Working for gold in Silver Spring

He may be a big-time comedian, but Lewis Black hasn’t forgotten his roots. The Silver Spring native will return to the Washington area in late June to perform at a benefit for his high school, Springbrook High School in Silver Spring (and it’s not even a reunion year for him — Black graduated from Springbrook in 1966).

The comedian, who rose to stardom in recent years thanks to his “Back in Black” routines on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” will do a 50-minute stand-up routine in Springbrook High School’s 1,100 person auditorium for school alumni, staff, parents and — since his material isn’t always PG-13 — Springbrook High School seniors. Once they’ve had first dibs at tickets, some will be made available for the public.

And the high school apparently doesn’t just value Black’s comedy, they respect his choices, too: Black will pick between three options provided by the school for how to allocate funds raised from the benefit.

This isn’t the first time Black has done stand-up in these parts. He performed at the 2005 Radio & Television Correspondents Association dinner, and even then, he gave a nod to his high school years: Noting that his high school prom had been held at the same Washington Hilton ballroom as the Radio/TV dinner, Black said it was deja vu: “I’m dressed in a tux. I’m uncomfortable, and once again, I know I’m not gonna get lucky.”

Rove, Bartlett, Hammond among Radio/TV guests

Is CNN building bridges to the longtime Fox News-friendly Bush administration?

That’s the message one could take from CNN’s guests at the Radio and TV Correspondents Dinner at the Washington Hilton this Wednesday.

CNN is hosting top Bush adviser Karl Rove, as well as Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Also at one of the cable network’s tables: Ken Fisher and his wife, Tammy. Fisher founded the Fisher Houses, which provide temporary lodging near military medical facilities for families of wounded soldiers.

ABC landed a White House “get” of its own: communications guru Dan Bartlett. ABC is also hosting Republican South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford.

MSNBC will have longtime “Saturday Night Live” cast member Darrell Hammond. The impressionist is no stranger to Washington, nor even to these media dinners. He has performed for Vice President Dick Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and provided the entertainment at the first White House Correspondents Dinner of the Bush presidency in 2001.

As of press time, Fox News and CBS were unable to provide information about their guests.

Setting the record straight

In light of the big media dinners that take place at the Washington Hilton, we wrote in February that, based on information given to us by the D.C. Department of Health, the Hilton’s banquet kitchen had been closed four times since 2000 for health violations.

The department on Thursday sent us a retraction of their statement, so we’re passing it on: “The D.C. Department of Health regrets its statement that the Washington Hilton was closed by its inspectors on the following dates: 8/29/2000, 02/07/2001, 05/08/2003 and 12/14/2004. The violations issued to the Washington Hilton on those dates were deficiencies of public health endangerment that resulted in issuances of 14-day abatement notices for compliance. The error was made when the new District Food Code, introduced in 2003 and fully implemented October 2005, was used to describe and rate Washington Hilton’s 2000-2004 violations.”

Donna turning up the heat

“The campaign goes on strongly.” Those were John Edwards’ words last week, but they could just as easily have been D.C. chef Roberto Donna’s, discussing his flap with Washingtonian restaurant critic Todd Kliman.

As the Washington Post reported, Donna already has decided to set up a blog to critique Kliman and other local food writers. He’s also printing up bumper stickers that read “Don’t Believe the Washingtonian.”

But a spokeswoman for Donna’s Bebo Trattoria in Crystal City, the flashpoint of the Donna-Kliman smackdown, says the chef is also printing T-shirts with the same message for servers, bar staff and kitchen staff to wear. Expect to see them as soon as they’re “off the presses.”

He’ll also be posting signs in the restaurant encouraging patrons to read coverage of the issue.

Cameras click Lanier, too

Cathy Lanier, the city’s 39-year-old acting police chief, may be the public face — along with Mayor Fenty — of a young and vibrant city. But even the squeaky clean top cop has run afoul of the law.

Being interviewed by Carol Joynt at the “Q&A Café” at Nathans of Georgetown on Thursday, Lanier admitted that she has received “a few” photo enforcement tickets in the mail.

“And I pay them rapidly,” she hastened to add.

Podhoretz objects to Thomas’ first row seat

When the White House Correspondents’ Association recently decided to allow longtime White House reporter and current Hearst columnist Helen Thomas to keep her front-row seat in the renovated James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, lots of Fans of Helen praised the decision. But one person’s not so happy: conservative commentator John Podhoretz.

Back in August, Podhoretz wrote on the National Review’s “Corner” blog, “The president is giving a press conference. He just called on Helen Thomas. If he ever calls on her again, I will support his impeachment.” (For the record, Bush has not called on Thomas since).

So it should come as no surprise that Podhoretz thinks Thomas should lose her front-row seat.

“I think, for there to be balance, the White House Correspondents Association should assign a front-row seat on the other side of the press room to Leni Riefenstahl,” Podhoretz told Yeas & Nays, referring to the since-deceased German film director most famous for her propaganda films for the German Nazi Party.