By Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts
Tuesday, May 8, 2007

An old familiar face resurfaced at the White House state dinner for Queen Elizabeth II last night: Jay Blount, college sweetheart of Barbara Bush.

It was the first time in more than two years the dark-haired twin, 25, had stepped out in an official setting with the Alexandria native -- or really, with anyone -- leaving those who study Bush daughter dating patterns with woefully little intel. Blount was last seen with the Bush family at Easter 2005, when he joined the clan in Texas. By some accounts, he and Barbara parted ways more than a year ago. But in recent months there have been reported sightings of the two in and around New York, where she works for the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.

Tell us more about this Blount fellow, you say? He rowed crew and was president of the student body at T.C. Williams before moving on to become a BMOC at Yale -- founding a fraternity, playing in a band and getting named one of the campus's "50 Most Beautiful." (In the campus mag Rumpus, he described himself as a "charismatic showman sent to bring balance back to earth.") Graduating a year after Barbara in '05, he enrolled in Yale's graduate business program but did not stay with the class, instead joining Casey, Quirk & Associates, an investment management consulting firm in Darien, Conn. His bio with the firm also describes stints with National Geographic Travel magazine and an internship with Denny Hastert.

So are they boyfriend-girlfriend? Or just friends? Or friends with white-tie benefits? Blount, reached by phone yesterday afternoon, declined to comment.

• Jamie Foxx making up for lost time at Love nightclub Saturday. The actor-singer, who had to bail on a planned after-party there in March when he called in sick to a Constitution Hall concert that same night, dropped by after his rescheduled show this weekend. He spent the first part of the evening hiding out in a VIP room with 30 pals to watch the Mayweather-De La Hoya fight, then emerged (wearing red T-shirt with sparkly skull image and jeans) to rock the mike from the second-floor stage, leading call-and-responses and crooning some lyrics over his songs and others. Then the star worked the bars, popping a couple of dozen bottles of Moet (why, yes, that is his sponsor!) for the ladies, and a contractually obligated good time was had by all.
• Tim Kaine dining with his parents Sunday on the patio of the Wharf restaurant in Old Town Alexandria. The Virginia governor's meal (cashew-crusted mahi-mahi) was interrupted several times by passersby wanting to shake his hand and schmooze, but hey -- hazard of the job.

• Paris Hilton, due to start serving 45 days in jail next month for violating the terms of her probation, fired her publicist Sunday for giving her bad legal advice. Let that sink in for a second: fired her publicist for giving bad legal advice. The starlet-heiress claims Elliot Mintz told her it was okay to drive on her suspended license for "work-related" purposes, leading to a judge's jail order. In an interview for the new issue of Harper's Bazaar, given before her latest mishap, Hilton claims she is unfairly targeted by cops: "They'll just pull me over to hit on me."
• Ty Pennington, the carpenter-host of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," was arrested in Los Angeles early Saturday on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs, the Web site TMZ reported.

"Why do actors think their opinions mean more because you act? You just caught a break. . . . There are hundreds -- thousands -- of actors who are just as good as I am, and probably better. Have you heard anything useful come out of an actor's mouth lately?"

-- Bruce Willis in an interview in the June issue of Vanity Fair. The actor goes on to call for better medical care for veterans, decry lobbyists as "thieves," and speculate that JFK's killer is still out there somewhere.