tuesday, june 15, 2010 THEATER REVIEW


War is heck An update of Bertolt Brecht’s “Mother Courage and Her Children” by the Dog & Pony D.C. troupe looks at war and social injustice, with humor and a rollicking beat. C2


Style ABCDE C S MUSEUMS


Folger director to retire Gail Kern Paster will leave the Shakespeare library in July 2011. C9


PRESERVATION TRUST President named


Stephanie Meeks is the new leader. C10 CONSPIRACY THEORIES


Bad voting machines? Shadowy political operatives? Uninformed voters? Explaining Alvin Greene’s surprise election win. C10


3LIVE TODAY @ washingtonpost.com/discussions Fashion Fix with Janet Bennett Kelly and Holly Thomas Noon • Tom Shales on TV Noon • Paul Farhi on pop culture 1 p.m.


MICHAELE SALAHI


MARY AMONS


LYNDA ERKILETIAN


D.C.’s ‘Real’ deal: Bravo pulls back curtain to reveal next ‘Housewives’


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ashington, you’re forgiven if you don’t know what to make of your “Housewives.” Are the stars-to-be of “The Real


Housewives of D.C.” representative of our city? Of course not. Four out of five are white, all are affluent, and most live in the ’burbs. Are they prominent Washington


players? Not really. A few have social pull in limited circles, but none are A-listers.


Should they all be on TV? Federal and Virginia prosecutors, still weighing charges against Tareq and Michaele Salahi for the White House dinner- crashing and certain business practices, didn’t have a say.


THE RELIABLE SOURCE


Roxanne Roberts and Amy Argetsinger


But who cares! This will be reality TV in all its semi-staged glory. Bravo touts the series as portraying “connected D.C. power players” navigating “the unwritten social rules of the Beltway.” But none of these women works in


source continued on C2


STACIE TURNER


CATHERINE OMMANNEY


Will wonky Washington again have reality-TV viewers tuning out?


succeed where MTV’s “Real World” failed when our favorite state dinner crasher, Michaele Salahi, makes her debut on Thursday, Aug. 5, at 9 p.m. Bravo will officially announce the


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start date for “The Real Housewives of D.C.” on Tuesday. Michaele’s supporting cast includes:


Mary Schmidt Amons, a “true Washingtonian and granddaughter of radio and TV personality Arthur Godfrey,” according to Bravo; Lynda Erkiletian, who is “mother hen and owner of D.C.’s top modeling agency”; Catherine Ommanney, a “feisty Brit”


ere Come the Salahis! Bravo will find out whether its “Real Housewives” franchise can


THE TV COLUMN Lisa de Moraes


who is “married to a White House photographer”; and Stacie Scott Turner, a “Harvard grad” and “active political fund raiser.” In its announcement, Bravo says the


latest edition of its hit franchise “is set to take on the Hill,” with women who are “connected D.C. power players,” and that the show will reflect “D.C. almost as its own character in the series.” “I’m really interested in Beltway society and the protocol that exists


tv column continued on C5 WASHINGTON POST ILLUSTRATION BOOK WORLD


by its literary value (none), or its contribution to the thriller genre (small), or the money it rakes in (considerable), but rather by the rebelliousness it incites among anti-government extremists. If the book is found tucked into the ammo boxes of self-proclaimed patriots and recited at “tea party”


THE OVERTON WINDOW by Glenn Beck Threshold. 321 pp. $26


assemblies, then Beck will have achieved his goal. The story line, which fictional- izes Beck’s well-known paranoia about a secret Big Government plan to crush the liberties of well- meaning citizens, is an extended call to arms, a rallying cry to his angry foot soldiers long stirred by his rantings on Fox News. As the last line of the book warns, “We’re everywhere. . . . The fight starts


book world continued on C9 TONY HEALEY FOR THE WASHINGTON POST


Glenn Beck’s thriller: The plod thickens T


by Steven Levingston


he success of Glenn Beck’s novel, “The Overton Win- dow,” will be measured not


by Chris Richards


In hip-hop, the only way to trump the inviolable law of Keeping It Real is to establish a whole new reality. That’s why Drake, a Canadian


actor turned surprise rap phe- nom, has emerged as the genre’s new leading man, steering hip- hop out of the streets and into the emotive headspace of infor- mation-age isolation. It was a frontier first explored by Kanye West with his 2008 master- stroke “808s & Heartbreak.” Now, Drake’s arresting new al- bum, “Thank Me Later,” follows through on West’s heavy-heart- ed promise. With penetrating lyricism and arresting melodies, it’s a truly captivating debut — a rookie’s ticket into the 21st cen- tury pop pantheon. For most fans, hip-hop has al-


ways provided a glimpse of ur- ban reality, seemingly unfil- tered. Drake explores a terrain both more rarefied and more fa- miliar: global celebrity. He doesn’t rap about street life, thug life or even club life. He


“My 15 minutes started an hour ago.”


— From the “Fireworks” track on Drake’s “Thank Me Later”


raps about emotions — the clashing panoply of feelings that come with an unquench- able thirst for fame and the un- tenable romances that follow. How can a 23-year-old pos- sess such an aversion to star- dom before his first album even hits shelves? Because he’s al- ready a star. Before dropping his first mixtape in 2006, Au- brey Drake Graham made his name on television, playing teen athlete Jimmy Brooks on the corny Canadian drama “De- grassi: The Next Generation.” The heartthrob eventually earned his bona fides in the rap world under the wing of Lil Wayne — and proved himself an apt pupil with a spate of mix- tape cuts (“Best I Ever Had,”


drake continued on C3 RECORDINGS


Drake’s new rap reality: The realm of emotion


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