A Coincidence, No Lie

First came reality: A former White House volunteer appeared on CBS’ “60 Minutes” on Sunday night to accuse President Clinton of fondling her.

Then, a split second after the segment ended, came fantasy: a trailer for “Primary Colors,” Universal Pictures’ thinly veiled satire about Clinton, sex and politics, which opens Friday.

Was the juxtaposition an orchestrated publicity stunt? Or merely a happy coincidence? The latter, executives at Universal said Monday.

“We bought the spot in January. . . . We had no idea that the interview would be on,” said Buffy Shutt, Universal’s president of marketing, who said the studio paid about $200,000 for the 30-second ad to run in the show’s first segment, when the most people are watching.

Not until last Friday did Shutt learn of the segment’s subject matter: An interview with Kathleen Willey, who said that in November 1993 Clinton made a crude sexual advance in a room adjacent to the Oval Office. Clinton has denied the charge, as has his lawyer, Robert S. Bennett, who appeared on “60 Minutes.”

The broadcast delivered one of the newsmagazine’s biggest audiences of the season, based on preliminary estimates from Nielsen Media Research. In the major cities for which ratings were available, the program reached roughly 19% of all homes, a 25% increase over the weekly average for the program, which regularly draws about 20 million viewers. Final ratings will be issued today.

“60 Minutes” also drew stronger than usual ratings in the Los Angeles area, attracting a similar percentage of local households, or about 935,000 homes.

Not surprisingly, viewing levels were especially high in Washington. Although “60 Minutes” started about 20 minutes late in the Eastern time zone due to NCAA basketball coverage, the CBS station there scored a staggering 28.7 rating from 7:30 to 8 p.m., meaning that percentage of homes in the area were tuned in.

CBS called the ad’s timing “a fluke,” noting that the time was booked before anyone knew that Willey would be on the program or when in the broadcast the piece would air.

A “60 Minutes” spokesman also said CBS had not intentionally paired the “Primary Colors” preview--which showed a paunchy, graying presidential candidate (John Travolta) hugging voters and eating a doughnut--with the Clinton segment. The placement of ads, the spokesman said, “has nothing to do with news. We maintain a strict church-state separation.”

At Universal, meanwhile, there was much rejoicing--unlike when the news broke in January that independent counsel Kenneth A. Starr was investigating whether the president sought to cover up an alleged sexual relationship with former White House intern Monica S. Lewinsky. At the time, a studio spokesman refused to discuss the matter, citing a studio policy against discussing the marketing of any of its movies.

“ ‘60 Minutes’ was the logical place to go to market this movie. It’s a thinking kind of audience,” said Shutt, who said trailers for the film are also running during “PrimeTime Live,” “20/20,” “Seinfeld,” “ER” and “Mad About You.”

“We were definitely happy,” Shutt added. “The more people you can reach, obviously, the better.”

Times staff writer Brian Lowry and freelance writer Patrick Goldstein contributed to this story.