All Eyes on Obama Insiders

K ennedy Centers Honors weekend is all about rubbernecking and schmoozing big stars, and this year was no different -- except that many of the stars were new Obama insiders.

Yesterday's brunch at the Mandarin Oriental hotel, hosted by George and Liz Stevens, is traditionally a informal meet-and-greet for Washington VIPs and the awardees. "Where's George Jones?" asked lobbyist and fan Jim Free. "Other than me, he's the biggest rascal to come out of Nashville."

But Jones, Twyla Tharp and the Who's Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey didn't linger long; Barbra Streisand and Morgan Freeman never made it to the brunch. So the crowd -- Nancy Pelosi, Madeleine Albright, Glenn Close, Ethel Kennedy, Michael York, Itzhak Perlman, Alan Greenspan -- descended on such new-administration darlings as Attorney General-designate Eric Holder and wife Sharon Malone, and incoming OMB director (and bachelor) Peter Orszag.

Topics A, B and C? Hot inauguration parties. "No one is talking about Christmas or New Year's Eve," BET's Debra Lee said. "People just want to know what's going on inaugural week."

Lee got a jump-start on A-list festivities by hosting Saturday's late-night party at her home for Obama pals Valerie Jarrett and Desiree Rogers, Queen Latifah, Quincy Jones, Ne-Yo, Gwen Ifill, and Vernon and Ann Jordan; across town, BET network founder Bob Johnson threw an exclusive bash for Freeman at Cafe Milano with Colin Powell, Bill and Janet Cohen, and Ann Walker Marchant.

Pace yourselves, people! We've still got six weeks to go.

Karim Chrobog's Delightful Dilemma

Don't you just hate when this happens: You have to miss your own movie premiere -- because you have to go accept a big award that the movie just won?

Such was Karim Chrobog's inconvenience on Friday. His documentary "War Child" -- the story of Emmanuel Jal, a Sudanese child soldier turned London hip-hop star -- won a prize from the International Documentary Association, forcing him to abandon his opening-night party in D.C. to mingle with the likes of Werner Herzog and Morgan Spurlock at the L.A. ceremony.

"I would have loved to be in D.C. with my friends and family," Chrobog, 30, told us by phone from California on Friday, "but it's nice to be here."

The award was for best use of news footage in a documentary; Chrobog managed to find an obscure French news program that had captured Jal at age 7 in a refugee camp. "War Child" picked up a clutch of other laurels on the festival circuit but still faces an uphill battle finding audiences; good ticket sales in its one-week showing at E Street Cinema could help it get a national release, but "the market is really tough now," said Chrobog, who is working on getting the doc shown at colleges and other schools.

The name may sound familiar: Chrobog is the son of former German ambassador to the United States Jürgen Chrobog; the Chrobogs, including Karim's mother and two brothers, were abducted and held hostage in Yemen for several days in late 2005. "One of those crazy life experiences," he says now. "It gave us an insight into a culture no one knows about -- the Bedouin life and culture, which is dying out." Fodder for a future documentary? Possibly, he says.

Washington Life Gets an Obama Bump

Obama fever is big business for Washington Life magazine, that glossy chronicle of the D.C. social scene. The new inauguration issue, below, with an original cover by Shepard Fairey (he's the artist who created the iconic Obama "Hope" poster) and a guide to the city's new insiders, will be carried in Borders and Barnes & Noble bookstores nationwide. It's the first time in the magazine's 17-year history that it will be on sale all over the country (which will continue in future months, too).

UPDATE

You can't make friends with Ted Leonsis anymore -- at least not on Facebook. The Caps owner last week added his 5,001st "friend," seemingly breaching the social network's longstanding 5K limit. By Friday, anyone trying to connect with Leonsis got an automated rejection: "He has too many friends." Facebook reps confirmed that the limit still stands. Why? "Facebook is based on real-world connections," spokeswoman Malorie Lucich wrote us, "and users are encouraged to include real friends." (Couldn't bear to ask Leonsis how many of his friends are "real.")