NAMES & FACES

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Press Club Jumbles the Alphabet

There were faces as red as Elmo at the conclusion of PBS President Pat Mitchell's speech yesterday to the National Press Club, reports The Post's John Maynard .

After the Q&A, Business Week reporter and National Press Club President Richard Dunham presented Mitchell with a press club coffee mug and plaque, as is the club's tradition for guest speakers. But they had it wrong, very wrong: The plaque listed Mitchell as an employee of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Ouch.

Relations between PBS and the CPB, the government-funded agency that in turn funds the network, have not been rosy of late. CPB thinks PBS's programming is too liberal; PBS begs to disagree. Mitchell shrugged off the misprint with a laugh: "This is why I appreciate the opportunity to have so many members of the press in one room, so that maybe, maybe, we can get that part right. I'm the president of PBS."

It's Jackson by a Nose

It looks like high rollers unable to satisfy their gambling itch this Triple Crown season are putting their money on Jacko from Neverland.

The Internet gambling universe is betting heavily on the outcome of the Michael Jackson trial. Current odds favor acquittal.

"It's not unlike a sporting event. . . . It's just a longer, more drawn-out variation of it," says Calvin Ayre of Bodog.com, an online gambling site.

A Beef With Paris

Paris Hilton and fast-food chain Carl's Jr. are taking heat from media watchdogs for a racy new television commercial starring the heiress, clad in a swimsuit, provocatively lathering a luxury car while she chomps on an oversize hamburger.

"This commercial is basically soft-core porn," said Melissa Caldwell , research director for the Los Angeles-based Parents Television Council. According to the Los Angeles Times, the group is considering asking the Federal Communications Commission to declare the ad indecent.

Since the 30-second ad hit airwaves Thursday, Paris enthusiasts eager for a peek have taken to the Internet in droves, briefly crashing Carl's Jr.'s Web site in the process.

Kofi Annan's Larger Picture

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and wife Nane rubbed elbows with Washington's media A-list on Monday evening at the Georgetown home of Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn . Guests included Ted Koppel , Wolf Blitzer , Chris Matthews , An drea Mitchell, Mary Matalin and James Carville, as well as Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan (who is married to Mitchell), former Reagan chief of staff Ken Duberstein , White House personnel director Dina Powell and Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Stephen Breyer .

After an introduction, Annan obliquely referenced the U.N.'s recent oil-for-food scandal, telling an old parable about the headmaster who draws a tiny black dot on a blank sheet of paper. "What do you see?" the headmaster asks his students. A black dot, everyone says. The headmaster then observes: "None of you saw the large, white piece of paper."

Annan asked his audience not to "focus on the negative," and discussed the U.N.'s goals in peacekeeping, nuclear arms control and the fight against AIDS.

End Notes

· Four women who claim they each were held at gunpoint by Phil Spector will be allowed to testify when the legendary record producer stands trial on murder charges, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled Monday.

· Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf presented Brazilian pop legend and Culture Minister Gilberto Gil with the Polar Music Prize at a ceremony Monday in Stockholm. The Royal Swedish Academy of Music cited Gil, 62, for his "unflinching creative engagement in bringing to the world the heart and soul of the rich music of Brazil."

· C-list celebrity sighting! Crooner Harry Belafonte and model Kathy Ireland were spotted dining (separately) at Teatro Goldoni on K Street on Monday.

-- Complied by Chris Richards from staff and wire reports