Monica Lewinsky Gives HBO Max Intern Some Advice After Viral ‘Test’ Email Fiasco

Monica Lewinsky was one of many who reached out to the nameless HBO Max intern after the service tweeted that they were to blame for a test email going out to thousands of users on Thursday. And with her message, Lewinsky also may have once again “won” the viral moment on social media.

Lewinsky couldn’t help poking a little fun at her own past as an intern with The White House. She posted a quick tweet to the nameless intern, keeping it short and simple.

The beret is a clear reference to her time as a White House intern and the famous video of her hugging President Bill Clinton. According to E! News, the beret is one of the icons of the Clinton sex scandal to haunt Lewinsky a bit, saying fashion choice made her a Halloween costume along with the infamous blue dress.

And while she is joking about it here, Lewinsky has written in the past that “it’s time to burn the beret and bury the blue dress.” In recent years, she’s done just that, and it lends itself to her positive message to this HBO Max intern.

That said, the intern might not even be a real person. But they are being blamed for the mishap that confused a lot of users to close out the week. The email was sent to several people, some more than once, and it was blank outside of the subject “Integration Test Email #1” and the body text, “This template is used by integration tests only.”

Many realized something had gone awry, but that didn’t stop many from feeling they were being hit by spam or a phishing attack using their HBO Max account information. None of that was the cause, with the unnamed intern getting the blame in a statement released by HBO Max shortly after the email went viral.

“We mistakenly sent out an empty test email to a portion of our HBO Max mailing list this evening. We apologize for the inconvenience, and as the jokes pile in, yes, it was the intern. No, really. And we’re helping them through it,” the tweet read. In typical viral fashion, jokes were flying and people were questioning the truth behind what happened.

There was also the flood of well-wishes for the intern, including Lewinsky’s message. “Dear Intern, I was using my desktop calendar to make a monthly note of when I started my menstrual period, but after several months I realized I was making that note on a calendar I shared with all of my colleagues company wide. I was 37 years old,” comedy writer Caissie wrote in response to the tweet. “Hope the intern knows we’re cheering for them, we’ve all been there,” another user wrote.

In the end, we all do make mistakes. The HBO Max mistake is a very tiny one in the grand scheme of things. The person I’d like to meet is the one responsible for that false alarm missile strike in Hawaii. That’s an intern or worker who needs a pat on the back.