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KLMNO THE RELIABLE SOURCE Roxanne Roberts and Amy Argetsinger
Another chance to spout off After a long day rallying on the
House GOP leader John Boehner could be painting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Capitol office, left.
GERALD MARTINEAU/THE WASHINGTON POST On the move on the Hill? reliable source from C1
Boehner probably has his own ideas for the space, but can’t move in right away. First, the GOP has to win the House, then on or about Nov. 17 (Boehner’s 61st birthday), his party has to vote him “speaker-elect.” The full vote doesn’t happen until January. It’s not the only office up for grabs. If
all goes according to GOP strategists, the unofficial musical chairs start Wednesday. Boehner would move to the office currently occupied by Pelosi, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor would getMajority Leader Steny Hoyer’s office, and a Democrat would move into Boehner’s second-floor office. The architect of the Capitol and
others move at least 100 offices every two years (and probably more this time): Freshman get offices through a lottery system, members trading up, and the new leadership shifts into the prime digs. “It’s like dominos,” said AOC communication officer Eva Malecki. Thanksgiving to Christmas is “controlled chaos. But we’ve been doing it for years.” Most members are assigned standard-issue furniture but get to select drapes, artwork and paint color; movers, painters and electricians begin the process getting everything ready for the new term. Where would Pelosi land? Depends on
whether the Dems elect her as House minority leader. In the ’40s and ’50s, the House leadership went back and forth so often that Sam Rayburn (speaker three
times) and Joseph Martin (who held the office twice) stopped moving offices and just stayed put where they were. If she doesn’t end up leading her
party, Pelosi will have her office in the Cannon Building and probably a small office suite somewhere in the Capitol building itself. That’s what happened to Dennis Hastert in 2007 — he was given a first-floor office until he resigned his seat a few months later. Then again, Pelosi might not be going
anywhere. “It ain’t over ’til it’s over,” wrote Fox
News congressional correspondent Chad Pergram.On Wednesday, “Republicans will know if they can really put their stockpiles of paint color chips and fabric remnants to use.”
Mall on Saturday, Stephen Colbert still had the energy and agility to clamber to the top of a marble fountain at the Comedy Central after-party at Old Ebbitt Grill.How’d he get up there? Even stunned witnesses couldn’t say for sure. Colbert was the de facto host for the afternoon gathering — Jon Stewart went back to N.Y.C. early — and after entering to applause around 6 p.m. (trailed by two Comedy Central bodyguards who looked like low-budget Secret Service agents), he climbed the (non-working) fountain to thank all the staff and crew for their help. The 300 or so guests (noshing on crab cakes, sliders and shrimp) included VIP pals Rosario Dawson, Tim Meadows, Mick Foley, the “MythBusters” guys and “Daily Show” players Wyatt Cenac and John Oliver.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2010
TAYLOR DEWATERS FOR OLD EBBITT GRILL
Stephen Colbert, atop the Old Ebbitt fountain, thanks staff and crew after the rally on the Mall.
HEY, ISN’T THAT . . . ? Kathleen Sebelius tossing candy to trick-or-treaters from a second-floor window of her Capitol Hill rowhouse Sunday night. Hey, she’s health secretary; she’s probably trying to slow the spread of germs! Alex Ovechkin doing the Halloween thing in Clarendon on Sunday night — black hat and black shirt that read “Eminem.”His lady friend in one of those sexy-scanty ensembles. Stepped into Spider Kelly’s, where he was spotted with teammates Nick Backstrom and Mike Green, who teased Ovie for his poor performance on the bar’s pop-a-shot basketball game.
LOVE, ETC. Divorcing: Charlie Sheen and his wife of two years, Brooke Mueller, People and TMZ report. Seems like this already happened, right? They’ve been apart since their Christmas domestic-violence incident. His third marriage. They have twins. Reconciling: Slash and Perla Ferrar, who have retracted their divorce filing, TMZ reports. The former Guns N’ Roses guitarist and his wife of nine years have two kids.
Kutcher and Moore, called on an accidental foul.
THIS JUST IN The University of Iowa ran afoul of NCAA recruiting rules, the Des Moines Register reported, when it allowed two basketball recruits to hang out with Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore. Really! Kutcher is a UI dropout and booster; rules prohibit recruits from meeting with anyone promoting a school’s athletic interests. The school said Monday that the NCAA has decided not to penalize them, since the meeting — at the Iowa-Iowa State football game in September — was accidental.
OXANA SAZONOVA/GETTY IMAGES
He’s a kook. — Courteney Cox explaining
estranged husband David Arquette’s penchant for blabbing about their marriage on Howard Stern’s radio show, in a new interview with Australia’s TV Week: “David is an entertainer, and I’m sure the people who listen to the radio are entertained by his stories.”
“ JAMES WHITE/ABC 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 THEATER REVIEW Stage Guild’s ‘Darwin in Malibu’: Man, is life a beach or what?
Surreal fantasy’s dramatic form could stand to evolve
by Nelson Pressley
Who is that old cat chillin’ at the beach, that laid-back gray- beard sipping fruit smoothies and trading banter with a young brunette in cutoff jeans? Dude: It’s Charles Darwin! The portrait of Darwin in Cri- spin Whittell’s “Darwin in Mali- bu” at the Washington Stage Guild is that of a man who has survived very well a century and a half after publishing “On the Origin of Species.” He digs his daily horoscope. He reads a pulpy Pat Booth novel called “Malibu.” Relaxed and genial is the way Leo Erickson plays the legendary evolutionist, and Er- ickson’s carefree turn is the polar opposite of the angst-riddled Darwin seen last summer in Pe- ter Parnell’s “Trumpery” at Olney Theatre Center. Like “Trumpery,” “Darwin in
Malibu” revisits the basics of the debate sparked when “Species” challenged biblical wisdom about how we all got to this pret- ty pass. (Why all these plays on Darwin lately? Blame politics.) But while “Trumpery” came off as an agonized meditation, “Dar-
should, wafting and wobbling toward its mark. Sarah (Alejan- dra Escalante) nurses a jealous streak and brings a whiff of Har- old and Kumar to the proceed- ings, but this thinly drawn girl matters in more significant ways, and the warm beach mood grows chilly as the characters, very late, veer toward issues of grief. It’s not throwaway work, then, nor would you expect that from the Stage Guild, the local experts in George Bernard Shaw and some lesser-produced but worthy 20th-century continental drama- tists. Stage Guild is a company that typically argues well, but di- rector Steven Carpenter’s straightforward production finds this glib, portentous case to be a bit slippery — or maybe the play itself hasn’t found its ideal fight- ing weight.
style@washpost.com Pressley is a freelance writer. PHOTOS BY C. STANLEY PHOTOGRAPHY
THE SPECIES: At left, Alejandra Escalante with Leo Erickson as a carefree Charles Darwin. At right, Robert Leembruggen as Thomas Huxley and Jeff Baker as Samuel Wilberforce match wits over evolution in “Darwin in Malibu” at the Washington Stage Guild.
win in Malibu” aims to be akin to Steve Martin’s “Picasso at the Lapin Agile” — a jaunty riff on weighty matters, dusted with wide-eyed wonder. Eventually Thomas Huxley and Oxford bishop Samuel Wil- berforce press themselves through the mists of time to join Darwin. Huxley and Wilberforce
DOONESBURY by Garry Trudeau
conducted a famous (real) debate on evolution shortly after Dar- win published, so naturally their disputation continues in this modern but increasingly other- worldly Malibu. In short, Wilber- force is determined to save Dar- win’s soul. Huxley, bless him, comes to kibitz. It’s all an unfair fight: For one
thing, Darwin gets to wear shorts and a Hawaiian shirt, while the 19th-century tag-alongs are trapped in heavier clothes. But their ideas drag them down, too; though Robert Leembruggen makes a particularly animated Huxley lighting into Jeff Baker’s jovially pious Wilberforce, Dar- win’s lightness of spirit suggests
he’s found a way beyond the old spat. It would be asking too much for Whittell’s wit to match Mar- tin’s verbal and conceptual flair in the impish “Picasso,” and to be fair, “Malibu” inspires some grins as high concepts get juggled like spinning platters. It does, how- ever, feel more drifty than it
CUL DE SAC by Richard Thompson Darwin in Malibu
by Crispin Whittell. Directed by Steven Carpenter. Lighting design, Marianne Meadows; costumes, William
Pucilowski and Lynn Steinmetz; set, Carl F. Gudenius; sound design, Steven Carpenter. About two hours. Through Nov. 21 at the Undercroft Theatre, Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church, Massachusetts Avenue and Ninth Street NW. Call 240-582-0050 or visit
www.stageguild.org.
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