated the question “The Paris Hilton of the Legal Elite?” after he successfully argued against the government in a 2006 case dealing with Guantanamo Bay detainees and military trials — was a natural.
Originally, Katyal was just called upon as a consultant, to chat with the writers about his experiences as solicitor general and before the Supreme Court. He took them to an oral argument and introduced them to his legal team.
“The writers cared deeply about getting it right — even on the small details of oral argument at the court,” he said. “They knew they would at times have to depart from reality, but they always wanted to know what reality was so they could gauge what to do.”
Katyal was on a rare summer vacation in Europe with his family when he was contacted by show creator Beau Willimon about appearing in the Supreme Court scene as opposing counsel to the solicitor general — which would film eight hours after he landed. First thing? He called his barber back in Washington to squeeze in a haircut before his big debut.
Katyal was nervous when he walked on the set, but the realistic replica of the court — down to the lectern (he said he wanted to buy it to use for practice sessions) — put him at ease.
“Because the fake court felt so much like the real one, my fear evaporated really quickly and it felt like any of my 24 real arguments,” he said.
His performance was so convincing that extras on set approached him to ask what acting school he’d attended, or what other films he’d been in. (Emmy for outstanding guest actor?)
But does he win his 25th case before the Supreme Court? Only 13 hours of binge-watching will tell.
Contest: Name our show!
We don’t have hard and fast data on this, but we’d bet that a good percentage of Loop fans spent some of their weekend bingeing on “House of Cards” — watching for D.C. cameos (hello there, Neal Katyal) and generally reveling in the overdramatized but sometimes hitting-too-close-to-home Washington plots.
During the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, the show about official Washington was “The West Wing,” a romanticized version of this town, with politicians who banter wittily and speak freely. But shows about Washington now present a darker side, a more calculating town where everyone is selfish, self-motivated and, on occasion, murderous.
Even “Veep,” the hilarious HBO comedy, highlights the dysfunction of the federal government. So do “Scandal” and, of course, “House of Cards.”
But here at the Loop, we are an optimistic bunch — and we appreciate Washington’s many quirks. So we’re thinking of writing our own show — sitcom, drama, reality competition — something that embodies all that Washington is, or was, or could be.
And we need a name.
Loop fans can help! Simply come up with a title for a new show about Washington — one that really represents this town. Be creative! Winners get one of our highly coveted Loop T-shirts and, of course, mention in this space.
Send entries — only one suggestion per person — to intheloop@washpost.com. Be sure to provide your name, profession, mailing address and T-shirt size (M, L or XL), in case you’re a winner.
You must include a phone number — home, work or cell — to be eligible. Entries need to be submitted by March 11 at noon. A panel of Post reporters or editors who cover Washington politics will determine the winners. Good luck!
— With Colby Itkowitz
Twitter: @KamenInTheLoop, @ColbyItkowitz
Al Kamen, an award-winning columnist on the national staff of The Washington Post, created the “In the Loop” column in 1993.
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