Banking on Holiday Cheer

By Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts
Monday, December 3, 2007

After a one-year hiatus -- and a whole lot of water under the bridge since then -- the World Bank is bringing back the office Christmas party.

Last year, bank leadership, under then-President Paul Wolfowitz, pulled the plug on holiday festivities, or at least strongly nudged divisions to do so, arguing that such revelry was inappropriate and wasteful at an organization devoted to fighting world poverty. Staffers were encouraged to volunteer or otherwise devote the money to good causes. Explained one bank source: "It wasn't Grinch-like." Still, many employees groused that the parties had been a rare chance to socialize with colleagues.

But Wolfowitz stepped down last spring after allegations that he engineered a hefty pay raise for girlfriend Shaha Riza. And now, signs of the season are reappearing at the bank, with most units starting to organize parties. Stand back -- those Development of Capital and Risk Markets staffers are wild things!

SORRY, YOU'RE NOT ON THE LIST

One in an occasional series of dispatches from parties you should have crashed.

Event: Saturday's "Hope for Home" fundraiser benefiting New Orleans entertainers whose lives were disrupted by Katrina.

Site: Chevy Chase home of Eric and Sharapat Kessler.

Sponsor: Artists-rights advocates Future of Music Coalition.

Draw: Just a casual little backyard shindig with live music by REM's Mike Mills.

Did he sing "Don't Go Back to Rockville"?: Duh!

Headliner: Al Johnson, blues pianist and singer, also one of the night's beneficiaries (he lost his home to the hurricane), who performed "Blueberry Hill," "The Twist" and his own "Carnival Time," a Mardi Gras tradition.

Moment: Johnson stopped midway through his song about the Ninth Ward, visibly choked up. "I'm sorry, I can't do this."

Cost: $200 a person.

Amount raised: $30,000.

Bar: Open!

Food: Shrimp and grits served in martini glasses; crab beignets; the best bread pudding ever.

Quirkiest silent auction item: Drumhead signed by members of My Morning Jacket.

QUOTE

"I was asked how we can get politicians to stop speaking in sound bites and level with people, and [responded] 'I suggest you bar the press.' Apparently, that didn't go over too well. . . . [National Press Club prez] Jerry Zremski asked, 'Has Dean read the First Amendment?' Well, Jerry, I have . . . and you can keep your guns. Fox News said, 'Stalin thought he was right when he did the same thing.' That was painful. . . . If anybody knows about Joseph Stalin's tactics, it would be the people at Fox News. . . . How is it that this dinner is called off the record? [A reporter] explained it to me this way: Off the record means you can't write about it for Sunday, you have to wait until Monday. . . . Seriously, though . . ."

-- Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean razzing his journalist hosts at Saturday's Gridiron Club dinner. Ba-dum-bum.

HEY, ISN'T THAT . . . ?

Jordin Sparks shoe shopping at the Pentagon City Nordstrom on Friday afternoon. The "American Idol" champ (here for the KenCen Honors) looked like a regular teen in jeans, a ponytail, a newsboy cap; sat hugging her new black boots (size 11!) and chatting with staff while she waited for her mom to find fancy-dress shoes.

Antonella Barba belting out tunes ("Ordinary People," "Silent Night," an a cappella "Amazing Grace") amid the whir of hair dryers at the Andre Chreky Salon Saturday during its annual charity "salon-a-thon." The "American Idol" also-ran, now back to normal life as a Catholic University undergrad, looked tiny in gray jeans, red tee, brown stilettos; stayed for a haircut and facial.

Hank Paulson and wife Wendy shopping at the Georgetown Whole Foods on Saturday. The Treasury secretary wore jeans, running shoes, an outdoorsy jacket; toted a bunch of those reusable canvas shopping bags.