NAMES & FACES

Just Another Filmfest DC Ticket-Buyer?

Charlize Theron arrived at the Saturday night screening of her new documentary "East of Havana" at Regal Gallery Place in Chinatown just like everyone else: She waited in line.

The actress-turned-producer stood patiently behind chattering moviegoers who were unaware that the Oscar winner was in their midst. Then Theron saw a friend. "Oh my God! I didn't know you were here!" she cried out. Heads turned. Mouths dropped.

"East of Havana," screened as part of Filmfest DC, follows the story of three rappers in Cuba and their fight against the country's status quo. Theron, 30, acted as a co-producer on the project. "An aspect of why I wanted to make this film was the people," the South African-born Theron told us. Cuba "is one of those places you kind of have to go there to understand. We're going to have to face it at some point that there's this whole generation that has decided to stay there, to not give up on the promise of freedom."

The documentary -- in Spanish with English subtitles -- was the brainchild of Theron's close family friends who are Cuban American. The actress, who was dressed in all black -- jeans, shoes, shirt, jacket, even earrings -- stood for a brief introduction and plopped herself in a seat in the middle of the theater next to boyfriend Stuart Townsend after casually removing the "Reserved" sign from the back of her seat. She played with a friend's hair, then crossed her legs and whispered to Townsend. Necks craned.

"I thought this would make a lot of money," Theron joked afterward when asked why she made the flick. She also described running into problems with the Cuban police and gaining entry to the country, but we were blinded by that million-dollar smile.

So what's next for Theron? She hasn't a clue. "I'm just this unemployed actress trying to send this baby out into the world."

Noted . . .

· No White House Correspondents' Association dinner for her! Barbara Bush was spotted letting her hair down and dining at Tallula in Arlington on Saturday night in a corner booth with four friends. Sources say the well-dressed First Twin munched on a risotto appetizer and seafood salad while her pals enjoyed corn dogs and stuffed jalapenos. Her Secret Service detail was nowhere to be seen.

· Get the tiny white blazers and baby hair gel ready -- Don Johnson and his wife, Kelley , celebrated their seventh wedding anniversary with the birth of their third child Saturday. The still-unnamed baby boy joins his brother, Jasper, and sister, Grace, in Los Angeles. Johnson, 56, has two other children: a daughter, Dakota, with actress Melanie Griffith, and a son, Jesse, with actress Patti D'Arbanville .

· Fans gathered yesterday outside the New Zealand hospital where Keith Richards was under observation after being injured last week in Fiji. Word on the islands is that the 62-year-old Rolling Stones guitarist either fell out of a tree or fell off a Jet Ski, but the band's spokeswoman is staying mum. Maybe coconuts aren't the only thing to watch out for on our next stroll down the palm-lined beach.

-- Compiled by Korin Miller and Ashby Strassburger from staff and wire reports