The royals: Too many journos here, too

You see? Britons and Americans aren’t that different after all. Turns out that leaders from both countries are always hemmed in by journalists.

During the queen’s garden party on Monday at the British Ambassador’s Residence (with 700 guests), Queen Elizabeth II, 81, and her consort, Prince Philip, 85, walked down a path lined with guests three or four deep on either side. Philip stopped to ask Irwin Stelzer what he did and was told that Stelzer wrote a column for the Sunday Times of London. Then Prince Philip put the question to The Examiner’s man on the scene and was again told he was speaking with a journalist. The prince then looked at Brit Hume, the Fox News anchor, and got the same answer.

“You’re usually surrounded by people like us,” The Examiner’s man ventured.

“As infrequently as possible,” the prince replied cheerfully.

When the queen was introduced to Brian Williams of NBC, the famously witty anchor said, “So many Americans, so little time.”

The queen, Williams said afterward, “smiled at me sheepishly. I think she saw right through me. That’s why there’s a Jersey [one of the Channel Islands between France and England] and a New Jersey, and I’m from the latter.”

After making her way down the left side of the line, the queen doubled back on the right side and eventually came to The Examiner’s man.

“Did you bet on Street Sense at Churchill Downs?” he inquired, risking a serious breach of protocol. She seemed relieved to be discussing one of her favorite subjects and replied that it was rather startling to see the winning horse covered with mud after the race. The Examiner’s man told her that his newspaper’s handicappers had picked the top three horses in their order of finish.

“That’s really quite extraordinary,” the queen said.

The guest list for the garden party read like a who’s who of the Washington VIPs who didn’t make the guest list at Monday’s state dinner at the White House: Atlantic Media chairman David Bradley; Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and his wife, Hadassah; media mogul Mort Zuckerman; PBS’s Judy Woodruff; Sam Donaldson; the Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol; former Bush 41 adviser Brent Scowcroft; House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo.; Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio; former House Speaker Tom Foley, D-Wash.; investor Fred Malek; and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Barnes ‘delighted’ at his book’s ‘Sopranos’ cameo

Yes, that was Fred Barnes’ book, “Rebel in Chief,” that Carmela Soprano was reading in bed during Sunday night’s episode of “The Sopranos.”

Reached by phone down in Florida, the Weekly Standard executive editor said he was “delighted” at the unexpected publicity and has gotten “a lot of calls and e-mails about it,” although he admitted he has never seen the show and doesn’t even get HBO.

“I knew it was going to happen in the fifth episode,” he said, having been tipped off by New Republic literary editor Leon Wieseltier, who had a chance to screen the episodes of this final season. Wieseltier is friends with David Chase, the show’s creator.

Asked what lessons a mafia wife could possibly take from “Rebel in Chief,” an admiring character study of President Bush, Barnes replied, “There is a theory that the mafia represents a certain conservatism — unrestricted capitalism and traditionalism. … Bush is a politician who rejects the conventional wisdom and goes his own way. That’s probably also true for a mafia wife.”

Former U.N. Ambassador Bolton can banter!

If you want to win the affection of conservatives, it helps to have some good enemies.

When former U.N. Ambassador John R. Bolton took to the Kennedy Center stage Thursday evening to accept one of four Bradley Prizes awarded that evening, he, of course, thanked the usuals: “the Bradley Foundation and Michael Grebe” and “the selection committee.”

But, since these prizes almost always honor champions of political conservatism, Bolton made sure to thank the political enemies who helped him hone his conservative principles.

“There are, of course, many other people I should mention,” Bolton said. “For example, I should note Sens. Lincoln Chafee and Chris Dodd, who did so much to help make me eligible for this prize.”

Yucks ran throughout the room. “Prominent citizens of Pyongyang, Havana, Damascus, Tehran and elsewhere also pitched in, simply by being themselves.”

Who knew that the ’stached grump had a funny bone in him? The truism holds up: Politicians are always funnier out of office.

Fenty still fast at 36

He finished nearly 14 minutes behind the winner, but District Mayor Adrian Fenty kept a blistering pace of just over seven minutes per mile on Sunday, as he finished the Sallie Mae 10K at West Potomac Park in 43:36.

“I’ve been doing a lot of cycling this week, so I’m a bit off my time,” Fenty told the Washington Running Report.

He is training for the Columbia triathlon, which is in two weeks. His lifetime best in a 10K is 37:44, achieved when he was 18 years old.

Last-minute White House guest makes ‘Sense’

It wasn’t until late Monday that first lady Laura Bush announced the White House’s “special surprise guest” for the state dinner with the queen of England: Calvin Borel, the jockey who rode Street Sense to a Kentucky Derby victory Saturday. It’s fitting — after all, the queen was in the stands for the race.

“We had saved two places to be able to ask someone from the Kentucky Derby,” Mrs. Bush said, “and so we have the jockey, Calvin Borel” and — no, not the horse — his girlfriend, Lisa Funk.

Borel left Kentucky at 3:15 a.m. without much to wear. According to a source who spoke to his agent, the White House set him up with a tailor to suit him in white tie before the event. The agent also said Borel told him he wasn’t to be called or disturbed at all while in Washington, except in the case of a family emergency.

McCain gets great view of De La Hoya - Mayweather bout

Senators get all the best perks...That was Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., sitting ringside with his wife, Cindy, during Saturday night's superwelterweight title bout between Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather (Mayweather won in a split decision).

But, before you start drawing parallells between McCain's appearance and the recent one by Sen. Harry Reid that landed him in some hot water (Reid accepted free boxing tickets from the Nevada Athletic Commission between 2003 and 2005 while that state agency was trying to gain the senator's support on federal regulation of boxing), fear not: McCain and his wife paid for their own tickets.

McCain was in the same row as Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony and roughly 10 rows up from Spiderman himself: Tobey Maguire. Other VIPs in the house: Tommy Lasorda, Michael J. Fox, Charlie Sheen, Charles Barkley, Eva Longoria, George Lopez, Mike Tyson, Will Farrell, Leonardo DiCaprio, Eddie Murphy, Michael Jordan, Denzel Washington, Jack Nicholson and Magic Johnson.