By Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts
Tuesday, November 21, 2006

The longest farewell continued Saturday, when Samia and Huda Farouki hosted a goodbye dinner at the Phillips Collection for Jordanian Ambassador Karim Kawar and his wife, Luma. It was yet another farewell party in a six-month series for the popular diplomatic duo, who've been based in Washington for four years. The parties began in June with a lunch with congressional spouses, followed by dinners hosted by Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), publisher David Bradley, Esther Coopersmith, Catherine Reynolds and British Ambassador Sir David Manning -- to name but a handful.

Too much? "It's been really sweet, actually," Luma Kawar said yesterday -- even Saturday's video tribute, which included a memorable picture of the ambassador in his swimsuit. "You had to use the shot before I lost weight?" he deadpanned to the crowd Saturday night.

The couple aren't cutting off all their ties to the nation's capital: They've started a Washington-based foundation called Bridges of Understanding, which explains Saturday's olive branches on the tables and the fabulous white-chocolate-bridge mousse dessert. Farewells are tough. Especially on the waistline.

Olympic gold medalist Dominique Dawes celebrating her 30th birthday Saturday night at Posh. The Silver Spring gymnast, wearing a leopard-skin dress, joined 20 friends in the restaurant's VIP club for champagne (Veuve Clicquot) and birthday toasts. Then she danced up a storm until closing time.

Mark Lerner marking his 40th bar mitzvah anniversary Saturday with his wife, Judy, father, Ted, and Washington Nationals President Stan Katzen. During the service at Ohr Kodesh Congregation in Chevy Chase, Lerner read the same passages of the Torah that he read 40 years ago.

Adrian Fenty at Rasika on Saturday night. The mayor-elect, his wife and two friends spent two hours at the Indian restaurant eating seekh kebab, palak and avocado chaats and chicken makhani.

Virginia's former governor Mark Warner and senator-elect Jim Webb lunching on crab soup, oyster Cobb salad and rockfish at Indigo Landing yesterday. Both business suit-clad men had pie with blueberries for dessert.

By the way, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes got hitched over the weekend. You heard? Well, turns out the brouhaha at the Italian castle was a sequel: The couple actually married in a civil ceremony in California before flying to Rome because a Scientology wedding is not legally recognized in Italy, reports CBS News.

Things to know: The couple sealed the deal with a three-minute kiss in front of A-list buddies (Will Smith, J-Lo, Posh Spice, Jim Carrey, Redskins owner Dan Snyder and the formerly over-medicated Brooke Shields). Oh, and the leggy Holmes appears to have shrunk a few inches in the wedding portrait and is now a tad shorter than her groom. The honeymoon's in the Maldives.

Enough, already. Time to move on, people.

We've got another Italian wedding to process: Gina Lollobrigida, 79, one of the great bombshells of all time, is finally tying the knot in Rome with her boyfriend of 22 years, Javier Rigau y Rafols, 45. Discuss.

"The ease of movie producing brought about by the accessibility of super high-end editing and media tools has given filmmakers unprecedented resources to create movies overnight. Unfortunately those [expletive]forgot to include a [expletive], [expletive], [expletive] taste filter. I've seen more [expletive] and [expletive] this year than ever before and less [expletive], [expletive] great work than I can remember."

-- Outspoken New York Times film critic Jeannette Catsoulis, during a panel discussion at last weekend's Georgetown/Adams Morgan film and music festival, for which she was former director of programming.