Gay Celebrations Soar With Hardly a Word About You-Know-Who

The Mark Foley fallout was Topic A everywhere this weekend -- except from the stages at the two biggest gay parties in Washington. (No gossip at the tables? Oh, please .) Due to a scheduling glitch, the Human Rights Campaign fundraising dinner at the Convention Center and the Miss Adams Morgan contest at the Washington Hilton were both held Saturday night-- and both, as it turned out, were Foley-free zones.

HRC President Joe Solmonese briefly mentioned the disgraced Florida rep in his speech, but only to warn the 2,800 political activists not to let the unfolding scandal take the focus off next month's elections. "We put Mark Foley and his scandal into the appropriate perspective and moved to what really needs to be focused on, and that is the opportunity to make history by electing a record number of fair-minded candidates," he said yesterday.

At the 10th annual black-tie dinner, the HRC gave its National Equality Award to tennis legend Billie Jean King , and its Visibility Award to singer Lance Bass, who recently announced he was gay, and Bass's boyfriend, "Amazing Race" winner Reichen Lehmkuhl.

Those who skipped the HRC dinner for Miss Adams Morgan and expecting a dose of ribald topical humor were surprised by the absence of Foley fodder. The annual no-press, campy drag show (if any party with 2,500 guests can really be private) was full of irreverent skits and one-liners about Dick Cheney and Mel Gibson , but no page-a-day calendar jokes -- just a few Democratic staffers dressed as congressional pages and one guy in a three-piece gray suit with a sign reading, "IM Me -Maf54."

And for those keeping track, Miss Arkansas was the runaway winner.

Their Love of Art Pays Off

Not so long ago -- only 20 years, in fact -- you had to have megabucks to donate to the National Gallery of Art. Founder Andrew Mellon started the process in 1936 by offering $58 million ($816 million in today's dollars) in art and funds for building costs, and only the very rich followed in his footsteps. In 1986, developer Robert Smith and the late Katharine Graham came up with the idea for the Circle, a group of art lovers (with thinner wallets) who help purchase art by giving just $1,000 a year. Democracy! The group has raised $30 million for the gallery, so the NGA threw open the doors Friday so the 1,000 members could admire "their" paintings -- and for the first time ever, the gallery put a swing band in the West Building for dancing. Get down , NGA!

HEY, ISN'T THAT . . . ?

· Robin Williams , getting too much attention at Cafe Milano on Friday night. The comedian and pals spent two hours in the middle of the dining room, which led to obvious finger-pointing and whispers by fellow diners. (Folks -- at least pretend to be blase.) Williams, in town for a taping of "Real Time with Bill Maher," signed autographs on his way out.

Bill Maher and John Legend, hanging out with friends at IndeBleu on Friday.(Visko Hatfield For HBO)

· Talk show host Maher and John Legend surrounded by adoring women at Friday's post-taping party at IndeBleu. The hunky singer dropped by an overhyped "Evening With John Legend" at Zanzibar but stayed only a short time, disappointing the crowd of fans expecting a concert.

His Lips Are Sealed

Lloyd Grove is out of the professional gossip business, at least for now. Our former colleague, who helmed this column from 1999 to 2003, is leaving the New York Daily News after three years of writing his five-days-a-week column, Lowdown. "Let's make it short and sweet -- and, most of all, unsnarky," Grove wrote in his last column yesterday.

Grove arrived in NYC with great fanfare and a reported $300,000-a-year salary from owner Mort Zuckerman to mud-wrestle with the New York Post's Page Six and other Gotham gossips. He relied on his political contacts in Washington and banned Paris Hilton from the column -- which, in hindsight, may have been a tactical error in the New York tabloid wars.

Grove was coy about his next gig, but we hear he'll stay in New York doing something media-ish.