By Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts
Friday, December 7, 2007

Lt. Col. Frank Johnston just wanted to see his 7-year-old daughter, Isabelle, dance in the Washington Ballet's "Nutcracker" -- but what started as a simple request has turned into a holiday broadcast for soldiers around the world.

Isabelle, a second-grader at Ross Elementary, joined the ballet's school this year and is appearing in her first "Nutcracker" as one of 23 mice in Act 1's battle scene. Her dad, who's serving in Iraq, wanted to see his little girl's debut and wrote to the company asking for a video of the performance. "We webcam each other every Sunday morning," said his wife and Izzy's mom, Theresa Minni. "He was thinking I could just stream it through my little laptop. It was meant to be a personal thing."

But ballet officials started thinking bigger: After getting permission from three unions, they looked for ways to transmit the Washington-based version of the ballet to Johnston, a Marine based at the Pentagon who was deployed to Fallujah in July. Now Channel 4 is filming the performance at the Warner Theatre, then giving the footage to cable's Pentagon Channel -- where it will be broadcast three times this month to more than 2 million members of the military.

Isabelle will be introduced to tonight's opening-night audience by Artistic Director Septime Webre, who will explain the reason for the cameras; she'll wear a yellow ribbon on her costume so her everyone (especially her dad) can pick her out onstage.

Father and daughter are both thrilled, said Minni, who will be in the audience with Izzy's aunts and grandmother. "It's very emotional."

Is the true Miss California USA wearing the tiara? Pageant officials crowned a new winner, Miss Barstow Raquel Beezley, yesterday after determining that a ballot-counting error gave the title to the wrong contestant at the Nov. 25 pageant. Pageant officials said the judges' points were accidentally reversed -- an explanation that doesn't satisfy Miss L.A. Christina Silva, who lawyered up after losing the crown. How could this happen? We asked D.C. attorney Jack Young, who led Al Gore ' s2000 Florida recount effort. "Mistakes happen all the time," he said, "from the failure to balance our own checkbook to hand-counting ballots. That's why we have recounts. That's why Miss California-to-be or -- or Miss-California- not-to-be -- is right to ask that system to be scrutinized. No one likes someone who is not the legitimate winner."

Valerie Plame dining at Zola with 15 fans who paid $275 each for the pleasure, as part of the International Spy Museum's semiregular "Dinner With a Spy" program. And what was the former CIA agent (chic as ever in fitted black velvet blazer, white chiffon blouse, black pants) paid for showing up? Top secret, say museum reps.

John Madden getting mobbed by interns outside Nancy Pelosi's office in the Capitol yesterday afternoon. The NFL icon, on the Hill to lobby for diabetes research (he brought along his 6-year-old grandson Sam, who has the illness), was allowed to use the VIP bathroom next to the speaker's office that's off-limits to everyday people.