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Yeas & Nays: Monday, Apr. 23
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Rich Little Jeff Dufour and Patrick Gavin cover people, power and politics in the beltway each weekday. Email them at yan@dcexaminer.com . The White House Correspondents’ Dinner that never was ... and other notes from the weekendSure, sure: So Rich Little’s headlining performance at Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner didn’t knock anyone’s socks off. But there was one performance that most certainly would have brought down the house. Too bad it got canned by Sen. Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Sources familiar with the planning of the event tell Yeas & Nays that originally, Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush were all slated to appear on stage and perform a “Three Tenors”-type musical routine. Each president would take his turn singing country-western and Elvis songs. But the idea was short-lived: One prominent Republican charged with negotiating the participation of the three tenors, er, presidents, told Yeas & Nays, “41 loved it but said he had to ask the White House. The White House loved it, and 43 loved it, but Mrs. Clinton nixed” Bill’s participation. Party pooper … Of course, even if Hillary had allowed Bill to do it, it is doubtful that the skit would have seen the light of day following the tragic events at Virginia Tech. President Bush elected to skip his traditional comedy routine Saturday night in order to honor the victims, so we assume that he also would have backed out of crooning “Love Me Tender.” The Clinton campaign did not respond to a request for comment. Vanity Fair party: who got in? Saturday night’s most exclusive after-party took place at the Kalorama home of Christopher Hitchens and Carol Blue, which had been liberated of its furniture for the occasion, so as to better fit the modest guest list of 100 or so. The party was sponsored by Vanity Fair and co-hosted by Dee Dee Myers and Todd Purdum. Hitchens, a hard-charger on the party circuit, was a model host, greeting guests as they arrived and standing by the door to say goodnight, giving rise to unfounded speculation that he was drinking mineral water. Among the lucky guests: Fred Thompson, still auditioning for his role as the second coming of Ronald Reagan; British Ambassador David Manning and his novelist wife Lady Manning; NBC’s Andrea Mitchell; Council on Foreign Relations Chief Richard Haass; embattled World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz; and a slew of bold-faced names from the world of journalism. One of the late arrivals, somewhere north of 1:30 a.m., was The New York Times’ David Carr. Carr was still feeling feisty after using his clout to free up three Timesmen trapped behind the velvet rope at the Bloomberg party at the Costa Rican Embassy: Dean Baquet, Richard Berke and Adam Nagourney. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia had a spirited conversation with California Attorney General Jerry Brown, who was there with his wife, Anne Gust. Brown, looking more like 50 than his 69 years, and Scalia talked about television, of all things. Brown takes pride in not watching the tube, while Scalia noted that someone had given him two years’ worth of “Rockford Files” episodes and was laughing at how dated they were, with James Garner constantly popping out of his car to make pay phone calls. Late night with Petra Around 2:30 a.m. on Saturday, an impromptu after-after party developed at the Dupont Circle town house of Mike Feldman, a founding partner of the Glover Park Group and a senior adviser to Al Gore. The guests read like a who’s who of the Washington-Hollywood connection: supermodel Petra Nemcova, who had a whirlwind night as Bloomberg’s dinner guest and a co-host of Capitol File’s after party; Lawrence Bender, the Academy Award-winning producer of “Pulp Fiction,” “Good Will Hunting” and, most recently, Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”; longtime Hillary Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines; actress Kerry Washington; White House Political Director Sara Taylor; Michael Kives, an agent whose clients include Bruce Willis and Jeremy Piven; former U2 tour director Ben Schwerin; FOX News style contributor Julia Allison; and Hillary Clinton speechwriter Jonathan Lovett. With Veuve Cliquot Yellow Label flowing freely, we hear that the last guests left near 6 a.m., after the Sunday New York Times had already been delivered. As far as their participation goes, the revelers refused to even acknowledge the gathering, with Reines saying only, “What happens on Swann Street stays on Swann Street.” But what about the glutes? Northern Virginia-based fitness guru Denise Austin caught up with Jane Fonda, fitness guru of two decades ago, just outside the ballroom. Clearly enamored with the older but still radiant Fonda, Austin began pressing her for her fitness secrets. “I don’t know,” Fonda replied. “Eat well and think happy thoughts.” David misplaces his wife Leave it to Larry David. Like an outtake from “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” David had no sooner entered the CNN pre-party when he lost his wife, Laurie, who was working the room with Sheryl Crow. It took him about a half-hour to catch up with her in a VIP corner of the room. A woman who appeared to be with the Davids was among the most protective of the handlers on site. Upbraiding a man for trying to take a photo of the couple, she said, “Excuse me, sir, I’ve told you five times now.” His reply: “That’s life.” The best gift of all Among all the parting gifts at the after-parties Saturday, the best may have gone to “High School Musical” star Zac Efron. Efron was last seen at the Capitol File party at the Colombian ambassador’s residence, giving a group of interns his room number at the Ritz Carlton. Hatcher’s a tough date “Desperate Housewives” star Teri Hatcher turned tons of heads at Saturday’s dinner, which seemed to annoy her boyfriend, director Steven Kay. As Hatcher worked the red carpet, Kay grew increasingly uncomfortable, prompting their security escort to lean in and say, “Anytime you want out of here, let me know.” Leaving on a jet plane Perhaps no one was more eager to leave the dinner than David Geffen and Arianna Huffington: Geffen and Huffington bolted super early and were already in his jet before the dinner had ended. One person who approached Arianna to chat as she was leaving the dinner got the cold shoulder. “Darling, I would love to talk, but I’m getting a ride back with David on his plane.” (Oh, and Huffington’s efforts to hide her black right eye with bangs didn’t fool everyone. She earned the bruise recently when she passed out and hit her head on a desk.) Breaking bread Who needs whom more? That’s what we asked when we saw Rudy Giuliani interrupting a conversation between Pat Robertson and Sen. John Warner, R-Va., to give the icon of the Christian right a big ol’ bear hug, which Robertson happily returned. Big Love Actor Bill Paxton can’t get enough of blue-blood hangout Smith Point. After having a great time there Thursday, the “Big Love” star showed up again late night Saturday, having just come from the Bloomberg after-party. Texas Hold ‘Em unites It was star power that brought 210 players to the first annual “Poker Détente” at the Park Hyatt on Friday, sponsored by the Creative Coalition and the World Poker Tour. But star power didn’t equal success for the likes of Wendie Malick, Tim Daly, Frances Fisher and celebrity stylist Philip Bloch, or famous-for-D.C. types like Howard Fineman and Lawrence O’Donnell. No, the top honors went to Hilary Perry, a producer for ABC, who, it must be said, had precious little poker experience. Knocking out one card shark after another, Perry’s winning stack of chips earned her a seat at the 2008 World Poker Tour Celebrity Invitational during Oscars week. Perry was deservedly ecstatic by night’s end — if a bit tipsy and tired — after the week she had: She spent the entire week at Virginia Tech covering the shooting tragedy and sleeping about four hours a night. In a gossip showdown, Yeas & Nays and The Washington Post’s Reliable Source both made it to the top 10. We won’t tell you who got knocked out first. Remember when? Michael Steele graciously greeted Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., and her husband, Sidney, just outside the ballroom. Steele told her he was a paralegal at the law firm Surrey & Morse in the early 1980s, when Harman was a partner there. Then, ever so humbly, he added, “Then I became lieutenant governor of Maryland and ran for the Senate.” Obviously up to date herself on this development, Harman replied, “I know, you ran a great campaign. Everyone says so.” Malakar talks politicsEveryone was itching to see American Idol “star” Sanjaya Malakar (who didn’t get their picture taken with him?), but which celebrity was Sanjaya most excited to see? “Robert Kennedy,” Malakar told Yeas & Nays, adding that he’s a big fan of Kennedy’s anti-global warming efforts (Larry David, Sheryl Crow, sign him up!). But don’t expect Sanjaya to jump into politics anytime soon: When asked who he’s pulling for in the 2008 presidential race, Sanjaya declined to give a name, saying, “I’m too much inside the bubble.” (Like his singing, we’re totally confused by what he meant by that.) In related ‘08 news, we also asked former Giants running back and new “Today Show” contributor Tiki Barber which presidential candidate has his vote. Barber chose to keep his powder dry, saying “I don’t even know who the candidates are going to be.” And when we asked actor Giancarlo Esposito, his answer was simple: “No one.” |
