Lucianne Goldberg

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Lucianne Goldberg (born Lucianne Steinberger on April 29, 1935 in Boston) is an American literary agent. She was a central figure behind the scenes in the Lewinsky scandal.

Contents 1 Career 2 Clinton scandal 2.1 Reprisal 3 Commentator 4 Family 5 References 6 Further reading

[edit] Career

Her career started at the Washington Post in 1957 followed by a year working at the Democratic National Committee in 1960. She became a consultant to the White House staff under President John F. Kennedy in 1961, staying on for two years. She set up Cummings and Associates in 1963.

Decades later, Jeffrey Toobin's book A Vast Conspiracy alleged that Goldberg claimed to friends that she had an affair with Lyndon Johnson while working in the White House. ^[1] After Goldberg threatened Random House with a libel suit, a Washington Post writer claimed he and others overheard her bragging about an affair with Vice President Hubert Humphrey as well. Goldberg denied both affairs and denied telling any such stories. ^[1]

In 1966, she married Sidney Goldberg, an editor at the news syndicate North American Newspaper Alliance and Lucianne Goldberg did occasional freelance work for the syndicate. During the 1972 presidential campaign she joined the press corps covering candidate George McGovern, claiming to be a reporter for the Women's News Service, an affiliate of NANA. In fact, she was paid $1000 a week by Richard Nixon operative Murray Chotiner for regular reports about happenings on the campaign trail. She said "They were looking for really dirty stuff...Who was sleeping with who, what the Secret Service men were doing with the stewardesses, who was smoking pot on the plane — that sort of thing."^[2][3]

Goldberg set up her own literary agency in 1972. One of her clients, celebrity biographer Kitty Kelley, sued Goldberg in 1983, charging breach of contract, fraud, and breach of fiduciary duty over proceeds from Kelley's book on Elizabeth Taylor. The jury awarded Kelley $60,000, but the judge reduced the award to $40,000 and dismissed the ruling of fraud.^[4]

She published her first book, Purr Baby Purr, in 1970, which was a critique of feminism. Goldberg started writing a column called "Footlights of Broadway", syndicated by NANA. Goldberg published her first novel, Friends in High Places co-written with Sondra Robinson, in 1979. Her first solo novel Madame Cleo's Girls, a story of three call girls, was published in 1992, followed by People Will Talk in 1994. Goldberg has also ghostwritten the romance novel Washington Wives (1987) for Maureen Dean (wife of Watergate figure John Dean), among other works.^[5]

[edit] Clinton scandal

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Goldberg met Linda Tripp in the early part of the Clinton administration while assisting an author writing a book on Vince Foster. Goldberg advised Tripp to record all her (Tripp's) conversations with Monica Lewinsky. ^[6] In New York, where Goldberg lived, such surreptitious recordings would not have been illegal, but they were illegal in Maryland, where Tripp lived. Goldberg also urged Tripp to take the tapes to Kenneth Starr and brought the tapes to the attention of people working on the Paula Jones case. ^[7] She started speaking to reporters about the tapes in the fall of 1997, notably to Michael Isikoff of Newsweek.^[8]

Goldberg spoke at an anti-Clinton rally organized by the Free Republic.

Although Goldberg was deeply involved in the Lewinsky scandal, Starr never subpoenaed her to testify in front of the grand jury.

[edit] Reprisal

Within days of the scandal breaking on the Drudge Report, the Democratic National Committee circulated an "information sheet" to reporters with information intended to damage Goldberg's credibility. ^[9]

In a 1999 interview with Katie Couric, Goldberg stated that she did not think it was wrong to violate the privacy of people who were "a threat to the country". In response, film producer Michael Moore set up a webcam on her, which he called "I See Lucy Cam". Moore's project did not violate New York State's laws.^[10]

[edit] Commentator

Goldberg used to be a prominent poster on Free Republic but (according to the magazine) she had a dispute with the forum's founder, Jim Robinson, over the direction of the forum. Goldberg sought a forum to promote the Republican Party, while Robinson sought to promote American conservatism regardless of party affiliation. Thus, Goldberg and several others left Free Republic and founded the conservative internet forum lucianne.com.

Though officially the forum did not allow "Articles from hate group sites such as KKK, Aryan Nation, American Nazi Party, etc.", it was criticized for racist comments posted on its forums. Mark Lane, founder of the now defunct website LucianneWatch.com, complained about the website's content to the US Marines, prompting them to pull their advertising from the site.^[11]

Goldberg also used to host a talk radio show.

[edit] Family

Goldberg's first marriage, to her high school sweetheart William Cummings, lasted three years before they separated in 1960. In 1966 she married Sidney Goldberg, an executive with a New York features syndicate; he died in 2005. Goldberg is the mother of political commentator Jonah Goldberg and Joshua Goldberg. Although Goldberg is an Episcopalian, her sons were raised in their father's Jewish faith.^[12]

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2005. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2005
• Jeffrey Toobin, A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Sex Scandal That Nearly Brought Down a President. Random House, 1999. Page 102.

Persondata
NAME	Goldberg, Lucianne
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Steinberger, Lucianne
SHORT DESCRIPTION	American literary agent
DATE OF BIRTH	April 29, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH	Boston, Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH