By Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts
Friday, May 4, 2007

When customers started lingering around her bar to watch "The Sopranos" a while back, Nathans owner Carol Joynt decided to make an occasion of it -- fresh pasta dishes at a discount and a different special every week on " 'Sopranos' Sunday."

And by most accounts a good time was had by all -- until that darn Tom Sietsema had to go and write about it last week in The Washington Post! Yesterday the Georgetown saloon got the word from its cable provider: Comcast was pulling the plug on its HBO feed.

Seems the premium cable channel has a problem with restaurants, bars and other public establishments showing its programs to customers, since it's sort of a disincentive for anyone to, you know, shell out the bucks to hook up the service at home. "As a paid television network, HBO can't be shown in a public forum," said HBO spokesman Jeff Cusson, adding that the company has had to crack down on this kind of situation for years.

Joynt said she had no idea of the policy -- and is furious that she's had to end the promotion midway through the hugely popular show's final season. "What's the harm in letting this little place show the few remaining episodes? It's not like we were pulling in the entire metro area. It was this innocent, customer-driven fan event."

"Sopranos" night drew in perhaps 30 more customers than a typical Sunday. "We were not making enough money to cover our HBO costs," she said. "It just seemed like a nice way to say goodbye to Tony."

She added: "God forbid next week ESPN shows up and says you can't show sports. That will put saloons out of business."

• Ted Turner having dinner Wednesday night at his own Ted's Montana Grill in Crystal City. The maverick billionaire (with an unidentified woman) wore a navy suit and a buffalo pin, but no word what he ate or why he was in town.

• After making the roster for its first three years, President Bush got bumped from Time magazine's latest list of "100 most influential people in the world." "While it's true that any President has a certain amount of built-in power . . . we felt that he has lost much of the influence he once had," explains Deputy Managing Editor Adi Ignatius. The fourth annual honor roll, which hits newsstands today, includes Nancy Pelosi, Condoleezza Rice, Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Roberts, David Petraeus and Elizabeth Edwards.
• Britney Spears gyrated and chomped her way through the second leg of her mini-comeback tour Wednesday night wearing a long brown wig, bikini top, miniskirt and go-go boots. Spears performed five songs during her 12-minute set at Anaheim's House of Blues -- and yes, she can still chew gum and lip-sync at the same time.
• Scenes from local filmmaker Aviva Kempner's "Yoo-hoo, Mrs. Goldberg" will get an artsy showcase Sunday at New York's Museum of Modern Art. The unfinished documentary examines the life of radio pioneer Gertrude Berg, a star of the airwaves in the '30 and '40s.

"First things first: Howdy! . . . It is a nice way to begin a speech. In Washington, most of my public remarks tend to begin with someone asking me to raise my right hand -- and then asking if I'm actually going to tell the truth. . . . Of course, it's a pleasure to be anywhere but Washington, D.C."

-- Secretary of Defense Robert Gates yesterday at a Greater Dallas Chamber luncheon, reports our colleague Bill Brubaker. (Was it something we said, Bob?)