Correspondents' Dinner Guests Who Had Tongues Wagging

2005 -- Patriots QB Tom Brady

2006 -- George Clooney

2007 -- Sanjaya Malakar

Let the White House Correspondents' Festivities Begin. Wait, They've Already Started.

Like weddings these days, the White House Correspondents' Association dinner has morphed into a three-day affair -- from Friday receptions for the favored out-of-towners, to the actual event Saturday, followed by Sunday hangover brunches (John McLaughlin hosts the most prominent).

At People magazine's Friday cocktail party at Indebleu, journalists and staffers sidled up to "Project Runway" eminence Tim Gunn and "High School Musical" star Zac Efron, the first of People's zeitgeisty guests to land in D.C. (Sanjaya was not expected until yesterday; Valerie Bertinelli was stuck on jury duty in L.A.) Efron wore Beatle bangs and a skinny tie. Adorable. How old is he? "Nineteen," People's bureau chief Sandra Sobieraj Westfall said quickly. "That's a virgin mojito. I got it for him."

Across town at the Park Hyatt, a couple hundred semi-drunk political and business types vied for a seat at the Creative Coalition's "celebrity invitational" poker tournament and a moment or two with Hollywood eye candy such as actress Kerry Washington ("I Think I Love My Wife"). Tim Daly ("Wings," "The Sopranos"), the last actor eliminated in the four-hour game, divulged his mishap at a White House luncheon the day before: "My fly broke." Really? A smitten fan interrupted: "That's Tim Daly. He's my future ex-husband."

Yesterday, the crowds jammed a narrow street in the Palisades for the annual power brunch co-hosted by MSNBC producer Tammy Haddad and lobbyist-turned-entrepreneur Hilary Rosen. "Go meet Tiki Barber -- he's adorable," Haddad said, waving to some place under the vast tent in her back yard, where 300-plus guests gulped mimosas and tenderloin: Morgan Fairchild, in gold lamé and heels, chatting up Chris Matthews, in a baseball hat and jeans; Norah O'Donnell showing off her hugely pregnant tummy to another mom-to-be. "I thought I was being invited to a little backyard party," Ann Curry of NBC's "Today" show told us. "I had no idea. I have to say I'm overstimulated and confused."