Lewinsky comparison grounds for libel

ROME, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- Comparing a woman to Monica Lewinsky is an egregious enough offense to be grounds for libel, Italy's high court says.

The Cessation Court ruled Tuesday such is the reputation of the former White House intern for U.S. President Bill Clinton that when a Puglia woman sued a lawyer for saying she had a "Lewinskian nature," it was a bad enough insult to be considered libel, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.

The woman, identified only Gennarina M., reportedly was angry that a lower court ruled the unidentified lawyer did not libel her with the jibe, so she appealed, and the Cessation Court said a new trial was in order.

ANSA said Gennarina M. only sued the lawyer after seeing the derogatory description -- which also accused her of "uterine ramblings" -- in a legal document.

Lewinsky, a White House intern from 1995 to 1997, who admitted she and Clinton had engaged in a relationship that involved oral sex in the Oval Office.