Isn't it interesting that — almost apropos of nothing — Monica Lewinsky suddenly reemerged with a piece in Vanity Fair this week? The development was surprising enough that it prompted blogger and law professor Ann Althouse to wonder, "Who lured Monica Lewinsky out of her 10-year silence?"

Althouse posits five theories, including the possibility that Vanity Fair simply thought it would sell copies. But if the answer comes down to cui bono — who benefits? — then, as Dave Weigel notes, "The Lewinsky scandal was fantastic for [Hillary] Clinton. You can see in the Gallup poll's comprehensive chart that opinions of the first lady surged through 1998 and peaked after Bill Clinton was impeached."

But, putting aside the question of why Lewinsky is suddenly talking, there's another angle worth exploring, and that is the surfeit of speculation about how Republicans might now react.

It's kind of folks to worry about Republicans, but — as MSNBC's Joe Scarborough and CNN's Ashleigh Banfield both noted today — so far, at least, the criticism has mostly come from female columnists, not from Republican politicians.

This may be a sign the GOP has learned its lesson. No matter what the explanation is for Lewinsky's return, Republicans would be well served to take the advice of Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post and not take the bait this time. Matt K. Lewis

President Trump's TV time may be a bigger problem than we thought.

The president is obviously attached to his favorite Fox News programs, tweeting responses to and explicitly mentioning what show he's watching throughout his presidency. But as former White House communications aide Cliff Sims describes, Trump sometimes took his screen time a little too far.

At one point, Trump was supposed to be meeting with then-House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) to hear about his party's replacement for the Affordable Care Act, Sims describes in his forthcoming book Team of Vipers. It didn't work out as Ryan planned, as The Washington Post summarizes below.

Sims recounts one time when Ryan was in the Oval Office explaining the ins and outs of the Republican health care bill to the president. As Ryan droned on for 15 minutes, Trump sipped on a glass of Diet Coke, peered out at the Rose Garden, stared aimlessly at the walls and, finally, walked out.

Ryan kept talking as the president wandered down the hall to his private dining room, where he flicked on his giant flat-screen TV. Apparently, he had had enough of Ryan's talk. It fell to Vice President [Mike] Pence to retrieve Trump and convince him to return to the Oval Office so they could continue their strategy session.

As anyone who watched Ryan's six-part documentary series about himself and tax reform can attest, Trump probably made the right choice. Kathryn Krawczyk

A Star Is Born is looking less and less like a Best Picture Oscar winner.

The film, which was once thought to be the frontrunner for Best Picture at the Academy Awards but came up short at previous awards shows in recent weeks, picked up eight nominations on Tuesday. It came in behind The Favourite and Roma, which each received 10 nominations. Eight isn't a bad haul to be sure, but the film was snubbed in two key categories that bring its Best Picture chances into even greater doubt.

The first is Best Film Editing, a category in which the eventual Best Picture winner is virtually always nominated. That's been the case at every single Oscars in the past 20 years except in 2015 when Birdman was left out, although this made some sense considering the film was presented as taking place in one long shot without any edits. Weirdly, though, Roma was also snubbed for Best Film Editing this year, despite being the clear Best Picture favorite.

More importantly, Bradley Cooper was left out of the Best Director category for his work on A Star Is Born. It's extremely rare that a film wins Best Picture without its director being nominated. Only once in the past 20 years has that happened: with Argo's Ben Affleck in 2013, which was a big deal at the time because of how uncommon an occurrence it was.

Neither of these snubs rule out a win for A Star Is Born. But this, coupled with the movie's disappointing performance at the Golden Globe Awards, the Critics Choice Awards, and the Producers Guild of America Awards, does not paint a pretty picture.

If A Star Is Born is to have any chance of winning Best Picture, it must turn things around at the upcoming Screen Actors Guild Awards and Directors Guild Awards. If it's unable to, this could very well be Roma's year. Brendan Morrow

President Trump's governing style is almost as tumultuous as his easily windswept hairstyle. Perhaps that's because he's relying on a budget product to keep his coif in check.

In his forthcoming book Team of Vipers, former White House communications aide Cliff Sims describes "how absolutely out of control the White House staff ... was at times," per an advance copy obtained by The Washington Post. But Sims did attempt to keep at least one thing in check, as the Post described from the book below.

As White House director of message strategy, Sims regularly met Trump at the private elevator of the residence and accompanied him to video tapings — carrying a can of Tresemmé Tres Two hair spray, extra hold, for the boss.

Judging from the numerous times Trump's hair has been blown off course, it's no wonder Sims was eventually reassigned to the State Department after more than a year in the White House. Hopefully by now, Trump has upgraded from a spray you can get for $2.74 at Walmart. Kathryn Krawczyk

The Supreme Court says President Trump's policy restricting transgender people from serving in the military can go into effect — for now.

The court on Tuesday lifted nationwide injunctions on the policy, therefore allowing the administration to enforce it while its legality continues to be challenged in the lower courts, The Washington Post reports.

The court's conservative justices, including Justice Brett Kavanaugh, sided with the Trump administration, while Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan were in favor of continuing the injunctions. The court did not rule on the legality of the actual policy, however.

The ban was blocked by several courts last year, but the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to allow the restrictions to continue. The controversial policy first banned transgender people from serving in the U.S. military "in any capacity," then was later amended to ban transgender personnel who "may require substantial medical treatment."

Trump's policy, which was originally announced on Twitter in 2017, will affect 8,980 members of the military, CNN reports. Brendan Morrow

Body cameras were supposed to build trust between police and the people they serve. Their price is getting in the way.

In the wake of highly publicized police shootings, only occasionally recorded by bystanders but often sparking protests, police departments invested in body cameras to promote accountability. But small police departments have since been unable to maintain the cost of storing footage, and so they're ditching body camera programs quickly after they began, The Washington Post reports.

Of the 1,800 departments that "reported a fatal officer-involved shooting since 2015," nearly 1,300 of those departments had 50 or fewer officers, the Post reports via its police shooting database. That means smaller departments often need body camera accountability the most, and Justice Department grants have helped them cover $70 million in initial equipment costs.

Since the programs' implementation, though, departments have faced unexpected annual costs to keep the cameras rolling. A five-officer department in Nebraska couldn't justify spending $15,000 each year to store footage for at least 90 days, as a state law required. So it ditched the program in November, the Post says. The department of Arlington County, Virginia, rejected a pilot program right off the bat after learning it would cost $300,000 each year.

Beyond the cost of storage, there are concerns over the time it takes public defense attorneys to prepare video evidence for trial. Virginia calculates that for every 75 body cameras, it would need to hire another defense attorney, paralegal, or administrator. That rings up a charge of $6.4 million per year, the Post says. Read more about the unexpected cost of body cameras at The Washington Post. Kathryn Krawczyk

The 2019 Oscar nominations brought about plenty of firsts, including for Netflix, comic book movies, and Spike Lee.

Roma is the first Netflix movie to ever be nominated for Best Picture. The movie from Alfonso Cuarón earned 10 nominations and is widely considered to be the frontrunner to win. This isn't the first time a movie from any streaming service has received a Best Picture nomination, though, as Amazon's Manchester by the Sea beat Netflix to the punch in 2017.

Hulu also earned its first Oscar nomination ever this year for Minding the Gap, which was nominated for Best Documentary Feature.

With Roma getting its Best Picture nod, producer Gabriela Rodriguez becomes the first Hispanic woman ever to earn a nomination in that category, The Hollywood Reporter points out. Additionally, Roma's Cuarón is the first person to be nominated for Best Cinematography and Best Director in the same year for one movie, IndieWire reports.

Black Panther also became the first superhero film to ever be nominated for Best Picture. This comes 10 years after The Dark Knight was famously snubbed for a Best Picture nomination in 2009, which contributed to the Academy's decision to expand that category to more than five movies.

Speaking of Black Panther, the film received a Best Production Design nomination as well, and Hannah Beachler therefore became the first black woman ever nominated in that category, The New York Times' Kyle Buchanan points out.

Best Director this year consists of both Pawel Pawlikowski (Cold War) and Alfonso Cuarón (Roma), which, according to the Reporter, is the first time ever that the category has included two movies also nominated for Best Foreign Language film.

Finally, Spike Lee, believe it or not, also received his first nomination ever for Best Director for BlacKkKlansman, while Sam Elliott received his first ever acting nomination for Best Supporting Actor in A Star Is Born. Brendan Morrow