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KLMNO THE RELIABLE SOURCE Roxanne Roberts and Amy Argetsinger


White House fantasy


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nce again, time to play “Who’s Who” in the latest Washington roman a clef: “Eighteen Acres,” Nicolle Wallace’s savvy novel about heartbreak, drama and drudgery inside the White House complex. The GOP insider (Wallace


worked as communications director for George W. Bush and campaign adviser for John McCain and Sarah Palin) spins a tale about the first female president, a moderate Republican from California. “She may be the biggest fantasy in the book,” Wallace told us Wednesday. “We may be further away from electing a moderate than we are from electing a woman.” The characters are, of course, “entirely fictional” but some are less fictional than others. President Charlotte Kramer is obviously inspired by Hillary Clinton: Wallace genuinely admires Clinton, especially how gracefully she weathered her husband’s infidelity as first lady, and assorted indignities during her own presidential campaign. Lumpy political guru Ralph Giacamo sounds a whole lot like Karl Rove. The ambitious network correspondent sleeping with the president’s husband is a mash-up of all those hot White House newsbabes. The first female White House chief of staff? A hint of Wallace herself, plus “every woman I know who wondered if she had no personal life because of her job, or if she had the job because she had no personal life.” And could Sarah Palin be the real-life


inspiration for the all-too-colorful Tara Meyers? No, claims Wallace. But both are blunt, charismatic outsiders selected as a surprise choice for vice president. Both suffer wardrobe malfunctions: Palin’s infamous campaign clothing fiasco; Meyers’s sartorial misses: “a bright white suit that was made of some sort of stretchy material . . . the outlines of her undergarments were visible, and she wore an orange tank top and matching high heels.” True, Wallace and Palin clashed on the campaign trail, and Palin’s book last year singled out Wallace for criticism. “She had really strong feelings about me,” Wallace said. “On my part, I enjoy writing about fictional characters.” What’s the saying? Ah, yes: Revenge is a dish


best served cold. Wallace, now living in New York, is almost finished writing the sequel, scheduled to be released in the fall of 2011.


ATRIA BOOKS


THIS JUST IN  Gary Condit is working on a tell-all book, AOLNews reports. The former California congressman, who lost his seat after he was romantically linked to vanished intern Chandra Levy, is expected to be called as a witness in her accused killer’s trial, now getting underway — but in the meantime, he’s getting ready to shop his manuscript. His lawyer called it a “Shakespearean drama” and an “explosion of surprises.”  Sultry spy Anna Chapman may have been expelled from the United States, but she’s received a warm welcome back home. She and her fellow sleeper agents received honors this week from Russian President Dmitry Medvedev — but she’s the only one on the cover (lingerie, garters, gun) of Maxim’s Russian edition, which heralds her for doing “more to excite Russian patriotism than the Russian soccer team.”  “Vertigo” star Kim Novak, 77, has been given a diagnosis of breast cancer, her manager told reporters.


THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2010


COURTESY OF CHRIS CRUM Jones, Crum and Oliver.


Nicolle Wallace’s novel “Eighteen Acres” has a moderate Republican


president based on Hillary Clinton, with other characters who recall Karl Rove and Sarah Palin.


HEY, ISN’T THAT . . . ?  John Oliver and Jason Jones surprising a Frederick, Md., farmer Tuesday night. The “Daily Show” stars pulled up in a big tour bus at Crumland Farms, cameras rolling — apparently collecting bits of Americana for the Jon Stewart rally on the Mall next week, farmer Chris Crum said. Took a few laps on the farm’s pedal carts, rode the kiddie train ride.  Ben Folds and Nick Hornby occupying the front-window table at Chinatown Coffee on Tuesday evening and drinking, it turns out, coffee. The musician and the novelist took the stage later at 6th &I Synagogue to show off their new song collaborations.


“It’s not about my rent. It’s not about me. What about the


children’s future? Where will they stay?”


— Jimmy McMillan, the Rent Is Too Damn High Party candidate for New York governor and breakout


viral-video star of Monday’s debate, after the New York Post revealed that his own rent for a Brooklyn


Jimmy McMillan


one-bedroom, frozen since ’05, is a bargain $800 a month.


GOT A TIP ? E-MAIL U S A T RELIABLESOURCE@WASHP OST . COM. FOR THE LA TEST SCOOPS, VISIT WASHINGTONP OST . COM/RELIABLESOUR CE MUSIC REVIEW Guitar hero Thompson dips into the macabre


by Dave McKenna Richard Thompson plays a


Fender Stratocaster. That’s the most common guitar make and model in rock history. But Thompson gets tones out of his Strat that nobody else ever has. At the 9:30 Club on Tuesday, Thompson showcased his array of bent chords and tremoloed bass notes and whatever else goes into his stupid human trick musicianship.


Thompson is touring behind “Dream Attic,” a batch of new and depressing songs recorded live at a Seattle club. And in the first of two sets, Thompson and the same quartet that backed him on the CD played the whole macabre record, from “Sidney Wells,” which tells of the prison murder of a murderer, to “Crime Scene,” which goes all “CSI” while describing the ghoulish setting of a violent killing, to “A Brother Slips Away,” a Southern gospel-ish ballad about the non-


violent (whew!) death of friends. “Stumble On,” the prettiest song of the fresh batch, dealt with moving on after a crushing ro- mantic breakup. (But at least the emphasis was on survival!) “All the happy songs are in the second set,” Thompson said dur- ing the opening gorefest. While soloing throughout the new and, to the fans, unfamiliar material, Thompson delivered the array of guitar noises that his crowd ex- pects, meaning a blizzard of notes that in combination fall sonically somewhere between a church organ and a whale’s mat- ing call. The only consistency in his picking was that it’s never less than utterly fascinating, and thoroughly Richard Thompson- esque. He came back for a second set of oldies that thrilled the oldies


Show and Sale of


Jewelry & Wearable Art to benefit the Smithsonian Institution


All 36 exhibitors previously juried into Smithsonian Craft Shows October 23 – 24, 2010 National Building Museum


401 F Street, NW, Washington, DC at the Judiciary Square Metro (Red Line)


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First Choice Shopping, Wine and Hors d'oeuvres, Music and More. DAILY ADMISSION $5


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SF


in the audience. Highlights in- cluded a cover of Emitt Rhodes’s “Time Will Show the Wiser,” a pop song that Thompson record- ed with Fairport Convention in the 1960s, and “Wall of Death” and “I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight” from his peerless period in the ’70s and ’80s with ex-wife Linda Thompson. As fans left the club, they were


offered a chance to buy Thomp- son’s songbook, complete with guitar tablature to help them sound just like their hero. Ain’t gonna happen.


style@washpost.com McKenna is a freelance writer.


FENDER EAR-BENDER: Richard Thompson wowed with his dark, new album, “Dream Attic,” as well as classic hits.


KYLE GUSTAFSON FOR THE WASHINGTON POST “A Tradition of Quality and Excellence—Since 1922” DOONESBURY by Garry Trudeau On Sale


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Also TEAS—Loose, Sachets and bag teas from Harney & Sons, Twinings and Zhena’s Gypsy Teas.


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CUL DE SAC by Richard Thompson


MAXIM RUSSIA


Deported spy Anna Chapman isn’t hiding much now.


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