‘Clinton affair’: Gina demands retraction

Lawyers for the Hollywood actress Gina Gershon (pictured) have demanded a retraction from Vanity Fair magazine following publication of an article which suggested she was having an affair with Bill Clinton. The LA law firm Lavely & Singer claims the magazine has published innuendo, without checking the facts, and that Gershon has only ever met the former president three times - and on each occasion there were other people present.

The fall-out from the article by Todd Purdum has been enormous. Bill Clinton himself was forced to apologise for calling Purdum "sleazy", "slimy" and "dishonest" in an outburst captured on tape by the Huffington Post while Bill was helping his wife campaign in South Dakota earlier this week. "He's a really dishonest reporter," said Clinton. "He's a real slimy guy."

Clinton aides later issued a statement saying Bill had been "understandably upset about an outrageously unfair article", but acknowledged that the language he had used "was inappropriate and he wishes he had not used it".
 
Particularly galling for Clinton is the fact that Purdum is married to his old White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers. In the course of the article, Purdum suggested that Bill Clinton's personality had changed since his 2004 heart by-pass surgery and reported that there were rumours of Clinton "seeing a lot of women on the road". As for the Gershon allegation, Purdum wrote that "recent high-end Hollywood dinner-party gossip" had it that Clinton had been seeing the actress in California.

Gershon, who is said to be furious about Purdum's article, is best known for her sexpot roles in such films as Showgirls and Bound. Recent TV work has included Curb Your Enthusiasm - where she played an Hasidic dry cleaner - and Ugly Betty. She is currently starring on Broadway in Boeing Boeing. ·