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THE RELIABLE SOURCE Meryl the
Roxanne Roberts and Amy Argetsinger
Magnanimous Meryl Streep slipped into town
Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. is accused of
dallying with the hostess at this M Street NW cigar bar. She, in turn, is said to have spent time talking to the FBI about him.
Tuesday night to chide the government for being a little sexist — then gave $1 million for a proposed National Women’s History Museum. “There’s no women’s history museum in Washington!” the star gasped in mock-astonishment to 350 guests at the Mandarin Oriental hotel. And yet, “there is a postal museum.” It’s not the first time Streep, a
AARON LEITKO
Where there’s smoke . . . T
he scandal now surrounding Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. is mostly a scandal about money. But as with so many other political imbroglios, there is also a woman in the story. She is Giovana Huidobro, a hostess
at Ozio lounge on M Street NW, whom — according to a new report from the Chicago Sun-Times — the FBI interviewed last year while trying to determine if the Chicago Democrat asked a major fundraiser to pay then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich in exchange for appointing him to a U.S. Senate seat. Why Huidobro? Because the
fundraiser, Raghuveer Nayak, told investigators he twice paid for Huidobro to fly from Washington to Chicago at Jackson’s request, the Sun-Times reported.
After the story broke Tuesday,
Jackson released a statement strongly denying Nayak’s claim that the congressman asked him to offer Blagojevich millions in exchange for the Senate seat. He called the allegations old news and “preposterous.” As for the Huidibro connection, though, Jackson said it was “a private and personal matter between me and my wife that was handled some time ago,” and asked that reporters respect their privacy. But who is she? Colleagues and
patrons described her to us as a petite, eye-catching Latin American blonde whose presence at Ozio’s front door was a potent lure at the martini-and-cigar bar that’s seen better days. (A big hit when it opened in the mid-’90s just ahead of the
Chicago paper, and we couldn’t catch up with her Wednesday. When we asked about her at Ozio, a manager just smirked at us. “I don’t follow the news,” he said.
cocktail revival, Ozio lost much of its buzz as newer nightspots opened.) Her unusual name Google-Trended in a big way once the Sun-Times story hit, and desktop detectives quickly found some impressive swimsuit shots on a Peruvian Web site. Home, though, is far from Capitol Hill or the D.C. club scene: She lives in a modest brick-front townhouse in Germantown with what appears to be a Spanish-speaking family group, neighbors told us — older parents, grown children, a few small kids. She’s a runner, sometimes seen walking a little dog. Huidobro declined to talk to the
longtime supporter of the effort, has told that joke. The Oscar winner also cracked wise about the National Postal Museum in a 2006 promotional video, prompting a very hurt letter to the editor of The Washington Post from the (female!) president of the American Philatelic Society. In fairness, Streep (in a Michael Jackson-esque military jacket) also joked about our city’s textile, spy and wax museums. And clearly she feels strongly about it: Her gift, and $1 million Tuesday from pharmaceutical mogul Duane Burnham, brought the museum’s starter fund to $8 million, reports our colleague Jacqueline Trescott. Organizers want to build a permanent site near the Mall — which would require congressional approval, plus $400 million in private funds. How did they enlist Streep? “I wrote her a letter,” NWHM president Joan Wages told us Wednesday. “The truth is, it just struck a chord with her. She gets it at the center of her bones.”
Sonia Sotomayor and Tim Kaine.
HEY, ISN’T THAT . . . ? Tim Kaine grabbing a late-night burger at the Five Guys at 14th & I on Tuesday. The Democratic National Committee chairman was in shirt sleeves. Justice Sonia Sotomayor brunching at Annie’s Paramount Steak House in Dupont Circle on Sunday, with a man and two kids. White top, dark pants. One glance at the BlackBerry. Seemed to be family — talk of the Yankees and going to the Pentagon City mall.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2010
Bowing out: Tip “T.l.” Harris, left, and Wyclef Jean.
Actress Meryl Streep.
THIS JUST IN T.I. has vanished from the lineup for Saturday’s Virgin Mobile FreeFest at Merriweather Post Pavilion, our colleague David Malitz reports. Organizers had held out hopes the rapper would make the show despite his recent drug arrest while on probation, but said that his reps were apparently preparing for a court hearing this week and unable to commit. If he can free himself up, the Virgin folks said, “we’ll gladly adjust the schedule.” Wyclef Jean has given up his effort to run for president in his home country of Haiti, a month after officials ruled he didn’t meet the residency requirements. Making the best of it, though, he told the BBC his next album will be called “If I Were President.”
GOT A TIP ? E-MAIL U S A T RELIABLESOURCE@WASHP OST . COM. FOR THE LA TEST SCOOPS, VISIT WA SHINGTONP OST . COM/RELIABLESOUR CE ANDREW H. WALKER/
GETTY IMAGES
TV PREVIEW: THE NEW SEASON In ‘My Generation,’ life goes on, not as usual by Hank Stuever
Forgive me when I whine that it seems too soon to make a TV show about people who graduat- ed from high school in 2000. That’s just the Aleve talking. Oh, of course I care about 28- year-olds. They’re totes adorbs. Everyone cares about 28-year- olds, especially when they come to office staff meetings and seem so bored by what the rest of us have to say. Yet even the most self-infatuat-
ed 20-somethings do not deserve the punishment of wallowing in ABC’s new faux-documentary, “My Generation,” premiering Thursday night. It should not be confused with
a mockumentary, which would imply that it’s funny. This is more like an ABC [Way] Afterschool Special: At 28, people find out they’re infertile. People have sex- less marriages and drinking prob- lems. People have husbands in Af- ghanistan. People gave birth to your son nine months after prom night, but haven’t told you that you’re the father until now. People have something important to tell you but can’t find the courage to say it. (So naturally they tell the omniscient documentary camera, which is always there.) The show, based on a Swedish series called “On God’s Highway,” is all high-minded make-believe, occasionally tender, but often reaching haplessly for cinéma vé- rité. There really is not much
IMOGEN QUEST by Olivia Walch Winner of The Post’s “America’s Next Great Cartoonist” contest.
worse than watching actors struggle to pretend they’re in a documentary. The title “My Gen- eration” unfortunately conjures up the Who’s baby boomer an- them, which will always belong to “Their” Generation — you know who — and Nobody Else’s. Here, an unidentified filmmak- er has returned to Austin to catch up with nine men and women who appeared in a documentary about being a high school senior in 2000. The whole show is based on the — sadly true — idea that people love nothing more than to sit in front of the camera and talk about their feelings.
While we are not immediately told if the original documentary was a big success or not (or why these nine adults would agree to
appear in sequel) we are remind- ed of how very long ago it was made: Monicagate! Eminem! A lucid and tight-stomached Brit- ney! Y2K! Remember?We see the characters in clothes and hair- styles that haven’t had time to really go too far out of style. In a clip from “back then,” the seniors are each asked by the un- seen female narrator to describe their future, in one word. The hip- hopper who calls himself the Fal- con (Sebastian Sozzi) answers “MP3s.” “Which means what?” the nar-
rator asks. “You’ll see.” And so the “film crew” goes off in search of the nine, mainly to see if the stereotypes held up. For some inexplicable reason, they’ve
BILL RECORDS/ABC
BUMMED OUT: Michael Stahl-David is a former overachiever who, in the decade since high school, has chosen the surfer life.
lost touch with one another. But who in the class of ’00 can’t find out everything they need to know about former classmates with just the click of a search engine? Did the class overachiever
(“Cloverfield’s” Michael Stahl- David) pursue politics or become a doctor? (Neither! He’s a surf bum in Hawaii.) The also-over- achieving Latina (Daniella Alon- so) is a lawyer in Washington. Does she still pine for the rich kid (Julian Morris) who wound up marrying the cheerleader (Jaime King) after she came home from chasing her Hollywood dreams with a mere “Bachelor” contes- tant credit to her name? Does the nerd (Keir O’Donnell) who wanted so badly to marry and have children ever find a wife or have children? No. All he has his unrequited love for the class party girl (Kelli Garner), who is pregnant with class jock’s (Meh- cad Brooks) baby. And off it goes from there, so much angst from such pretty peo-
DOONESBURY by Garry Trudeau CUL DE SAC by Richard Thompson
ple; so many awkward glances at the camera in failed attempts at realism. And anyhow, “My Gener- ation’s” super-serious self-regard and tone make me wonder: What- ever happened to baby Janey Steadman from “thirtysome- thing”?
She could just as well be here
on “My Generation,” all grown up, and as existentially adrift as her parents, those iconic troubled yuppies, Michael and Hope. It turns out their privileged tedium was hereditary, but easier to watch.
stueverh@washpost.com My Generation
(one hour) debuts Thursday at 8 p.m. on ABC.
ON WASHINGTONPOST.COM To watch a clip of ABC’s “My
Generation,” visit washingtonpost. com/style.
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