Another Politician in the Family?

It must be in the genes.

Barack Obama's half sister Maya Soetoro-Ng got the rock-star treatment -- packed room, cell-cams hoisted above heads -- at the Asia Society's inaugural reception at the St. Regis Saturday and held the spotlight well. Steady gaze, calm resonant voice, nice way with a quip ("Delighted to be in Washington, other than the cold: I'm a bird of the tropics").

And smooth: As the Hawaii-based teacher paid tribute to the Asia Society for helping her find grounding as an "untethered" grad student in NYC in the mid-'90s, a purring ring pulsed through the room.

"I think that's my phone," she said, totally unflustered. The delighted crowd urged her to take the call -- "Barack! Barack!" -- but of course she didn't.

We chased her down as she and film-scholar husband Konrad Ng got ushered out via the kitchen. Any truth to the rumor she's moving here? "I'm not sure," she replied in those mellifluous tones. "It's a beautiful city. I'd love to spend more time here." They could run her for office.

The other big star at a party that drew members of Congress and a dozen ambassadors: Obama's pick to head the Department of Energy, Berkeley physicist Steven Chu. He couldn't talk, society chairman Richard Holbrooke explained, because "the lawyers told him not to."

Chu broke in. As secretary-designate, not yet secretary, "I can't speak about policy -- but I can tell a joke." So how about that time he called his mother, and said " 'Mom, I got the Nobel Prize.'

"She said, 'That's wonderful, Steven. When are you going to come see me?' "

Holbrooke interjected: "I didn't know you were Jewish."

Chu: "My mother called later and said, 'Steven, it's true! My neighbors told me it's true!' "

Staying Cozy With Gayle King

You know, just another Washington night, talking underwear with Oprah's best friend.

Gayle King got off a plane Friday night and beelined to the home of Debra Lee, where Magic Johnson, Judith Jamison and restaurateur B. Smith headlined a BET Honors VIP reception. It was King's first inaugural weekend stop -- she'll broadcast her own XM radio show and join Ms. Winfrey at the Kennedy Center today -- and the Maryland native was already totally jazzed.

"I am so excited to be here!" she told us. "I just don't want to miss a thing. The parties are great, but the only thing I really care about is the swearing-in."

Which is why King was seeking advice on . . . thermal underwear. Three hours in the cold! "I heard Under Armour is supposed to be good," she said. "What do you think?"

Score one for former Maryland Terps football player Kevin Plank, who created the popular athletic gear. A convinced King said she'd go to Montgomery Mall to check it out.

Old D.C. Parties On

Change? Change what? Permanent Washington -- socialites, lobbyists, media folk, sports stars, safe-seaters -- isn't going anywhere, thank you, but it was happy to use the inauguration as cause to party this weekend.

Washington Life's party at the Fairfax Hotel was Permanent D.C. Cool Kids, Dem Division (John Podesta, Kerry Kennedy, Chris Matthews, Hunter Biden), delighted to be back on top. "I haven't seen a group this ready to party," said Nancy Pelosi, with a little sort-of boogie arm-pump, "since Nancy and Soroush's Yosemite wedding!" (That would be the society mags' top dogs, Democratic heiress Nancy Bagley and Clintonite lawyer Soroush Shehabi.) . . . Then onto Cafe Milano, where 500 usual suspects from both sides of the aisle mingled cozily. "A very classy thing to do," GOP money guy Fred Malek said of Obama's dinner honoring John McCain tonight . . . The younger, flashier party people (Redskin Shawn Springs, R&B's Raheem DeVaughn) converged Saturday for cocktails and grinding at Clinton Portis's Union Station fete. "D.C.'s going to party regardless, whether it's an inauguration or a black president," Santana Moss told our colleague Dan Steinberg . . . At a St. Regis ladies' tea hosted yesterday by Ann Walker Marchant, surprise guest Cher (in a teensy black mini) was outshone by former WH social secretary Capricia Marshall, amid rumors she'll be tapped as the new chief of protocol. "That is the rumor," she said with a knowing smile.