Life of the Afterparty

At Bloomberg's Big Bash, Fame's the Name of the Game

Dear reader, come massage our tired feet and we will tell you a story, a story about cucumber-lime cocktails and teensy roast beef sandwiches, a story of red carpets and velvet ropes and bathrooms so well decorated you cannot find the stalls, a story about fame and almost-fame and famous-for-Washington, about peering into the darkness of a fabulous party and asking, "Hey, isn't that -- that woman? From that show?"

After the White House Correspondents' Association dinner comes the Bloomberg party, every year. So the heavens have decreed it and so it shall be. The heavens have added: Let there be plentiful liquor and plentiful cleavage. And so it is. There was also, this particular year, great drunkenness, great dancing, and this one long-haired dude who just got voted off "American Idol."

O fame! O greatness! There he was Saturday night, Ace Young -- he of the foppish curls and the smirk of a guy who's been getting a lot of love from the ladies. He was accompanied by older brother Ryan, who has the same foppish curls and the pleased look of a guy whose brother is suddenly famous and beloved by the ladies.

Ryan reported that at the dinner earlier some old lady came up to his brother and "dropped a kiss on his lips."

"Yeah, caught me off guard," Ace said.

Who was it?

"No idea." But Ace said he "definitely got a few" phone numbers.

Oh, yeah. We were aaall getting some action, except for those of us who weren't. We started to see the sheen of fame on lots of people, including some nobody we mistakenly thought was Somebody. We started to feel a little famous ourselves in our tuxes and halter-neck dresses, mingling with all these celebrities. Why, there's Comedy Central star Stephen Colbert, who roasted the president earlier at the dinner! There's the rapper Ludacris! There's that old lady from "Everybody Loves Raymond," whatever her name is! There's "Syriana" star Jeffrey Wright, who comes up behind Isaiah Washington from "Grey's Anatomy" and gooses him in the backside! Ha-ha! We get it!

There were plenty of famous-for-Washington types -- people whose work has a great effect on the nation and whom few outside the 202 area code would recognize: Justice Antonin Scalia, deposed FEMA head Michael Brown. (Let's call him Brownie instead; makes him sound like a rapper.)

What happens when semi-

famous-people-from-Hollywood

meet people-who-might-be-slightly-famous-for-Washington? Is one more powerful than the other? Or is it like matter meeting antimatter, and they both explode? Eighties glamourpuss Morgan Fairchild walks past a fellow who looks a lot like Time magazine reporter and Plamegate testimony-giver Matt Cooper, and their eyes meet. And then, just as suddenly -- their eyes unmeet.