Spadework is a novel by Canadian writer Timothy Findley set in the theater world of Stratford , Ontario. It was first published in Canada by HarperCollins Publishers in 2001.
60-487: Spadework focuses on the everyday drama of human relationships, enhanced by the intensity of the theater atmosphere and the ambition of young actors at a crossroads that may lead to either a brilliant career or mediocre success. These events force the protagonists to re-examine their sexuality and their loyalties in the face of temptation. The novel centers on the story of a few summer months in 1998 in Stratford, Ontario against
120-531: A $ 1 million reward ... Flynt was a sworn enemy of the Republican party [and] sought to dig up dirt on the Republican members of Congress who were leading the impeachment campaign against President Clinton. [... Although] Flynt claimed at the time to have the goods on up to a dozen prominent Republicans, the ad campaign helped to bring down only one. Robert Livingston—a congressman from Louisiana ... abruptly retired after learning that Mr. Flynt
180-404: A Polish immigrant with limited command of English, enters her house, she is completely overwhelmed by what she experiences as his unearthly beauty. After Griffin leaves, her pursuit of this "angel-man" becomes more determined and she becomes a living contradiction to Jonathan's assessment of women as sexually mostly passive and incapable of such aggressive pursuit. She asks Milos, himself married and
240-626: A bias when it comes to men and women who are caught and then need evidence to explain their situation. A 2015 study concluded that gender stereotypes were "refer(ed) to the meanings that individuals and societies ascribe to males and females". According to Juliet Williams at the University of California, Los Angeles the 1998 Clinton–Lewinsky scandal in the United States made the US Congress , media, and citizens look at male candidates and politicians in
300-601: A delay due to a brief bombing campaign in Iraq , the House of Representatives voted to issue two Articles of Impeachment against him which was followed by a 21-day trial in the Senate. Clinton was acquitted on both counts as neither received the necessary two-thirds majority vote of the senators present. Between 45 and 50 senators voted to convict, depending on the charge, short of the 67 votes needed for conviction and removal from office. All
360-439: A different light by "normalizing public discussion of sex acts." John Edwards , David Petraeus , Anthony Weiner , Arnold Schwarzenegger , are other examples of men involved in sex scandals that have caused the public not to give men the benefit of the doubt. This has caused the debate between politics and sex scandals to be seen in a different light. It has allowed gender-shifting and the role of gender to become more unbiased in
420-420: A man and an actor if he submits to his power: "I want to teach you how to accept the fact of being desired" (139). Griffin gives in and leaves his family without explanation. Jane is the last to find out that Griffin's affair is not with a younger woman but with an older man. Jane develops her own overpowering desires that are quite independent from Griffin's escapades: when the telephone repairman Milos Saworski,
480-591: A new life as an artist, and to escape her family who was providing her with a modest income from an inheritance. Jane shed her birth-name Aura Lee Terry during the move. She met her husband Griffin, an up-and-coming young Shakespearean actor, and the two lead what seems an entirely ordinary happy suburban existence together with their seven-year-old son Will, dog Rudyard and housekeeper/nanny Mercy Bowman. Their peaceful existence begins to unravel when Griffin's handsome looks lead Jane to suspect that other women (specifically stage partner Zoë Walker, 21) may be after him. This
540-745: A position, which she declined. The American Spectator alleged that Richardson knew more about the Lewinsky affair than he declared to the grand jury . Lewinsky confided in Linda Tripp about her relationship with Clinton. Tripp persuaded Lewinsky to save the gifts Clinton had given her, and not to dry clean a semen -stained blue dress in order to keep it as an "insurance policy." Tripp reported their conversations to literary agent Lucianne Goldberg , who advised her to secretly record them, which Tripp began doing in September 1997. Goldberg also urged Tripp to take
600-441: A primary challenge less than three years after the impeachment proceedings. Dan Burton (R-IN) said, "No one, regardless of what party they serve, no one, regardless of what branch of government they serve, should be allowed to get away with these alleged sexual improprieties ..." In 1998, Burton admitted that he himself had had an affair in 1983 which produced a child. Newt Gingrich (R-GA) US Representative, Speaker of
660-483: A sex scandal. Administration officials denied any connection between the missile strikes and the ongoing scandal, and 9/11 Commission investigators found no reason to dispute those statements. The missile strikes also caused anti-Semitic canards to spread in the Middle East that Lewinsky was a Jewish agent sent to influence Clinton against aiding Palestine . This conspiracy theory would influence Mohamed Atta ,
SECTION 10
#1732913663722720-588: A story by investigative reporter Michael Isikoff exposing the affair. The story broke in the mainstream press on January 21 in The Washington Post . The story swirled for several days and, despite swift denials from Clinton, the clamor for answers from the White House grew louder. On January 26, President Clinton, standing with his wife, spoke at a White House press conference, and issued a denial in which he said: Now, I have to go back to work on my State of
780-589: A surprisingly hopeful note with a vision of spring and new life. Jane Kincaid , property artist; her real name was Aura Lee Terry and she is originally from Plantation, Louisiana in the United States; Griffin Kincaid , her husband; an actor just turned 30; Will Kincaid , seven years old, their son; Jonathan Crawford , director; Zoë Walker , an actress, 21; Nigel Dexter , actor, Griffin's friend; Mercy Bowman , Will's babysitter. Lewinsky scandal [REDACTED] The Clinton–Lewinsky scandal
840-462: A young father of a dying infant, to model for her in the nude, a proposal which he accepts with knowing innocence and an entirely masculine submission that mirrors the scene between Jonathan and Griffin. Jane's gaze upon Milos' beauty parallels Jonathan's desire for Griffin. Death and betrayal are common themes in the novel - Jane and Griffin's son Will is estranged from both parents; Milos's baby dies due to his inaction and his wife's insistence to keep
900-459: Is a public scandal involving allegations or information about possibly immoral sexual activities , often associated with the sexual affairs of film stars , politicians , famous athletes , or others in the public eye. Sex scandals receive attention if a prominent figure is involved, if there is a perception of hypocrisy, if a public figure's sexuality is non- normative , or if it involves non-consensual acts. A scandal may be based on reality,
960-549: Is also menaced by a rape-murderer, who kills two women before committing suicide by drug overdose. Furthermore, Jane receives a strangely aloof letter from her mother telling her that her sister Loretta has committed suicide. A telephone line cut by the spade of an over-eager gardener (Luke) serves as the physical manifestation or symbol for the theme of miscommunication and failure to connect. This cut telephone line prevents two phone calls: one from Griffin to his director Jonathan Crawford, and one from Jesse Quinlan to his nephew Luke,
1020-473: Is believed that Clinton began a personal relationship with her while she worked at the White House, the details of which she later confided to Linda Tripp , her Defense Department co-worker who secretly recorded their telephone conversations. In January 1998, Tripp discovered that Lewinsky had sworn an affidavit in the Paula Jones case , denying a relationship with Clinton. She delivered tapes to Ken Starr ,
1080-412: Is caught in a sex scandal is more likely to resign than a public figure in the face of a sex scandal. Scandals have been a part of history in major declarations, false truces, when political or celebrity figures need to pay someone off to protect their legacy and more. Scandals can involve bribery, immoral action, shame, slander, misdoing, etc. The Hamilton–Reynolds affair , which involved Secretary of
1140-552: Is defined in Deposition Exhibit 1?" The judge ordered that Clinton be given an opportunity to review the agreed definition. Afterwards, based on the definition created by the Independent Counsel's Office, Clinton answered, "I have never had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky." Clinton later said, "I thought the definition included any activity by [me], where [I] was the actor and came in contact with those parts of
1200-549: Is not a sexual relationship, an improper sexual relationship or any other kind of improper relationship". This scandal has sometimes been referred to as "Monicagate", "Lewinskygate", "Tailgate", "Sexgate", and "Zippergate", following the "-gate" construction that has been used since the Watergate scandal . Lewinsky said she had sexual encounters with Bill Clinton on nine occasions from November 1995 to March 1997. According to her published schedule, First Lady Hillary Clinton
1260-413: Is the spark for the unease and miscommunication which follows. Tony Preston, a high-school boyfriend of Jane's, then shows up out of the blue and sexually assaults her, ejaculating on her dress and face. A few hours later, Preston dies in a car accident. Jane refuses to mention this to anyone, even her psychiatrist, although the reader gets a glimpse of the assault haunting her through the narrative. The town
SECTION 20
#17329136637221320-613: The Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum , Sudan , in retaliation for the 1998 United States embassy bombings . Some countries, media outlets, protesters, and Republicans accused Clinton of ordering the attacks as a diversion. The attacks also drew parallels to the then-recently released movie Wag the Dog , which features a fictional president faking a war in Albania to distract attention from
1380-462: The Cato Institute views them as not just "great fun", but a reminder "that we should think twice before we cede more power to these fools." An increase in the prevalence of morally questionable expressions of sexuality is sometimes referred to as a sexidemic . Sex scandals, in relation to political and public figures, often lead to questions of one's own ethics and moral code. A politician who
1440-501: The Lewinsky scandal while he was having a long-term affair with his chief of staff, Jennifer Laptook. Republican Helen Chenoweth-Hage from Idaho aggressively called for the resignation of President Clinton and then admitted to her own six-year affair with a married rancher during the 1980s. Historian Taylor Branch implied that Clinton had requested changes to Branch's 2009 Clinton biography, The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with
1500-432: The impeachment of Clinton in 1998 by the U.S. House of Representatives . He was subsequently acquitted on all impeachment charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in a 21-day U.S. Senate trial. Clinton was held in civil contempt of court by Judge Susan Webber Wright for giving misleading testimony in the Paula Jones case regarding Lewinsky, and was also fined $ 90,000 by Wright. His license to practice law
1560-571: The independent counsel who was investigating Clinton on other matters, including the Whitewater controversy , the White House FBI files controversy , and the White House travel office controversy . During the grand jury testimony, Clinton's responses were carefully worded, and he argued "it depends on what the meaning of the word is is", with regard to the truthfulness of his statement that "there
1620-618: The Democrats in the Senate voted for acquittal on both the perjury and the obstruction of justice charges. Ten Republicans voted for acquittal for perjury: John Chafee (Rhode Island), Susan Collins (Maine), Slade Gorton (Washington), Jim Jeffords (Vermont), Richard Shelby (Alabama), Olympia Snowe (Maine), Arlen Specter (Pennsylvania), Ted Stevens (Alaska), Fred Thompson (Tennessee), and John Warner (Virginia). Five Republicans voted for acquittal for obstruction of justice: Chafee, Collins, Jeffords, Snowe, and Specter. President Clinton
1680-491: The House and leader of the Republican Revolution of 1994, admitted in 1998 to having had an affair with then House Agriculture Committee staffer Callista Bisek while he was still married to his second wife, at the same time as he was leading the impeachment of Bill Clinton for perjury regarding an affair with intern Monica Lewinsky. Steven C. LaTourette (R-OH) US Representative, voted to impeach Bill Clinton for
1740-566: The Jones case. Instead, Tripp gave the tapes to Starr, who was investigating the Whitewater controversy and other matters. Starr was now armed with evidence of Lewinsky's admission of a physical relationship with Clinton, and he broadened the investigation to include Lewinsky and her possible perjury in the Jones case. News of the scandal first broke on January 17, 1998, on the Drudge Report , which reported that Newsweek editors were sitting on
1800-513: The Lewinsky scandal with a voter phenomenon he called "Clinton fatigue". Polling showed that the scandal continued to affect Clinton's low personal approval ratings through the election, and analysts such as Vanderbilt University 's John G. Geer later concluded "Clinton fatigue or a kind of moral retrospective voting had a significant impact on Gore's chances". Other analysts sided with Clinton's argument, and argued that Gore's refusal to have Clinton campaign with him damaged his appeal. During
1860-527: The President , regarding Clinton's revelation that the Lewinsky affair began because "I cracked; I just cracked." Branch writes that Clinton had felt "beleaguered, unappreciated, and open to a liaison with Lewinsky" following "the Democrats' loss of Congress in the November 1994 elections, the death of his mother the previous January, and the ongoing Whitewater investigation ". Publicly, Clinton had previously blamed
Spadework - Misplaced Pages Continue
1920-476: The Senate failed to convict him, President Clinton was held in civil contempt of court by Judge Susan Webber Wright for giving misleading testimony regarding his sexual relationship with Lewinsky, and was also fined $ 90,000 by Wright. Clinton declined to appeal the civil contempt of court ruling, citing financial problems, but still maintained that his testimony complied with Wright's earlier definition of sexual relations. In 2001, his license to practice law
1980-614: The Treasury Alexander Hamilton , who had a one-year affair with Maria Reynolds during George Washington 's presidency, is considered one of the first sex scandals in American political history. Political sex scandals in the U.S. have included the first sex scandal of Alexander Hamilton to five major national political figures, Newt Gingrich , John Edwards , Arnold Schwarzenegger , Bill Clinton and Donald Trump . Men and women have to face scrutiny of their career or life in
2040-485: The Union speech. And I worked on it until pretty late last night. But I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. I'm going to say this again: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time; never. These allegations are false. And I need to go back to work for the American people. Thank you. Pundits debated whether Clinton would address
2100-462: The United States House of Representatives in the next Congressional session . Then just weeks away after Flynt revealed the affair, Livingston resigned and challenged Clinton to do the same. Bob Barr (R-GA) another Republican House manager, had an affair while married. Barr had been the first lawmaker in either chamber to call for Clinton's resignation due to the Lewinsky affair. Barr lost
2160-453: The affair on "a terrible moral error" and on anger at Republicans, stating, "if people have unresolved anger, it makes them do non-rational, destructive things". The Clinton-Lewinsky scandal was subject to widespread media coverage, resulting in considerable difficulties for Monica Lewinsky later in life as she attempted to find employment. In 2014, she publicly re-emerged as an activist against cyberbullying and public shaming after writing
2220-463: The allegations in his State of the Union Address . Ultimately, he chose not to mention them. Hillary Clinton remained supportive of her husband throughout the scandal. On January 27, in an appearance on NBC 's Today she said, "The great story here for anybody willing to find it and write about it and explain it is this vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since
2280-534: The baby out of the reach of doctors for religious reasons; Jonathon's 21-year-old son is killed by revolutionaries in Peru. These events spark the characters to re-think their current choices. Jonathon's sad news is brought by his former wife which makes him to realize the wrong-doings of his own marriage and hence affair with Griffin, leading him to release Griffin and send him back to his own family. A few months later, in April,
2340-605: The backdrop of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal . The novel is narrated in third-person narrator , which allows change of perspective between the chapters, with Jane Kincaid (a property maker for the Stratford Shakespeare Festival ) being the dominant character voice throughout. Jane Kincaid is an immigrant from a southern town somewhere in Louisiana , called Plantation. She left the United States for Ontario to begin
2400-416: The bodies" which had been explicitly listed (and "with an intent to gratify or arouse the sexual desire of any person"). In other words, Clinton denied that he had ever contacted Lewinsky's "genitalia, anus, groin, breast, inner thigh, or buttocks", and effectively claimed that the agreed-upon definition of "sexual relations" included giving oral sex but excluded receiving oral sex. Two months after
2460-418: The day he announced for president." For the next several months and through the summer, the media debated whether or not an affair had occurred and whether or not Clinton had lied or obstructed justice, but nothing could be definitively established beyond the taped recordings because Lewinsky was unwilling to discuss the affair or testify about it. On July 28, 1998, a substantial delay after the public break of
Spadework - Misplaced Pages Continue
2520-548: The effect of reducing Democratic votes. Clinton said the scandal had made Gore's campaign too cautious, and that if Clinton had been allowed to campaign for Gore in Arkansas and New Hampshire , either state would have delivered Gore's needed electoral votes regardless of the effects of the Florida recount controversy . Political analysts have supported both views. Before and after the 2000 election, John Cochran of ABC News connected
2580-420: The essay Shame and Survival for Vanity Fair . Subsequently, several prominent media figures who had covered or mocked Lewinsky during the scandal expressed regret at their role in it. David Letterman remarked "I feel bad about my role in helping push the humiliation to the point of suffocation". House managers: President's counsel: Deposed witnesses: Sex scandal A sex scandal
2640-656: The field of politics by the media looking for scandals. Sex scandals involve sexual affairs which usually, but not always, involve infidelity . Infidelity has many definitions, either based on experience or research done on people who have been involved in the act of disloyalty and trust. To some, infidelity "is a complex phenomenon with multiple reasons driving people to cheat on their partners". A 2018 New York Times article cited an American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy national survey, stating "that 15 percent of married women and 25 percent of married men have had extramarital affairs". Sex scandals tend to include
2700-501: The gardener. Due to this breakdown of communication, Jesse descents to a rapist and murderer. The other missed call from Griffin, meant that he missed out on a potential break-through role due to not committing to a sexual affair with Jonathan. This devastates Griffin, and in desperation, he agrees to meet with Jonathan, where they agree to engage in sexual activities. Jonathan, who thinks of himself as "a sculptor of talent" (128) genuinely desires Griffin and believes that Griffin will grow as
2760-446: The novel comes back to Jane, Griffin and Will, a happy family unit watching a procession of Swans released from their winter domicile indoors. With the help of her mother's money, Jane has bought the house and made it the home she desired. The novel comes full circle to the peacefulness of the beginning, but this renewed peacefulness seems less precarious because it has been tempered by essential conflict and near break-up. The novel ends on
2820-616: The product of false allegations, or a mixture of both. Whether the scandal is based in fact or not, it may lead to the celebrity disappearing from the public eye or to the resignation of prominent political figures. Sex scandals involving politicians often become political scandals , particularly when there is an attempt at a cover-up or suspicions of illegality. Attempts at coverups include payoffs, threats, or, in extreme cases, murder. While some commentators see sex scandals as irrelevant to politics, particularly where "professional performance [does] not seem to be impaired", Gene Healy of
2880-618: The relationship despite Clinton's official denials. Clinton admitted in taped grand jury testimony on August 17, 1998, that he had engaged in an "improper physical relationship" with Lewinsky. That evening he gave a nationally televised statement admitting that his relationship with Lewinsky was "not appropriate". On August 20, 1998, three days after Clinton testified on the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Operation Infinite Reach launched missiles against al-Qaeda bases in Khost , Afghanistan , and
2940-502: The ringleader of al-Qaeda 's Hamburg cell and the September 11 attacks . In his deposition for the Jones lawsuit, Clinton denied having sexual relations with Lewinsky. Based on the evidence—a blue dress with Clinton's semen that Lewinsky provided—Starr concluded that the president's sworn testimony was false and perjurious . During the deposition, Clinton was asked "Have you ever had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky, as that term
3000-430: The scandal surrounding Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier and former call girl Zahia Dehar – for whom Bouvier allegedly acted as a pimp in the late 2000s, paying her to appear at dinners for entertainment when she was 17 years old – has caused outrage and opened a debate about powerful men in society abusing their power. The fall from grace and imprisonment of Anthony Weiner , following his sexting of explicit pictures to
3060-475: The scandal, Lewinsky received transactional immunity in exchange for grand jury testimony concerning her relationship with Clinton. She also turned over a semen -stained blue dress (which Tripp had encouraged her to save without dry cleaning ) to the Starr investigators. The FBI tested the dress and matched the semen stains to a blood sample from Clinton, thereby providing unambiguous DNA evidence that could prove
SECTION 50
#17329136637223120-469: The scandal, supporters of former president Clinton alleged that the matter should remain private, and called some supporting Clinton's impeachment hypocritical. A highly publicized investigation campaign actively sought information that might embarrass politicians who supported impeachment. According to the British newspaper The Guardian , Larry Flynt ... the publisher of Hustler magazine, offered
3180-575: The selection of candidates during their evaluation and allows more power for women fighting against stereotypes due to scandals, and men being seen as more skeptical. A year after the 2017 Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse cases was first reported, leading to the viral spread of the #MeToo movement, New York Times published a list of 201 names of prominent men in the United States who had lost their jobs following public allegations of sexual harassment. Social attitudes have traditionally been less forgiving when minors are involved. In France, for example,
3240-489: The tapes to Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr and bring them to the attention of people working on the Paula Jones case. In the fall of 1997, Goldberg began speaking to reporters (including Michael Isikoff of Newsweek ) about the tapes. In the Paula Jones case, Lewinsky had submitted an affidavit that denied any physical relationship with Clinton. In January 1998, she attempted to persuade Tripp to commit perjury in
3300-495: Was a sex scandal involving Bill Clinton , the president of the United States , and Monica Lewinsky , a White House intern . Their sexual relationship began in 1995—when Clinton was 49 years old and Lewinsky was 22 years old—and lasted 18 months, ending in 1997. Clinton ended televised remarks on January 26, 1998, with the later infamous statement: "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky." Further investigation led to charges of perjury and to
3360-466: Was about to reveal that he had also had an affair. Henry Hyde , Republican chair of the House Judiciary Committee and lead House manager , also had an affair while in office as a state legislator . Hyde, aged 70 during the Lewinsky hearings, dismissed it as a "youthful indiscretion" (he had been 41). Republican congressman Bob Livingston had been widely expected to become Speaker of
3420-545: Was at the White House for at least some portion of seven of those days. In April 1996, Lewinsky's superiors relocated her job to the Pentagon , because they felt she was spending too much time around Clinton. According to his autobiography, then- United Nations Ambassador Bill Richardson was asked by the White House in 1997 to interview Lewinsky for a job on his staff at the United Nations . Richardson did so, and offered her
3480-583: Was suspended in Arkansas for five years and later by the United States Supreme Court . In December 1998, Clinton's Democratic political party was in the minority in both chambers of Congress. A few Democratic members of Congress, and most in the opposition Republican Party, claimed that Clinton's giving false testimony and allegedly influencing Lewinsky's testimony were crimes of obstruction of justice and perjury and thus impeachable offenses. After
3540-537: Was suspended in Arkansas for five years; shortly thereafter, he was disbarred from presenting cases in front of the U.S. Supreme Court . Lewinsky was a graduate of Lewis & Clark College . She was hired during Clinton's first term in 1995 as an intern at the White House through the White House Internship Program and was later an employee of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs . It
3600-438: Was thereby acquitted of all charges and remained in office. There were attempts to censure the president by the House of Representatives, but those attempts failed. The scandal arguably affected the 2000 U.S. presidential election in two quite different ways. Democratic Party candidate and sitting vice president Al Gore said that Clinton's scandal had been "a drag" that deflated the enthusiasm of their party's base, and had
#721278