By Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts
Thursday, January 31, 2008

The show will go on, but without another star: Yesterday Charles S. Dutton dropped out of the Kennedy Center's August Wilson tribute this spring -- the second big name to leave the 10-play retrospective.

The KenCen landed an impressive list of stage vets -- led by Dutton and Phylicia Rashad -- to perform staged readings of the late playwright's chronicle of African American life in the 20th century. But Rashad, slated to star in "Fences" with Dutton, as well as in "Gem of the Ocean," left to play Big Mama in next month's Broadway production of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (directed by li'l sis Debbie Allen and starring James Earl Jones, Terrence Howard and Anika Noni Rose).

Dutton, who made his Broadway debut in Wilson's "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" more than 20 years ago, informed the center yesterday -- about six weeks before his show begins -- he was giving up his starring role in the sold-out "Fences," Wilson's best-known play. His manager says the Maryland native landed a part in a undisclosed movie that begins filming shortly.

Michele Shay is taking Rashad's "Fences" role; the search is on to fill Dutton's shoes.

Splitting: conductor Leonard Slatkin and his wife, soprano Linda Hohenfeld, friends tell us. The NSO's music director, who steps down in June after 11 years in D.C., married his third wife in 1986; the marriage survived Slatkin's embarrassing dalliance with Scottish percussionist Evelyn Glennie, disclosed in 2003. Slatkin and Hohenfeld have one teenage son.

Engaged: Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) to Irene Hirano, president of the Japanese American National Museum in L.A. The 83-year-old Democrat, the Senate's No. 3 in seniority, lost his wife of 60 years, Margaret, to colon cancer in 2006. Hirano, 59, who is divorced, is a longtime friend -- she has donated to his campaigns, and he sits on her museum's board. They plan a small, private wedding on May 24 in L.A.

Expecting again? Angelina Jolie, 32, and Brad Pitt, 44, at least according to a "close source" cited by Us Weekly, which elevates the increasing baby-bump buzz out of the realm of tabloid rumor. People mag still hasn't touched it, though, so we'll give it a 90 percent chance of being true. The couple have four children (Maddox, Pax, Zahara and Shiloh), as you may have heard.

Wayne Newton at the Georgetown Ritz-Carlton, putting his 5-year-old daughter on the "Dancing With the Stars" tour bus before last night's Verizon Center show. Mr. Las Vegas wore black shirt, black coat, black pants, black Ugg-like boots, a Burberry scarf and a whole lotta cologne. Nearby: Marie Osmond with a passel of her kids, Joey Lawrence in a goatee and cap.

Bob Schieffer says he'll retire after 18 years of anchoring "Face the Nation" in January, when the next president is sworn in. The veteran CBS political correspondent, 70, hopes to keep a desk at the network and contribute occasional stories after that.

Nine legendary leading ladies donated their showbiz artifacts to the Smithsonian this week in an L.A. ceremony. Among the items to be added to the permanent collection: Tippi Hedren's "The Birds" script, Florence Henderson's People's Choice Award, Angela Lansbury's "Mame" costume, Julie Newmar's Catwoman suit and -- wait for it -- Carol Channing's "Hello, Dolly!" dress. Campy enough for you? Also stuff from Esther Williams, Phyllis Diller, Rose Marie and June Lockhart.

"Obama's campaign has been extraordinary and titillating for me and my family."

-- Jimmy Carter in an interview with the Wall Street Journal in which he lavished praise on the Illinois senator but stopped short of an endorsement.