NAMES & FACES

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain is on a mission to get the word out: Beirut is a civilized city filled with tolerant people, the Hezbollah-Israeli conflict notwithstanding.

"It was a shockingly sophisticated place," he told us yesterday.

"The people I met were brimming with enthusiasm about the future and were proud of how much they had survived in the past."

Bourdain, 50, and his four-member television crew were trapped in the Lebanese capital for 10 days last month while filming for his Travel Channel show "No Reservations"; they had captured only two days' worth of footage before fighting broke out. That footage was pieced together for a special that premiered last night.

Bourdain was filming a scene with several Beirutis talking about how unified the city had become since Syrian forces were expelled, when automatic-weapons fire could be heard in the distance.

"Ironically, I was with a Sunni, a Shiite and [another] Muslim," said the chef. "They were first embarrassed and then got this terribly discouraged look. One predicted what was next."

Bourdain and his crew were soon relocated to a Western-style hotel at the northern end of Beirut, where they were in the "surreal position of being near a swimming pool and feeling the airstrikes." The chef had sampled the city's cuisine before fighting broke out and said the new hotel's food wasn't quite as fantastic. "At one point I went to the chef, introduced myself and asked him if I could just go in and cook," he said. The hotel allowed Bourdain to prepare Parisian comfort food for everyone that night.

Bourdain and his staff were eventually evacuated by the U.S. military, but he said he would have no qualms about returning to the city: "If anything, the great unfinished business in my life is to someday go back to Beirut to show the world what I saw for two days before the bombing."

The Hitching Post

Celebrity engagements!

Former "Baywatch" hunk David Charvet and "Rock Star: Supernova" host Brooke Burke plan to tie the knot and are expecting a baby together. Charvet proposed Saturday during a party, People magazine reports. Burke split from husband Garth Fisher in July 2005 and began dating Charvet soon after. This will be the first marriage for Charvet.

Not to be outdone, "Scrubs" star John C. McGinley proposed to his girlfriend, yoga teacher Nicole Kessler , on Saturday. The couple has been dating for more than two years.

Doing His Bit for Opera

He's used to being in the spotlight -- just not in knickers.

Fox 5 news weekend anchor Will Thomas unleashed his inner thespian Friday night when he made a guest appearance during the Wolf Trap Opera Company's performance of "The Marriage of Figaro."

The opera extended an invitation for a member of the WTTG news team to take on a bit part, and Thomas was chosen. "They were very kind to me," he told us yesterday. "I can see how people get bit by that bug of being in front of a live audience." Thomas had a small part in a wedding scene but didn't sing.

"He's a pro," said Wolf Trap spokeswoman Kim Witman . "It was a one-time thing, but we wouldn't rule out having him back."

Noted . . .

CBS news anchor Bob Schieffer had a quiet meal by himself at the Woodley Park eatery Open City Sunday night. Schieffer, 69, munched on a burger and fiddled with his BlackBerry (after pulling out his glasses) during dinner. The veteran newsman commutes to his home in Washington each weekend from New York, where he's been anchoring "The CBS Evening News."

. . . And Quoted

"I, like, cry, when I listen to it, it's so good." -- socialite- turned- singer Paris Hilton to Blender magazine on her debut album.

-- Korin Miller

The Reliable Source will return.

. . . And Quoted

"I, like, cry, when I listen to it, it's so good." -- socialite- turned- singer Paris Hilton to Blender magazine on her debut album.

-- Korin Miller

The Reliable Source will return.