The Reliable Source

McPhee Gets Star Treatment, and That's Not Good

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Katharine McPhee unexpectedly got the Hollywood paparazzi treatment during her stop in D.C. Sunday night. After taping TNT's "Christmas in Washington," the "American Idol" runner-up and her fiance, Nick Cokas, had a nasty run-in with two photographers when the tired 23-year-old refused to pose for pictures. The photogs stalked the couple outside Marcel's restaurant -- causing them to leave via the back door -- and then followed them to the Four Seasons.

Things came to a head at the entrance of the luxury hotel, where we're told the two men called McPhee a rude name and taunted her with a warning that footage of the couple would show up on celebrity gossip Web site TMZ.com. Cokas lost his temper and shoved one of the men, according to a witness, and an upset McPhee threw a few very unladylike words their way.

No footage has surfaced of the very un-Washington-like altercation, which means someone: (a) forgot to turn the camera on or (b) is still trying to sell the tape. Stay tuned.

Bono at BWI?! Well, Sort Of.

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We should have figured there was a professional Bono impersonator out there! The FauxBono who drew a crowd and posed for pictures at BWI Monday night was Pavel Sfera , a 42-year-old former property manager turned U2 frontman look-alike. He told us yesterday that for years people noticed his resemblance to the Irish rocker (they've never met); he finally decided to go pro (sunglasses, rosary, guitar, stubble) in 2000. "I make a living -- it's a humble one, but a living," said the Los Angeles-based Sfera, who was in D.C. to schmooze the USO and was trying to get permission to visit troops at Walter Reed.

Oh, and Sfera says he never tries to fool anyone, but half the time, people don't believe him when he says he's not Bono: "It's that willful suspension of disbelief." So he usually doesn't say anything -- just poses for pictures, and signs "Love every day" and "Be happy" when asked for an autograph. "I'm very gracious with people."

'The Walker': Dimming the Lights on Capitol Hill

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Once again, Hollywood has turned its lens on Washington -- so once again we get to chortle over the stuff they get deliciously wrong.

Paul Schrader's "The Walker," opening tomorrow, spent four days filming here in the spring of 2006. In one scene, Woody Harrelson-- as a gay man who works as an escort for society ladies -- walks into the Capitol Hill pub 18th Amendment and finds himself in a dark, throbbing bar scene filled with hot young boy toys.

Kind of ironic considering the real18th Amendment is a well-lit, post-frat kind of hangout. Whereas one of the Hill's premier gay bars, Remingtons, is just a couple doors down Pennsylvania Avenue. So why wasn't it used in the flick? "How tacky is that? We're the biggest boys on the block!" joked owner Steven Smith. "I know our place is prettier than theirs. They have granite, we have mahogany."

LOVE, ETC.

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¿ Expecting: Jessica Alba ,26, and boyfriend Cash Warren ,28, according to a surprise statement from her rep, making Alba possibly the only starlet this year to break the news of her own pregnancy without first enduring months of tabloid "baby-bump" scrutiny. The "Fantastic Four" star and men's-mag fave is due by early summer.

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"Congratulations, Barney and Miss Beazley, on becoming junior park rangers. Well done. As someone born in Edinburgh, Scotland, it's always good to see the Scots doing well."

-- Tony Blair, making a cameo in the Scottish terriers' "Barney Cam VI:Holiday in the National Parks,"the Bushes' annual holiday home movie posted on the White House Web site. The former British PM makes an appearance in a daydream sequence; Jenna, Barbara and country star Alan Jackson also have short speaking parts.