NAMES & FACES

Royal McMemories

Sarah Ferguson's appearance at a Tenleytown McDonald's yesterday wasn't just for the dozen or so kids assembled for the event. Their mommies were pretty psyched, too.

"I'm shaking, my heart is beating so fast," one mom confessed to another before the Duchess of York arrived to raise awareness of, and money for, the D.C.-area Ronald McDonald House. Ferguson spoke to the gathered (and mostly restless) children, many of them beneficiaries of the Ronald McDonald House, a place where families of hospitalized children can stay for little or no cost. None of them seemed to have any idea who she was.

"Long ago I married a prince," a skirt-suit-wearing Ferguson explained, after greeting the kids. "Did you marry Prince Charming?" one asked.

"Yes, I did," the duchess said. "He was handsome, tall and charming . . . and he had a sword!" She didn't mention her messy and very public divorce from Prince Andrew, fourth in the line of succession for the throne of England, but these kids didn't know any better.

The Weight Watchers spokeswoman handed out "princess" toys and stumped for McDonald's with such lines as "You can get a cheeseburger for a dollar? That's jolly good!" before getting back to the important stuff: Her royal wedding. "My dress was big! It had a train from here to the window," she told one little girl. "It was 50 feet long!" And let's not forget her glass carriage, pulled by six horses. The moms all nodded and murmured their approval.

Another child asked where Fergie's castle was and was told, "Windsor . . . Have your mommy Google it. . . . You know your White House? It's a little bigger than that." Chuckles all around from the adoring adults.

Ferguson headed to Baltimore yesterday afternoon for another Ronald McDonald House charity event. Hmm. Wonder what they discussed?

Noted . . .

· Sanjaya Malakar won't be the only "American Idol" contestant from this season at tonight's White House Correspondents' Association dinner. Mop-topped crooner Chris Sleigh will attend as the guest of the Christian Broadcasting Network.

· Bad joke showdown! John McCain wasn't the first to sing "Bomb, Bomb Iran" to the tune of the Beach Boys' "Barbara Ann." Vince Vance & the Valiants recorded a version during the late-'70s embassy hostage crisis, and the Capitol Steps comedy troupe is touting its own, written and first performed a year ago. And "unlike McCain's version, we actually had lyrics," Steps spokesman Bill Hurd told us yesterday. The senator raised eyebrows earlier this week when he sang the tune and cracked himself up at an event in South Carolina. A video of McCain's impromptu performance is now on YouTube. Naturally.

Spotted . . .

· Bill Paxton bar-hopping from Glover Park's Town Hall to Bush-twin hangout Smith Point on Thursday night. The "Big Love" star, in town for tonight's White House Correspondents' dinner, was surrounded at both bars by fans clamoring to buy him a drink.

-- Korin Miller