By Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts
Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Who knew official Washington was so eager to find its inner bliss? Or that it harbored a yearning for gentle '60s folk-rock? When Hungarian Ambassador Andras Simonyi planned a dinner for director David Lynch and Scottish singer Donovan -- both here to lecture at the Kennedy Center on the benefits of meditation -- he anticipated an intimate affair.

"The smaller embassies, you send out 90 invitations, you get 30," he mused Saturday night, looking out at a seated crowd so big it had to be moved from his home to the embassy. "We sent out invitations, and we kept getting 'yes.' "

About 60 guests (including Tony Lake, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and GWU prez Stephen Trachtenberg listened to the auteur of dark visions like "Blue Velvet" and "Mulholland Drive" explain how transcendental meditation has changed his life and why it should be taught in schools.

"We grow in happiness. Creativity starts to flow," said the surprisingly earnest Lynch (a little like Kyle MacLachlan as Agent Dale Cooper in Lynch's '90s series "Twin Peaks"). "You're getting out of bed looking forward to the doing of the thing. A job that's boring becomes more exciting." He also threw in mentions of quantum physics, unified fields, prefrontal cortices and something about "water the root, and enjoy the fruit." Hey, sounds good.

Donovan, who has joined Lynch on his TM tour (last week, Lincoln Center; this week, LA's Kodak Theatre), was praised by Simonyi for pioneering the kind of rock that "caused the Iron Curtain to fall." The singer, in turn, invited the ambassador -- a guitarist with D.C. diplomat band Coalition of the Willing -- onstage to join him for his old hit "Colours."

You know, the one that goes "Yellow is the color of my true love's hair"? Except that the second verse, as delivered by the Hungarian, went something like this: K ék az ég mikor ébredek / a reggel ha felkelek. Come on, everyone, sing along!

How much does Martin O'Malley love the Saw Doctors? So much that Maryland's governor-elect broke into song last week while talking about the Irish rockers performing at tonight's inaugural ball in Baltimore.

"Oh the green and red of Mayo, I can see it still," O'Malley's tenor voice crooned into the ears of our colleague Lisa Rein. "Its soft and craggy boglands, its tall majestic hills . . . "

O'Malley first saw the group ("Irish folk meets the Beatles") nine years ago in New York, then met them a few years later in Washington at the 9:30 club. Turns out the band got its start in his ancestral home in County Galway and knew the rural crossroads where O'Malley's great-grandfather lived.

His own band, O'Malley's March, has warmed up for the Saw Doctors a few times, but the guv-elect said he had no plans to perform at the inaugural bash . . . then again, he could be coaxed onstage. "I don't want to be presumptuous," he said. "If they ask me to, I will."

* Naomi Campbell pleaded guilty in a New York court yesterday to misdemeanor assault charges for hitting her then-housekeeper with a cellphone. The temperamental supermodel admitted she threw the phone at Ana Scolavino last March but said she didn't mean to hit her. Campbell was sentenced to five days of community service and two days of anger management, and must pay a $363.32 medical bill -- which she earns in about 20 seconds on the catwalk.

* Keith Urban is out of rehab and out on the town: The Aussie singer and his bride, Nicole Kidman, were spotted at a Golden Globes after-party in L.A. Monday night.

* Paula Abdul's rep says she was "absolutely not" drunk or on drugs during last week's live interview with a Seattle television station. The "American Idol" judge told Jay Leno Monday night that an "audio snafu" caused her odd responses because she was giving two simultaneous interviews. Happens all the time!

* Impersonator Rich Little has been tapped for April's White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, reports the Examiner. Last year the press organization went for the edgy humor of Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert; past headliners include Jon Stewart, Darrell Hammond, Jay Leno, Cedric the Entertainer, Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien. This year the WHCA went for the edgy humor of 1984, the last time Little, now 68, performed at the event.