All Georges

Somewhere out there -- we tried, but never managed to spot him, was new White House press secretary Tony Snow. (Colbert: "Secret code name Snow Job.") Jesse Jackson was in the house. Howard's dates were his two daughters, 12 and 8 years old. ("I've got to keep an eye out for my babies," he said.) But by far, the belle of the ball was Clooney, political junkie that he is, who might as well give up his day job and start toiling as a cub reporter for The Washington Post.

But it wasn't just journos doing the gawking. Turns out that the celebs who show up here are all about the gawk, too. Or, as Denton (a guest of USA Today) put it, "It's nice to be in a place where A-list has a different meaning. Here," as actors, "we're meaningless."

He said this as a reporter ran up and snapped a pic of him with her PDA. Not so meaningless, we say.

"Yes," Denton admitted, "but I'm around actors all the time. I'm a political junkie. This is a thrill."

Also looking thrilled was actress Patricia Clarkson, tiny and elegant in brown brocade, who looked as happy at the prospect of meeting Chris Matthews as a certain reporter was with sort-of-meeting Clooney.

"I've always wanted to come to this," the New Orleans native enthused. "I'm a political junkie. A journalism junkie. I loooove journalists."

Just where did this love for the fourth estate come from? Her mother's a politician -- in a runoff for the city council -- and so she learned early to love. She's just back from New Orleans herself, shooting a commercial for her mom, Jacqueline.

"I hope it helps her," she said.

Others, like Hill Harper of "CSI: New York" and Joe Pantoliano, formerly of "The Sopranos," and Washington's own Jeffrey Wright, came because they had an agenda. All were guests of the Creative Coalition and were looking to make sure that, as Pantoliano put it, "get to see people who run my country," pulling in close. ("I'm sorry. I'm deaf and I lost my voice," he said, grabbing a hank of our hair and brushing it out of our face.) He continued: "I get to do a little lobbyism. I get to talk to congressmen. I've changed some minds."

Oh?

Something about unfair trade and Canada, and he went on a bit about how Rhode Island now has a 25 percent tax credit. Pantoliano was starting to sound a bit like the pol he says he'll be playing in a CBS pilot, "The City."

A corrupt politician, we noted, a bit amused at the irony of an actor playing a politician trying to hang with real politicos.