8 Decades of The Hollywood Reporter

During 1998's Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky sex scandal, Lewinsky's mother, Marcia Lewis, hired Judy Smith, a D.C.-born ex-PR woman for George H.W. Bush and NBC, to advise Monica. At one point, Smith, now 54, snuck Monica past reporters in a Pamela Anderson wig as she guided her through the firestorm. Later, Smith managed crises for Clarence Thomas and Michael Vick -- and now for Jill Kelley, recipient of the e-mails that sparked the David Petraeus sex scandal. Today, Smith also is a co-exec producer on ABC's Scandal, in which Kerry Washington plays Olivia Pope, a character modeled after Smith. "Even though we play to win and take no prisoners," Washington tells THR, "really it's because Olivia Pope wants to take care of people." Although there's a Lewinsky-ish plotline on Scandal, Smith says, "It's really not Monica; I've obviously known her, but it's really not about that." Smith told NPR the scene where Olivia smooches the man in the White House is fiction, too: "I definitely never had an affair with the president."