The Reliable Source
Gossip From Washington and Beyond

Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, April 5, 2006 12:00 PM

The Reliable Source is back, under the stewardship of Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts . Appearing in the Style section on Tuesdays through Fridays and Sundays, The Reliable Source brings you gossip from across the region and around the world -- candid looks at the lives and loves and hijinks of all your favorite bold-faced names, be they congressmen or millionaires,ballplayers or newsbabes, nightlife divas or master thespians, DJs or gadflies, has-beens or will-bes.

Argetsinger and Roberts are online each Wednesday at Noon ET to discuss your favorite gossip, what you thought about their recent columns or who you want to see them writing about in future ones.

Columns:

He'll Give You Pickett's Charge and Take Visa (Post, April 5)

Paul Weitz, Voted Off the Show? (Post, April 4)

More Ado About the Do (Post, March 31)

Argetsinger is a veteran of all leafy-green, protein-rich sections like Metro and National while Roberts brought you the champagne and bon-bons of Style's society beat.

A transcript follows.

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Amy Argetsinger: Good morning everyone! This week we learned that the suits at Fox may be worried about a new movie that parodies "American Idol," that Wilson Pickett's Ashburn manse may fetch $1 million, that Dave Chappelle likes to (tinkle? twinkle?) the ivories the relax, and that you should never, ever forget to wear your Congressional pin or hijinx may ensue. What else? You tell me! Looking forward to your questions...

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Washington, D.C.: So do any of our favorite celebs enjoy partaking in Dance Dance Revolution in their free time?

How about you ladies?

Amy Argetsinger: I would sure love to know if they do! Any interesting Dance Dance Revolution sightings out there? Where does anyone go to do that anyway? I've watched people do it, but I've never tried -- looks like there'd be a lot of ankle-breaking potential.

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Arlington, Va.: Hi Everyone!So I have a query. The other night I was driving down Lee Hwy, near Kirkwood, and I saw a very dark sedan. The windows were all tinted and everything. And I noticed the license plate said "Senate 2." Does anyone know who's car that would be? Btw, they were VA plates. Thanks.

Amy Argetsinger: Anyone? Though, of course, if someone provides the answer, we probably won't go and post it, not-being-able-to-confirm and privacy concerns, natch...

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Washington, D.C.: Is Katie Couric really going to be anchor on CBS? Everytime Lara Logan or Trish Regan does a story, Couric is going to come off looking like an aging lightweight.

Amy Argetsinger: Oh, meow! But yes, she is really going to be an anchor on CBS, said so herself today.

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Bethesda, Md.: I heard this morning on my way in about the Katie Couric move to the CBS anchor chair ??

Is she still dating a guy from Washington who's like 8 years younger ? I saw them in People Mag together. Interesting....

Amy Argetsinger: We hadn't heard much of Katie Couric and Jimmy Reyes (first photographed in the National Enquirer last fall as "Katie's mystery man," and then identified in our column as being her D.C. beer-distributor beau)... but then the NY tabs mentioned a week or two ago that they may still be keeping company.

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Winchester, Va.: I hear the Bush twins ran in the Monument Ave. 10K in Richmond over the weekend. Did anyone see them? Would love to know details - like, what do their Secret Service Agents wear to run with them?

washingtonpost.com: He'll Give You Pickett's Charge and Take Visa (Post, April 5)

Roxanne Roberts: The security folks were in running clothes and blended right in, so no one really noticed them. The thing that surprises me is that no one really recognized the twins. I could understand if one or the other ran alone, but I would have thought the two together would jog some glimmer of recognition. Any chatter there?

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Washington DC: Wait Wait on NPR: Roxannne:

Why are the tickets so expensive for the live Wait Wait Don't Tell me at Lisner next month? How much of that do you get?

would love to attend but can't afford it.

so much for "public" radio

Roxanne Roberts: We don't get a penny of it---the show is a fundraiser for WAMU. Maybe the station is giving away tickets? Then there's always my favorite trick: Standing in front the night of the show and begging....

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New Today host : A well informed(in the media business) classmate from college told me the first great love of my life and fellow alum has a great shot at landing the Today job; Soledad O'Brien.

Amy Argetsinger: Ah, sorry... the latest news is that it's almost certain Meredith Vieira will take the job...

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Pittsburgh, Pa.: So now the rumor is that Oprah Winfrey is planning on hosting the Aniston/Vaughn nuptials in the amount of 8 mil? This I don't believe, but it was interesting that when Ms. Aniston was asked about this, she clammed up and her buddy, Catherine Keener had to come to her rescue. Of course, Ms. Aniston had just said that she didn't want to talk about anything but the movie she is promoting (Friends with Money). But she had to know that someone would ask her anyway.

Now, I wouldn't be surprised if Oprah let Aniston use her Mondecito mansion for a wedding (God knows there would be enough space, and Oprah had made it clear that she's on "Team Aniston"), but I can't imagine anyone spending 8 mil for such an event.

Well, it would be ironic if Aniston beat Pitt to the altar, wouldn't it?

Amy Argetsinger: Apparently this came up on the Today show -- their entertainment reporter asked Aniston about the "rumor" that Oprah was going to throw her an $8 million wedding... It all sounds a little absurd. The new fashion in celebrity weddings is to do these things very low-key.

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Umm: You call yourselves the Reliable Source, yet you never seem to have too many answers. How reliable is that?

Amy Argetsinger: Hello there Umm (what a name!) and thanks for writing!

There seems to be some confusion about the nature of these live chats. Roxanne and I were hired to deliver news to readers in the form of our five-day-a-week column that appears on page 3 of the Style section. These live chats are an informal sideline that allow us to engage with readers and take their questions and ideas.

If you don't know much about the nature of reporting, then it's important to realize that every story, every item you see in the paper is the result of hours (if not days or weeks) of reporting. We get some great questions in these chats, but as with the items we report and write, we can't simply pull the information out of thin air.

That's ONE reason why you won't see fresh, breaking news or answers to all questions (though we do provide a lot) in these one-hour chats -- because we have mere seconds to turn around a responses that you chatters want to see right away, with no time to get on the phone and report things out the way we do for the items you see in the newspaper. Yet since these informal chats are coming out under our names and under the brand of The Washington Post, we also have to be very careful not to pass on bad information that would spread unconfirmable rumors.

The other reason, of course, that you won't see a lot of fresh, breaking news in these chats is because we want you to read the newspaper...

Roxanne Roberts: Fact is we're just too darn reliable, and can't engage in the delicious but oft wrong "Did you hear..." items the tabloids love. But you can trust that whatever we write is, umm.....factual.

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Washington,D.C.: Here's the thing about McKinney: Between the House and Senate there are over 500 congresspeople! I can't imagine that every single guard is able to know them all by sight! Especially when, frankly, they spend as little time in DC as possible...

Amy Argetsinger: Good point.

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Cynthia McKinney: How can a security guard grabbing you by the arm be labeled as inappropriate touching? Where else should he have grabbed her? Or is it that he shouldn't have touched her at all? From the sounds of things his verbal attempts to stop her failed, so what else was he supposed to do?

I'm so tired of congresspeople (regardless of race or sex) thinking that they are above it all. As we all know, any Tom, Dick, Harry, car salesman or former athlete can get elected, it's not like they are special...sheesh....

Amy Argetsinger: Apparently the Capitol Police are tired of it too, seeing as how they're pursuing this matter...

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Washington, D.C.: I'm still fairly new in the area, but is it true that 30 years ago The Washington Post gave WHUR to Howard University as a $1 gift, to be used to educate and inform the community? If this is true, I would find it odd that their local show was replaced by the silliness of the Steve Harvey morning show. Doesn't this renig on the idea of local, community programming?

Amy Argetsinger: Actually, it is true about the Post donating its FM radio outlet to Howard.... Lots of bad feelings out there about the switch to Steve Harvey, more comments on the way...

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More on Katie Couric: Now that Ms. Perky is in the spotlight again, we should remind everyone that she is an Arlington hometown girl! Jamestown Elementary School celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, and in a yearbook montage of past Jamestown moments, there was young Katie giving a check to a Salvation Army captain -- money raised by the students to buy Thanksgiving turkeys for the disadvantaged. And why was Katie Couric the one presenting the check? Because she was Student Council President. Of course.

Roxanne Roberts: Of course! Katie has had a remarkable career, and its been interesting to watch. Now for the interesting part: 1)Will you watch CBS News to see her, 2)Who will replace her and 3)Who SHOULD replace her?

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Washington, D.C.: There's video floating around of Britney's man Kevin playing DDR against a Dallas DJ. It looks (I hope) like it's his first time doing it.

Amy Argetsinger: So I take it Kevin didn't win? And he's a professional dancer!

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Maryland: My goodness, where's the grammar police?! Amy, you stated in your intro "the ivories the relax" and it should have read "the ivories to relax".

Amy Argetsinger: Maryland, thank you for graciously setting the record straight there. I am terribly embarrassed. I demand that washingtonpost.com hire us a fleet of simultaneous copy editors to clean up these errors as we shoot them out into the ether!

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Washington, D.C.: Is Edward Norton in town? Any sightings? I love him!

Amy Argetsinger: He was here on Monday, but no one's shot us any sightings thus far. Not too late, though! Send them to reliablesource@washpost.com

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Katie's Elephant Baby: Shouldn't Katie have had the baby by now? It's her first child, she was showing back in October and she's still pregnant in April. It's very nice timing if she gives birth at the end of this month, just in time for Tom to do press for his latest movie. Some of the conspiracy theories about her pregnancy are out there but everything about Tom and Katie just seems strange.

And are movie/TV execs ever going to tell all of these teen stars to keep their drunk photos off the Internet? Sure, we were all teenagers once, but I could have lived without seeing the girl from Harry Potter knocking back Coronas.

Roxanne Roberts: I'm counting on my fingers and .... yup, should be any day now. If they timed it for the release of the movie, thay are much better at all this that anyone could have guessed.

As for the drunken teenage debs: Technology is not their friend. In the old days, a underaged star could party and no one was the wiser. Now cell phone cameras and the Internet makes everyone Tara Reid. Sad.

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Kensington, Md.: G..Ga...Ga...George...Ka...Ka...Ka. Clooney? Smelling salts ... cold water ... Any sightings?

Amy Argetsinger: Yeah, likewise, any sightings? We can't be everywhere, and our fleet of spies has been letting us down. reliablesource@washpost.com

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VA plates: The tag Senate 2 VA should be assigned to the state's junior senator, no?

Roxanne Roberts: Makes sense. That would Sen. George Allen, then.

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Dupont, Washington, D.C.: As to the Senate 2 car plates, it is one of the two Virginia senators (Warner or Allen)... many members of Congress have these plates on their cars, or keep them on the dash so they can park in the Senate lots.

Roxanne Roberts: Even more reliable sources.

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Germantown, Md.: I read that Tom Jones was recently knighted by Queen Lizzy. I thought he was knighted years ago. ???

Amy Argetsinger: He got an Order of the British Empire back in '99, before getting his knighthood last week -- think it's kind of like getting your masters on your way to your PhD...

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Washington, D.C.: So, any possibility that Katie will anchor the news from D.C.? She's got the family ties here and her boyfriend sells beer here, so it seems to make sense.

Roxanne Roberts: Nice try, but nah. Now she's got decent working hours, she can actually take advantage of New York nightlife. I'm guessing she's anchored to New York.

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McLean, Va.: People who buy personalized license plates shouldn't have privacy concerns.

Roxanne Roberts: Just for the record: Senate plates would be issued by Congress and aren't vanity plates, per se.

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Washington, D.C.: Ladies,

I saw on Fox-5 the report of the protest march last Friday morning at WHUR. The listeners were demanding that Tony TC and George be returned to the air and the syndicated Steve Harvey be sent packing. Any word from WHUR management? I hear that Last weeks Arbitron ratings put WHUR in the #1 slot overall, and the former morning show in 2nd place. Can anyone give me an answer as to why this horrible decision was made? I hear it was money in the pocket of WHUR General Manager Jim Watkins.

Amy Argetsinger: These decisions are always about money. Either the new program is cheaper than the one it replaced, or it's anticipated that the new program will bring in more listeners and advertising dollars.

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The chin gesture: Regarding last week's discussion about the chin gesture, don't we all remember Bush Sr. in Australia in 1992?

"V" Sign (Wikipedia)

"After telling the press he was an expert in hand gestures, George Bush gave the "V-for-Victory" sign as he drove in his armored limousine past demonstrators in Canberra, Australia's capital in January 1992. In Australia, holding up two fingers to form a "V" has the same vulgar meaning as the middle-finger gesture in the United States. The Aussie demonstrators were very mad, and they signaled in the same manner back at the U.S. President. Bush later apologized."

Roxanne Roberts: We all don't, so thanks for sharing.

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Rockville, Md.: Last week, Mark Plotkin's chat included a question about Mayoral candidate Adrian Fenty (a former Howard University grad). Apparently Fenty has been mum on the WHUR/Howard University controversial decision to can it's winning local morning show and bring in the syndicated (and very rookie sounding) Steve Harvey show. Plotkin said he would contact Fenty to inquire as to why he is silent on the issue in light of the fact that the online petition to reinstate the former show has over 4800 signatures. Paul Farhi's article on this issue was very enlightening. Are politicians that afraid to take a stand on this?

Amy Argetsinger: I don't know. Don't you think our local politicians should have bigger fish to fry than which radio personalities get to be on their air? Not that they even have any control over that, and thank god they don't.

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Arlington, Va.: George Clooney! Where? He's in Washington? Why? (Not to get all Gawker Stalker on you.)

Roxanne Roberts: He was scheduled to be in town last night for ASCAP's tribute for Tony Bennett on the Hill. Clooney didn't call (sniff) so we're waiting to hear details and sightings.

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Anonymous: The Steve Harvey show is total madness and bufoonery! I'm sick to my stomach over this change. But where are Tony, TC and George? I heard TC on a D.C. Lottery commercial on two competing station to WHUR (WPGC and WMMJ), and I know George is doing stand-up comedy. We miss them and want to know where they are so we can tune into that station.

Amy Argetsinger: All right, all right -- we promise to find out where they are! And when we do, we will write about it in an item for the newspaper, which you will be able to see both in print version and online, and THEN we'll hash it out in a live Web chat. This is what we love about the Web chats -- they let us know what people are really interested in hearing more about.

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Re: Umm: "Um" or "Umm" means mother in Arabic. It's also a term of respect for women.

Amy Argetsinger: Aw! That was nice of him, then...

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washingtonpost.com: WHUR Gets An Earful for Axing Show (Post, March 9)

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Atlanta, Ga.: When is this country going to get over the Brad/Angie/Jen trip. There are teams now. Sheesh .. It's not like Brad killed anybody. His marriage fell apart just like 50 percent of the population.

I have banned all Paris Hilton faux news ... these triangles seem like it's about time it was put to rest.

Why am I ranting like I really read these things?

Enjoy your day ladies!

Amy Argetsinger: I know what you mean. I'm pretty conflicted too. I am really tired of how the most minor utterance from Jessica Simpson or her flacks turns into hot-button news. "Jessica might want to adopt!" It's like, why are we even talking about this?

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Washington, D.C.: Very early Saturday morning we saw lots of police cars, cones in the road, and a smashed up Porsche as we crossed the Key Bridge. Any idea what was happening? Or did a lot of cops look on as someone threw something over the bridge?

Amy Argetsinger: The best information that has come to our desks indicates that someone may have crashed their Porsche on Key Bridge very early Saturday morning. But don't quote me on it!

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Silver Spring, Md.: Katie Couric is terrible. She is so fake and her interviews on Today are painful to watch -- see when she tries to be tough. (shudder) Who could possibly take her seriously as a news anchor??

P.S. Matt Lauer is probably even worse when he tries to be serious. That show makes my skin crawl. Either its entertainment or its news -- trying to walk the line like they do is embarrassing to watch.

Amy Argetsinger: Well, there's one viewer who won't be tuning in to CBS evening news...

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Anyone see DeLay's statement on McKinney?: It was on cnn.com. As a native Georgian (and a liberal Democrat), I have always despised McKinney, but found it rather ironic that DeLay was commenting on the "arrogance" that members of Congress possess.

Amy Argetsinger: Is this where he was saying he'd file ethics charges against McKinney if no one else does first?

Yeah, the whole thing is just one big Mobius strip of irony, isn't it?

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Arlington, Va.: It is true that taped conversations between Cruise and Kidman as they were breaking up will not only be publicly released, but they will cause great embarrassment to both parties? Any insight as to the contents?

I think he is a nutcase- I think she was lucky to get away from him, even if she was dumped.

...now if only Katie can get away.

Roxanne Roberts: I have a hard time believing it's in anyone's best interests (except ours) for embarrassing tapes to hit the public airwaves, but stranger things have happened. The New York Post reports that Kidman was aware that Cruise hired a private detective to bug her phones during their divorce, and hired an expert to put an encryption device on her phones to prevent wiretapping.

The issue is in the news because Anthony Pellicano, who was hired by Cruise, was arrested in February on unlawful wiretapping and racketeering charges.

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Richmond, Va.: I ran in the Ukrops 10K and my boyfriend was on the sidelines. He said he saw the dark-haired twin (Barbara?) run by, but did not notice the blonde (Jenna?). Assuming I that what I read in RS each day is true, perhaps Jenna's new haircut made her less identifiable to sideline spectators? The Richmond paper ran an article yesterday about them having dinner in the Fan, both ordered wine and the restaurant owner didn't know who they were until he ID-ed them.

Amy Argetsinger: That's probably true, and it wouldn't be the first time that Jenna's haircut has foiled onlookers. When they went to Oyamel a couple weeks ago, the restaurant staff didn't even recognize them.

Look, this is a problem, and we're all in this one together. We have GOT to get a photo of the new haircut, okay? I guess I could go stalk her outside her charter school, but I don't get up that early in the morning, so I'm going to have to rely on you barflies...

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Bowie, Md.: I have the answer to help the Capitol Police avoid future ID problems: They need computer-generated images of all members of Congress with various potential hair styles as a reference guide. Picture Teddy Kennedy with dreadlocks or Robert Byrd with an afro.

Amy Argetsinger: Whoa. You asked me to picture it, and I did!

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Meredith Viera = bad choice: I stopped watching the View (long ago) b/c of her -- she's so fake and just not interesting. At least this will simplify my usual routine of flipping between Katie and Diane ... now I can be Diane all the way!

Amy Argetsinger: All right, then!

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Old Town Alexandria, Va.: HOUSTON WE HAVE LIFT OFF: I am sorry but can we please bring the debacle that is Whitney Houston to the forefront in the realm of gossip?! The news that Beyonce is trying to help the girl get out of her former bathroom that is now a crack den is just so upsetting. Why can't anyone help her? Or drag her butt to rehab or jail? Talk about Reality TV, if someone could get live footage of Beyonce breaking down the door to the crack house and dragging Whitney out ... and then getting her in rehab who wouldn't watch and pull for her!

Amy Argetsinger: Oh, is Beyonce involved now? So glad to know she's on the side of good!

Look, anyone who has an Internet connection and an interest in this kind of thing (guess that includes all of us here today) knows there's a lot of tabloid buzz about Ms. Houston's latest health status. But The National Enquirer is quite a different creature from us. Not saying it's not true, just that it's an area that's not yet fair game for us.

Roxanne Roberts: And that's why we're reliable. There's a lot of chat about Mr. and Mrs. Brown, but the only people who know the truth are her family and close friends. Until we actually KNOW something, we'll hold off publishing the latest allegations.

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D.C.: I'm a big fan of yours -- I really like what you've done with the column.

... But I gotta say, I hate the "Readers Tell Us" dreck. Is that just to fill out the column inches? I mean, the Scalia thing, where you determined that the chin flick was more offensive than Hitler, was based entirely on anonymous submissions to this chat. I don't think you and, say, Dana Priest require the same vigor in fact-checking, but would a little quality control be out of order?

Roxanne Roberts: Thanks for the compliment, and sorry you hate "Readers" but maybe you're missing the point. "Readers Tell Us" was intended for readers of the print column and chatters to tell us what they think about our items. It's like a letter to the editor to us directly, and we like to give everyone a place to state their views. It's not about fact-checking, it's personal opinion.

Amy Argetsinger: Believe it or not, there are a lot of people who read the newspaper column who never set foot in this chat. The comments we get in this chat are hilarious, eye-opening, intelligent, scathing, and every bit as worthy as the ones we get in e-mail or written letters. We just like to summarize some of the feedback we're getting.

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Anonymous: Do you consider vegetarians who provide food for the homeless to be security risks? I've read that the FBI has infiltrated that group, plus the Quakers.

Amy Argetsinger: I've never really thought about it. I guess my answer would be no, they're not risks -- but I'm awfully naive sometimes. Should I be worried about this?

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Washington, D.C.: So Roxanne, the Wait Wait folks are too bad for our lively Internet discussions? Well we'll show them ...

Roxanne Roberts: Now, now. Maybe they're busy saving the world.

Which reminds me: We've got breaking gossip to hunt down and wrassle into a column. That means we're outta here for now, but send those sighting to reliablesource@washpost.com.

And George, honey, you're killing us.

Call. Write. Take us out for coffee. Dutch.

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Key Bridge Follow-up: There was a movie or TV show being filmed on the Key Bridge and in Georgetown on Saturday morning. I row on the Potomac then and I saw them throw a dummy (dressed in clothes) into the Potomac, and then struggle to pull the water soaked bundle onto the police boat. It was awesome because there was some kind of walk-a-thon going on by K St. NW and there were a few odd glances over to the water.

Amy Argetsinger: Okay, had to put this out... that'll teach me for being a smart-mouth! If I had to guess, the film shoot you say you saw was probably for "Twenty Questions," which we wrote about in last Friday's paper -- a TV pilot starring Jesse Bradford about a young State Department employee who stumbles upon a massive conspiracy, blah blah blah... So, assuming this thing ever makes it on the air, spoiler alert and all that!

It's been fun chatting with you -- no, really! Keep the correspondence coming through the week, at reliablesource@washpost.com

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