Gennifer Flowers

Gennifer Flowers
Born January 24, 1950
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Nationality American
Website
www.genniferflowers.com

Gennifer Flowers (born January 24, 1950) is a model and actress who obtained notoriety after revealing a sexual relationship with former U.S. President Bill Clinton. In January 1998 Bill Clinton testified under oath that he had sexual relations with Ms. Flowers.[1] Prior to Bill Clinton's presidency, she also posed nude for Penthouse magazine and was an actress in two films and one TV show.

Bill Clinton controversy

Gennifer Flowers came forward during Bill Clinton's 1992 Presidential election campaign, stating that she had had a 12-year relationship with him.[2] Flowers at first denied that she had an affair with Clinton, but later changed her story.[3]

After Bill Clinton denied having a relationship with Flowers on 60 Minutes, she held a press conference in which she played tape recordings she had secretly made of phone calls with Clinton.[3] Clinton subsequently apologized publicly to Mario Cuomo for remarks he made about the then-Governor of New York on the tapes. During the press conference, Flowers was famously asked several questions by "Stuttering John" Melendez of the Howard Stern Show if she was planning to sleep with any other candidates before the election, along with if Clinton used a condom and if there ever was a threesome. She responded by laughing at Stuttering John's prank whereas her advisor wanted to ignore him by trying to answer other questions. However, news reports at the time speculated that the taped phone conversations between Flowers and Clinton could have been doctored;[3][4] Flowers had sold the original tapes to Star magazine and they were never lab-tested.[5] Clinton aides James Carville and George Stephanopoulos backed this claim as well.[6] Stephanopoulos later claimed in a 2000 interview with journalist Tim Russert that "Oh, it was absolutely his voice, but they were selectively edited in a way to – to create some – some impression."[7]

In December 1996, Gennifer Flowers talked about her sexual relationship with Bill Clinton on The Richard Bey Show. The show was canceled the following day. Richard Bey later attributed a direct connection between the two consecutive events.[8]

In his presidential deposition in January 1998, while denying Kathleen Willey's sexual accusations against him, Bill Clinton admitted that he had a sexual encounter with Flowers.[1] In 1998, Flowers admitted that she had made a total net profit of $500,000 by publicizing her alleged affair with Clinton to Penthouse, Star Magazine and other news sources.[9] In his 2004 autobiography My Life, Clinton acknowledged testifying under oath that he had an encounter with Flowers. He stated it was only on one occasion in 1977.[1][9]

Flowers sued George Stephanopoulos, James Carville and others in 1999 for defamation (later amending the suit in 2000 to include Hillary Rodham Clinton as a defendant), claiming that they orchestrated a campaign to discredit her. Judicial Watch represented her in her defamation lawsuit against Hillary's former aides, Stephanopoulos and Carville.[10] In her case, Flowers argued that the defendants ignored obvious warning signs that the television news reports did not conclusively determine that someone had interfered with the tapes.[11] Summary judgment dismissing the case was given by a US district court in 2004.[11] The dismissal was affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in 2006.[12]

Post-controversy years

Gennifer Flowers published her memoir Gennifer Flowers: Passion and Betrayal in 1995. In it, she claimed she had experienced a sexual naïveté at the time of her alleged relationship with Clinton.[13]

She posed nude for Penthouse magazine during this period and was featured in the December 1992 issue along with her story "Gennifer Flowers Tells All, Shows All".

After acting in an Australian film in 1987, she played in another independent Australian film in 1992 and in the same year guest starred in the adult-themed television comedy Dream On. She then played herself in Play It to the Bone and various TV shows.

Until Hurricane Katrina, she ran a cabaret called the Kelsto Club in a former bordello in New Orleans' French Quarter. Gennifer made her NY theatre debut in 2004, briefly as a replacement in the Off-Broadway hit Boobs! The Musical.[14][15]

As of 2007, she lived in Las Vegas, Nevada, where she occasionally writes a column.[16]

In 2008, she put what she claimed were the answering machine tapes of her conversations with Bill Clinton up for auction.[17]

In November 2012, Flowers claimed that Clinton contacted her as recently as 2005. During an interview with Susan Roesgen, Flowers claimed that, during her prior sojourn in New Orleans, President Clinton, while visiting the city, telephoned Flowers and asked for a meeting, which Flowers declined.[18]

Filmography

Television appearances

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Clines, Francis X. (March 14, 1998). "TESTING OF A PRESIDENT: THE ACCUSER; JONES LAWYERS ISSUE FILES ALLEGING CLINTON PATTERN OF HARASSMENT OF WOMEN". The New York Times. Retrieved March 20, 2008. In his January deposition, the President, though finally confirming a sexual encounter with Ms. Flowers, was precise in denying Ms. Willey's report that he had sought to kiss her and feel her breasts
  2. ↑ "Declaration of Gennifer Flowers". The Washington Post. March 13, 1998. Retrieved March 20, 2008.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Gennifer Flowers may proceed with defamation suit". Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. November 19, 2002. Retrieved March 20, 2008. At the press conference, Flowers – who initially denied allegations that she had an affair with then Arkansas governor Bill Clinton but then changed her story – played tapes of conversations she had secretly recorded between herself and Clinton
  4. ↑ http://www.rcfp.org/newsitems/index.php?i=3298&fmt=print
  5. ↑ http://observer.com/1999/01/who-will-condemn-attacks-on-clinton/
  6. ↑ Liptak, Adam (November 13, 2002). "National Briefing – West: California: Libel Suit From Clinton Era". The New York Times.
  7. ↑ "Gennifer Flowers may proceed with defamation suit". Reporters Committee for Freedom for the Press. November 19, 2002. Retrieved October 12, 2013.
  8. ↑ "Juicy bits". Salon. September 20, 1999. Retrieved March 20, 2008. his syndicated TV talk show got yanked off the air back in 1996. Bey recently told the New York Post that, even though his show had high ratings and he himself had a brand-new contract, "the day after [the Flowers episode] airs, I'm called into the office and told that we're going out of production". (scroll down)
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Stout, David (March 21, 1998). "TESTING OF A PRESIDENT: THE OTHER WOMAN; Flowers Acknowledges Earning $500,000 From Scandal". The New York Times. Retrieved April 2, 2010.
  10. ↑ Liptak, Adam (November 13, 2002). "West: California: Libel Suit From Clinton Era". The New York Times. Retrieved March 20, 2008. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, revived a 1999 libel suit filed by Gennifer Flowers against two former aides to Bill Clinton.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "GENNIFER FLOWERS: Judge rejects lawsuit against Clinton aides". Las Vegas Review-Journal. March 17, 2004. Retrieved March 20, 2008. Ruling dismisses defamation claim by woman who said she, ex-president had affair
  12. ↑ "Court tosses Flowers suit against Hillary". San Francisco Chronicle. January 9, 2006. Retrieved April 3, 2012.
  13. ↑ Dapper, Gennifer Flowers; with Jacquelyn (1995). Gennifer Flowers: passion and betrayal. Del Mar, Calif.: E. Dalton Books. ISBN 978-0964047938.
  14. ↑ http://www.playbill.com/news/article/83891-Gennifer-Flowers-Steps-Into-Boobs-The-Musical-January 22-in-NYC
  15. ↑ http://www.tbd.com/blogs/tbd-arts/2010/11/oklahoma-a-brief-guide-to-musicals-with-exclamation-points--4330.html
  16. ↑ "Ask Gennifer with a G". Vegas Community Online. Retrieved March 20, 2008.
  17. ↑ Malcolm, Andrew (February 26, 2008). "Gennifer Flowers to auction off The Tapes with Bill". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 20, 2008.
  18. ↑ Flowers, Gennifer; Roesgen, Susan (November 25, 2012). "News with a twist". WGNO-TV Channel 26 (ABC). See also Kar, Ian (November 29, 2012). "Gennifer Flowers Bill Clinton scandal: Did ex-President contact former lover In 2005?". Digital Times. Retrieved 30 November 2012.

External links