A Flock of Frocks and One Weepy Warbler

By Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts
Tuesday, December 5, 2006

Can we just start the evening over? Come back out, do it all over again but this time, you know, differently ?

So it went at the Kennedy Center Honors on Sunday, not just for Jessica Simpson -- who broke down onstage over some imperceptible flaw in her tribute to Dolly Parton -- but also for Laura Bush, who mysteriously changed dresses right before the gala.

Why? Turns out that earlier in the evening, the first lady walked into the super-exclusive White House reception for the honorees, wearing the exact same red Oscar de la Renta embroidered tulle jacket and floor-length trumpet skirt as three other party guests, including local philanthropist Vicki Sant.

"Evidently Oscar is very popular this season," press secretary Susan Whitson said of the $8,400 ensemble from the designer's fall 2006 collection. "It just goes to show that no one can resist a beautiful red gown."

The first couple laughed about it. "But she didn't want her guests to feel uncomfortable," Whitson said, so FLOTUS dashed upstairs and slipped into a black lace gown before heading to the KenCen.

It was harder to figure out what was going on with Simpson. The 26-year-old pop starlet kept one arm clutched to her midsection while singing "9 to 5." At the end, she blurted, "Dolly, you make me so nervous, I can't even sing the words right," then scuttled awkwardly off the stage.

Witnesses told us she was a wreck before she went on, weeping while the video tribute to Parton played and pacing anxiously during performances by Carrie Underwood, Kenny Rogers, Alison Krauss and Shania Twain.

"She was overcome with emotion performing the song for Dolly because she has idolized Dolly Parton her entire life and she wanted the song to be perfect," her publicist Cindi Berger said yesterday. "When it wasn't, she was upset with herself."

We didn't hear any mistakes. Said Berger: "She did."

Producer George Stevens told us, "She was very upset, so we said, 'Would you like to have another shot at it?' " Simpson then redid the song for the TV cameras (the show will air on CBS Dec. 26) once the audience had left the Opera House.

But it was all smiles and hugs in the Grand Foyer, as the stars filtered out to be seated for dinner. "What a photo op!" Parton exclaimed. There she was with Simpson, Twain, Krauss, Reese Witherspoon and Reba McEntire, arms wrapped around each other in a Country Girl Power lineup for every digicam and Nokia in the vicinity.

"Everybody, look this way now!" chirped McEntire.

Then Simpson -- after a quick hello with chum Ken Mehlman (who knew?) -- was outta there, showing us the laced-up back of her black dress as she hightailed it down the Hall of Nations. All that was left was the memory, and the photo that Bob Schieffer had captured of himself with her in his digital camera, which he was proudly showing to Karl Rove.

Witherspoon, radiant in a sparkly slip dress, lasted only a few minutes longer. "I have to catch a plane," she was telling a friend. "Gotta get back to my kids."

Fine -- lots of other folks to see. Like Smokey Robinson posing for pics with childhood pal Aretha Franklin, who snagged a seat next to his at dinner . . . And another A-list traffic jam over by Steven Spielberg's table, though once we drew closer we saw the mob was swarming Tom Hanks, while the director ate quietly with wife Kate Capshaw, in her glamorous sideswept bangs. Hanks later took a seat and chatted animatedly with John Williams. Two matrons approached timidly. "Not while they're eating," warned a buzz-cut bodyguard. At a quieter table, Andrew Lloyd Webber talked to the willowy redhead sitting between him and young crooner Josh Groban.

Curvaceous in black lace, Fran Drescher (yes, "The Nanny") was there with Patrick Kennedy, though not with him -- meaning she was his date, but it wasn't a date date . . . And Joan Collins (she's still here!) with grandly oversize frilly white collar and cuffs.

We found McEntire and husband Narvel Blackstock sitting all alone at a table for 12. "Dolly had to leave," McEntire explained. "She's real tired." (Pronounced "tarred.") Seems it's a lot of work schmoozing with all those people. "She had to get back on the bus and leave to go home."

Doesn't a Kennedy Center Honoree get a private jet? "She sleeps better on her bus," McEntire said.

Well after midnight, Spielberg headed toward the door. "We're going back to the hotel," he said, leaning down to kiss his mother, Leah Adler, "but you can stay here. Party on, Mom."

LOVE, ETC.

Engaged: Capital City Symphony violinist Kara Breissinger, 27, to boyfriend Brandon Snesko, 26, after he surprised her with an onstage proposal. The private investigator popped the question (after getting an okay from the conductor and the board) before a full house at the end of Sunday's performance at the new Atlas Theater. "I wanted to do something that would be memorable," he said. The Capitol Hill couple plan a 2008 wedding.

Split: Former 'N Sync star Lance Bass, 27, and reality-TV vet Reichen Lehmkuhl, 32, the singer's rep told People magazine, after a months-long relationship that nudged Bass to publicly declare he's gay.

HEY, ISN'T THAT . . . ?

Dave Chappelle, crashing a holiday office party at the Washington Marriott thrown by newsletter publisher Bureau of National Affairs. The enigmatic comic, in jeans and black sweater, wandered around the buffet a bit but never ate, and got shy when fans approached. What the heck? Turns out the D.C. native was in town Saturday to see pal Paul Mooney's show at the Lincoln Theatre but went to the BNA shindig because he's friends with Frederic Yonnet, the jazz harmonicist who was hired to play.