King answers ‘softball’ charges in CNN special

CNN’s Larry King has often been accused of lobbing “softball” questions at his guests. But to hear him tell it, his style is a far more effective way to interview the rich and famous.

“I hear people say that I’m ‘softball,’ I’ve never understood what softball means,” says King in a two-hour special airing on CNN Wednesday to commemorate his 50th year in broadcasting. “My role is not to make a guest uncomfortable. I know some people like to make a guest uncomfortable. I don’t. I’m uncomfortable if I make them uncomfortable, and you don’t learn a lot if you’re confrontational. … Well, if someone points a finger at you and says, ‘Why did you do this?!’ you guarantee you will not learn why he did this. You’ll not learn it. So I learned a long time ago that the best way to be is really curious.”

Rudy Giuliani might agree. “Sometimes after an interview with Larry you say to yourself, ‘Mmm, I think I said more than I wanted to say,’ ” the presidential candidate said.

“But,” former first lady Barbara Bush said, “he is a man that does not accept ‘no.’ He is very persistent.”

Along with clips from his best interviews and more celebrity testimonials, the special has King, who sports jeans and shiny boots through much of it, discussing his career with Anderson Cooper and “American Idol” host Ryan Seacrest.

From this, we learn:

» King’s real name: Lawrence Harvey Zeiger

» Princess Diana called him “Lawrence of the Telly”

» He smoked on his way to the hospital after his heart attack in 1987

» When he interviews Kermit the Frog, King actually believes he’s talking to a frog

Also this week, King will interview Oprah Winfrey, Bill Clinton and Bill Maher, and Katie Couric will interview him on his set.

Baldwin can’t stomach veganism

Actors Alec Baldwin, Marilu Henner and Lisa Edelstein, along with electronic music artist Moby, turned out on Saturday night at the Mellon Auditorium to take a big "bite" out of crime at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine’s “The Art of Compassion” gala.

The crime: unethical medical practices, obese children and animal testing.

The bite: a gourmet, completely vegan meal. Yes, that means absolutely NO meat, cheese, milk or even butter.

“I tried veganism in rural Louisiana,” said Baldwin, who is a vegetarian. “I went to McDonald’s and ordered a Quarter Pounder without the meat. Just the cheese and the lettuce and the tomato. No meat. Then I realized that you can’t be a vegan and still eat the cheese.

“I wouldn’t look like this if I were a vegan,” Baldwin told Yeas & Nays, patting his stomach sheepishly.

Moby added an extra live auction item at the spur of the moment — a meal in his New York apartment with him and Baldwin (they live in the same building) and a live, private concert. They started the bidding at $1,000, and it ended with two bidders each paying $15,000 for the dinner. Both bidders will eat at the same time along with one guest each. Moby and Baldwin joked that they would even host the dinner nude.

George Michael brings Lennon’s piano to Ford’s

The piano on which John Lennon composed “Imagine” in 1971 stopped at Ford’s Theatre on Saturday on the 142nd anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination there. The photo op was part of a tour of historical sites of violence, the brainchild of the piano’s owner, English pop star George Michael.

“By taking the piano to the site of President Lincoln’s death, we are reminded that violence has long been a part of our history,” Michael said in a news release.

Photos also have been taken of the piano at the respective locations of the deaths of President Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville, where inmates are put to death. Plans call for photos at Columbine High School in Colorado, the Tower of London and Auschwitz, among others.

Michael bought the piano in 2000 for $2.1 million.

Cusack joins WHCAD star roll

Actor John Cusack, of “Being John Malkovich” and “High Fidelity” fame, will be a guest of John and Cristina McLaughin at Saturday night’s annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.

Cusack is known as a fiercely private celebrity, and has even been quoted as saying “celebrity is the worst thing that can happen to an actor.” So we hope he’s prepared for the army of 2,500 egos that awaits him in the ballroom of the Washington Hilton.

Not that Cusack is a stranger to politics. He has blogged for The Huffington Post and written in opposition to the Iraq war. Coincidentally, two as-yet-unreleased projects for the 40-year-old touch on Middle East politics. In the Iraq War-themed “Grace Is Gone,” he plays a widowed father, and in the futuristic “War Inc.” he portrays a hit man charged with killing a Middle Eastern oil minister.

Nicole Miller holds court at Milano

Fashion designer Nicole Miller dined at Café Milano on Friday night at a large table in the crowded main room surrounded by Washington’s money and power set, including Fox News’ Bret Baier and wife Amy, Evan and Cindy Jones, former Maryland Secretary of State Jane Trevisan and her husband, Accelovance CEO Steve Trevisan and Capitol File Editor Kate Gibbs. Northern Virginia financier Joe Robert and his glamorous girlfriend Ashley Taylor stopped by for dessert to congratulate Miller on her 25th year in the design business.

Speaking of fashion, “Project Runway” designer Wendy Pepper, Aaron Altscher from “The Apprentice Los Angeles” and NBC-4 sportscaster Lindsay Czarniak were among those taking to the runway at the Washington Humane Society’s Fashion for Paws fundraiser at the French Embassy on Saturday night.

In other recent celeb sightings:

» Redskins quarterback Jason Campbell, supping on lobster with three friends at Morton’s in Georgetown on Thursday.

» Nicolas Cage (yet again) buying a cup of coffee at a Starbucks way away from downtown last week, on Kings Highway in Virginia.

» Cal Ripken, signing copies of his new book, “Get in the Game,” at the National Press Club on Friday and again at Borders in Tysons Corner that same evening.

» D.C.’s own electronic-music heroes, Thievery Corporation, making a rare DJ appearance at the 18th Street Lounge, the Dupont Circle hipster hangout owned by its production company.