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SPECIAL FEATURE
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THE POWER
Gary Sinise Dinner ..............................................
'Indiscretion' Book Party.......................................
NDUF Awards ...................................................
Global Education Gala ..........................................
WASHINGTON'S CHANGING TheatreWashington's Helen Hayes Awards .................. ART SCENE
FOCUS Gala ...................................................
EDITOR'S LETTER ................................
FYIDC INSIDER'S GUIDE ..................................... SOCIAL CALENDAR ................................
LIFE OF THE PARTY Washington Ballet Ball ........................................... Catholic Charities 'Musica y Suenos' ............... Opera Ball ................................... Convention Center 10th Anniversary..............................
POLLYWOOD
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Downton Abbey Party .........................................
FASHION A Love Supreme .............................. GLITTERATI Hued Decadence .......................... TREND REPORT Python Print .......................
Light of Healing Hope Reception ........................... ZERO Prostate Cancer March Madness Party .........
Great Ladies Luncheon ...........................................
David Stockman Book Party .................................
Lefkowitz Dinner honoring Jason Wu .........................
Leukemia Ball ....................................................
Proust Plus with Jason Wu .......................................
Prevent Cancer Foundation Gala ...........................
TRANSFORMER'S Collector's View......................
Alliance Francaise Benefit .....................................
THE DISH Bistro Vivant's Ed Hardy ..................... PERFORMING ARTS Perfect Pitch ................
Junior League FĂŞte ..............................................
Age of Aluminum..................................................
'Hello Dolly'Opening Night Cast Party ..................
DC Capital Talent Competition ............................
WASHINGTON SOCIAL DIARY
Parties! Parties! Parties!........................................
Martin's Tavern 80th Anniversary Kickoff ................... HOLLYWOOD ON THE CNMC/Versace Shopping Benefit ......................... POTOMAC: Bella Donnas .... OVER THE MOON Hollywood in Hunt Country .. Vital Voices ......................... Capella Grand Opening......................................... EMBASSY ROW: Visiting VIPs ........................ Todd Gray's Passover Sedar ..................................... Etihad Airways Launch Event .......
AROUND TOWN Spring Soirees .......................
LIFESTYLES
Edward Bear Miller Exhibit ..................................
Artini ...............................................................
NEA Gala ........................................................
HOME LIFE INSIDE HOMES Tom Anderson and Marc Schappell's Georgetown home ............................. REAL ESTATE NEWS Historic Houses ............... OPEN HOUSE Modern Metropolitan ................... MY WASHINGTON Bob Schieffer's go-to spots ........
ON THE COVER Washington Life's 2013 Power 100 (Photos from AP and in house) TOP FROM LEFT √Bill and Hillary Clinton at the 2013 Inauguration (AP Photo); Adrienne Arsht, David Rubenstein, Jacqueline Badger Mars and Constance Millstein at Opera Ball (Photo by Tony Powell); "A Love Supreme" fashion editorial (Photo by Holden Warren, full crew credits inside). KATE SPADE "Mariella" dress ($448), www.katespade.com; MIA ELLIOTT earrings ($220), Soliliquy Bridal Couture, 754 Elden St., #103, Herndon, VA 20170, 571-449-2580, MIA ELLIOTT necklace ($350), Saks Jandel, 5510 Wisconsin Ave., Chevy Chase, MD 20815, 301-652-2250, MIKIMOTO choker ($31,000), LILJENQUIST & BECKSTEAD ring ($9,625) and ROLEX watch ($13,800), Liljenquist & Beckstead, 2001 International Dr., Mclean VA 22102, 703-749-1200; KENNETH JAY LANE moroccan gold-plated cubic zirconia earrings ($300), www.neimanmarcus.com.
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T H E I N S I D E R’S G U I D E TO P OW E R , P H I L A N T H R O PY, A N D SO C I E T Y S I N C E 1 9 9 1
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Nancy Reynolds Bagley EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
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CREATIVE DIRECTOR
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Matt Rippetoe CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS
Joseph Allen, Brett Bagley,Tony Brown, Ben Droz, Alfredo Flores, Tony Powell, Kyle Samperton and M. Holden Warren
PUBLISHER & CEO
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Trina Hodges WEB TECHNOLOGIES DEVELOPMENT
iStrategyLabs LEGAL
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Vicki Bagley CHAIRMAN, EXECUTIVE BOARD
Gerry Byrne Washington Life magazine publishes ten times a year. Issues are distributed in February, March, April, May, June, July/August, September, November, and December and are hand-delivered on a rotating basis to over 150,000 homes throughout D.C., Northern Virginia, and Maryland. Additional copies are available at various upscale retailers, hotels, select newstands, and Whole Foods stores in the area. For a complete listing, please consult our website at www.washingtonlife.com. You can also subscribe online at www.washingtonlife.com or send a check for $79.95 (one year) to: Washington Life Magazine, 2301 Tracy Place NW, Washington D.C., 20008. BPA audited. Email us at info@washingtonlife.com with press releases, tips, and editorial comments. Copyright ©2011 by Washington Life. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial content or photos in any manner without permission is strictly prohibited. Printed in the United States. We will not be responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or photographs.
EDITOR’S LETTER
The Perception of Power Wise old Will Shakespeare once said that “Some are born great, some achieve greatness and others have greatness thrust upon them.” While there may be a few on our Power 100 list who came into this world with family resources and connections, most of the people running this town made a name for themselves all on their own. Some who wield power have political access (such as Jim DeMint, who left Congress to run the Heritage Foundation). For others it’s the written word (journalists Mike Allen and Ezra Klein). Still others use the power of their purse — David Rubenstein, for example, who split the $15 million repair bill for the earthquake-damaged Washington Monument with the federal government. Those familiar with our list over the years will see names they haven’t seen here before: Twitter lobbyist Colin Crowell, political pro Ilyse Hogue (who recently took the helm at NARAL,) ratings superstar Brett Baier of Fox News and David Corn, the man with the “scoop of the year” from Mother Jones/MSNBC. Power has shifted at many of Washington’s performing arts organizations of late and you’ll want to read columnist Roland Flamini’s take on the changes in leadership at the Kennedy Center, Washington Performing Arts Society, Washington National Opera, Wolftrap and the Choral Arts Society. There’s no power couple quite like the president and first lady, and this month our fashion team took to Capella Washington, the capital’s new power hotel, to pay tribute to first couple fashion. Jason Wu, one of Michele Obama’s fashion favorites, brought his fall ready-to-wear collection here for a show at Saks Fifth Avenue to benefit the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation. Mr. Wu joins an impressive list of notable individuals who have done our signature Proust Plus questionnaire, including Danny Glover, Maya Angelou, Philippe Auguin and Francesca Zambello; the last two are
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also newcomers to our Power 100. If you’re in need of a sartorial pick-meup, check out our edgy python print trend report and picks for brightly colored, Art Deco baubles to add extra spice to your wardrobe. With the Georgetown House Tour taking place later this month, Washington Life got a preview peek at the historic Georgetown residence of Thomas Anderson and Marc Schappell, two of the co-founders of Washington Fine Properties. The savvy preservationists spent five years retruning the house to its former glory. Spring soirées abound this month and we bring you our signature coverage of the Opera Ball, the Washington Ballet’s “Hemingway in Paris” Ball, Vital Voices’ extraordinary gathering, dinner with Gary Sinise and Martin Tavern’s 80th anniversary bash where Mayor Vincent Gray played bartender. Don’t forget to keep your calendars open this month for the Kennedy Center Spring Gala, the Trust for the National Mall Luncheon, Refugees International’s dinner, the Virginia Gold Cup, The Children’s Ball and ZooFari, or just go to www.washingtonlife. com/calendar for a complete list of events.
Nancy R. Bagley Editor in Chief Readers wishing to contact Nancy Bagley can email her at nbagley@washingtonlife.com
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| M AY | washingtonlife.com
FYIDC The Insider’s Guide to Washington
DC JAZZ FESTIVAL
Don’t miss the return of Washington’s largest music event, the 9th annual DC Jazz Festival from June 5-16. More than 125 performances will take place at six main venues across the city, including the Kennedy Center, The Hamilton Live, Kastles Stadium at The Wharf, Sixth & I Synagogue, the Phillips Collection and the locally sourced series Jazz in the ’Hoods, hosted by Events DC at 40 additional venues. Kick off 12 days of be-bopping fun with the “Jazz Meets Hip Hop” interactive workshop and concert on June 5 at THEARC. www.dcjazzfest.org
Fit for a President
MARTIN’S TAVERN
Touted as one of the oldest family-owned restaurants in Washington, Martin’s Tavern has served up steaming plates of signature pub fare to A-list clients, including every president from Harry Truman to George W. Bush, for 80 years. Owner Billy Martin and his team are celebrating with a series of events, including a birthday party on May 29 for John F. Kennedy, who was a frequent patron of booth one for Sunday morning brunch, and proposed to Jackie in booth three. Throughout the 1940s and ’50s, Richard M. Nixon could be spotted chowing down on Martin’s meatloaf in booth two, often accompanied by wife Pat or colleagues. Martin’s Tavern played a reoccuring role in the 14 mystery novels written by Margaret Truman, who dined often in booth six with her parents during her years at George Washington University. Booth 24, nicknamed “The Dugout” was the set of many meetings between then-Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Baines Johnson and Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn, when they needed to privately discuss pending matters such as civil rights legislation. Nowadays, MSNBC “Hardball” host Chris Matthews makes a weekly appearance at the Tavern, ordering prime rib with baked potato, applesauce and apple pie at the bar. www. martins-tavern.com.
Forza Azzurri
YEAR OF ITALIAN CULTURE Rediscover the Italy and its culture at celebratory events scheduled throughout the United States. Highlights in Washington include a concert by famed Italian pianist Maurizio Pollini at Strathmore and a lecture on painter Albrecht Dürer’s role in the Italian Renaissance at the Embassy of Italy and more. Visit the website for a complete calendar. www.italyinus2013.org.
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And They’re Off!
PREAKNESS STAKES The 138th running of the Preakness Stakes is gearing up to be as exciting as ever, and not just on the race track. This year, the Maryland Jockey Club is partnering with celebrity Washington chef Mike Isabella to offer locally sourced farm-to-table dishes for the club’s Turfside Terrace and Corporate Village. Those lucky enough to snag an invitation to this year’s International Pavilion will be met by newly-installed Japanese Amb. Kenichiro Sasae, whose home country is serving as host in the exclusive race area. The Preakness Stakes runs May 18, Pimlico Race Course, Baltimore, Md., www.preakness.com.
Blast from the Past
OLD TOWN ‘ATTICS AND ALLEYS’ TOUR Grab a sturdy pair of shoes and explore the Old Town you don’t know on this three-hour walking tour featuring the rarely seen Lee-Fendall House, Gadsby’s Tavern Museum, Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum and Carlyle House. Architecture buffs will enjoy touring the 1792 City Hotel attic with its remnants of past residents and the third floor of the Stabler-Leadbeater’s 19th-century pharmacy, opened for the first time in 70 years. Every Saturday through May. Tours begin at 9 a.m. and are $25 per person. 03-746-4242 or www. historicalexandria.com.
Great Scot!
VIRGIN’S LITTLE RED TO SCOTLAND The indomitable Sir Richard Branson says he’s spent the better part of 30 years battling for gate positions in Scotland for his beloved airline Virgin Atlantic, and finally the wait is over. Last month,Virgin extended the reach of his long-haul carrier into kilt country and “old” York with Little Red, a new short-haul carrier offering direct service from London’s Heathrow to Edinburgh and Aberdeen, as well as Manchester, in the heart of northern U.K.With enough showmanship to make even P.T. Barnum blush, Branson emerged from the first flight into Edinburgh flanked by bagpipers and wearing a traditional Scottish kilt, which he promptly lifted high for British paparazzi, revealing the words,“Stiff the Competition!” Oh, Richard. www.virgin-atlantic.com.
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P H OTO S C O U RT E SY O F E AC H C O M PA N Y
BOOGIE-WOOGIE time
FYIDC | SOCIAL CALENDAR
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GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY OF THE LOEWS MADISON HOTEL AND HONORING WASHINGTON LIFE’S A-LIST Washington Life joins Andrew, Tisch, James Tich and Jonathan Tisch to celebrate the Loews Madison Hotel’s 50th anniversary and honor the magazine’s 2013 A-list. 6:30 p.m.; Loews Madison Hotel,Washington D.C., 1177 15th St. NW; festive attire; by invitation only
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TRUST FOR THE NATIONAL MALL LUNCHEON The sixth annual tented luncheon will gather more than a thousand of Washington’s most influential civic, philanthropic and social leaders dedicated to preserving the National Mall. 11:30 a.m.; Madison Drive at 13th St. NW on the National Mall; spring hats encouraged for ladies and gentlemen, business attire for all; $500; contact 202-407-9408, nationalmall.org.
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REFUGEES INTERNATIONAL DINNER This exclusive awards ceremony never fails to draw a top notch crowd, and with Matt Dillon returning a second time as master of ceremonies, this year will be no exception. This year’s honorees, who have all exemplified extraordinary leadership and commitment to humanitarian action, include Jose Ramos-Horta and Dr. Jacques Sebisaho. 6:15 p.m.; Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, 1301 Constitution Ave., NW; cocktail attire; $400; contact Adelaide Belk, Adelaide@refugeesinternational.org.
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VIRGINIA GOLD CUP The 88th annual running of the Gold Cup steeplechase race is a proverbial can’t-miss events for spring, and brings together more than 50,000 horseloving, preppily-clad spectators for a day of tailgate parties, hat contests and yes, a few exciting races. Gates open at 10 a.m., first race is at 1:30 p.m.; Great Meadow in The Plains, Va; dandy attire encouraged; $85; visit vagoldcup.com for more information.
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Curtis and Amanda Polk at the 4th annual Ball on the Mall (Photo by Tony Powell)
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BALL ON THE MALL Not everyone can say they have dined and danced with a backdrop view of the country’s most iconic monuments, but the young professionals who attend this fun-filled annual gala surely can.The sponsoring L’Enfant Society raises funds and awareness for the restoration and improvement of the National Mall with the aim of keeping it one of the most majestic public spaces in the world. VIP reception 6 p.m., ball 8 p.m.; Madison Drive at 13th Street on the National Mall; black-tie; $175, VIP dinner seating $350; contact Farrah Kim, FarrahKim@rational360.com.
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KE NNEDY CENTER SPRING GALA
More than 1,500 of business and philanthropic leaders will flock to the Kennedy Center to support the organization’s performances, education and outreach initiatives. After cocktails on the River Terrace and dinner on the Roof Terrace, guests will enjoy a special performance of “My Fair Lady in Concert,” whose award-winning cast incudes Gregory Jbara in the role of Alfred P. Doolittle, Laura Michelle Kelly as Eliza Doolittle, Jonathan Pryce as Henry Higgins, Michael York as Colonel Pickering and Cloris Leachman as Mrs. Higgins. A Keep the Party Going ’Til Midnight Party follows the show. 5 p.m. cocktails, 6 p.m. dinner, 8 p.m. performance;The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; $1,000; contact Amanda Hunter aehunter@kennedy-center.org.
Queen Noor and Lauren Bush Lauren at the Refugees International Dinner (Photo by Kyle Samperton)
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WASHINGTON TENNIS & EDUCATION FOUNDATION TENNIS BALL To honor the achievements of participating children and showcase the opening of the new Tennis, Education and Community Center in Ward 7, WTEF will host its annual Tennis Ball with auctions and a gourmet seated dinner before recognizing honorees Robert L. Johnson, Mark Ein and Paul R. Ignatius. This annual fundraising event donates all proceeds to WTEF and the children it serves. 6 p.m.; the Ritz-Carlton, Washington D.C., 1150 22nd St. NW; $5; contact Victoria Shapiro, vshapiro@ susandavis.com.
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THE CHILDREN’S BALL Children’s National Medical Center’s benefit will be a night of firsts for more than 800 guests from the business, political, diplomatic, legal and healthcare communities who are expected to attend this year’s “It’s a Small World After All” gala. The first annual Children’s Innovation Award will be presented to GE Healthcare, in recognition of the critically important imaging technology that the company began providing to CNMC in 2012, while the inaugural Children’s Advocacy Award will be presented to Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland for his work on behalf of Washington-area children. 6:30 p.m.; The National Building Museum, 401 F St. NW; black-tie; $500; contact Diana Kurnit dkurnit@childrensnational.org.
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WOODROW WILSON HOUSE GARDEN PARTY Celebrate the organization’s 25th anniversary and the arrival of spring by donning your best garden party attire at this annual festival celebrating all things floral. Expect fierce competition — and great prizes — for the best ladies’ and gentlemens’ hats. 6:30 p.m.; Woodrow Wilson House, 2340 S St. NW; garden party attire; $100; contact Sarah Andrews, sandrews@WoodrowWilsonHouse.org.
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JUNIOR TENNIS CHAMPIONS CENTER CELEBRATION The Swedish Amb. Jonas Hafstrom once again co-hosts the center’s annual reception and dinner at his home with former world champion Mats Wilander present help raise funds for the after-school tennis and education outreach initiative, Game On! This year’s event will honor women’s Hall of Famer Chris Evert, and former Sen. John Breaux. 6:15; Residence of the Swedish Ambassador; contact David McIsaac for more information and ticket prices, dcisaac@ thetccp.com.
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PUBLIC CITIZEN GALA The 42nd annual gala will honor the lifetime achievements of Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens with an evening of cocktails, dinner and a lively post-dinner discussion between Justice Stevens and former
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New York Times correspondent Linda Greenhouse about Stevens’ career. 5:30 p.m. cocktail reception, 6:30 p.m. dinner and program; Ronald Reagan Building, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW; $250; contact Amanda Fleming, afleming@citizen.org.
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of mint juleps, mingling with prominent business, political and cultural leaders, and of course thoroughbred racing. This year’s International Pavilion is hosted by Japanese Amb. Kenichiro Sasae, who will welcome his distinguished guests to Baltimore with a crash course in Japanese culture. Gates open at 8 a.m.; Pimlico Race Course, 5201 Park Heights Ave., Baltimore Md. 21215; $70; visit preakness. com for more information.
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TUDOR PLACE SPRING GARDEN PARTY A highlight of the spring social season, this annual garden party brings together more than 500 Washington notables to this historic museum residence, which raises 20 percent of its yearly operating costs there. 6 p.m.; Tudor Place Historic House and Garden, 1644 31st St. NW; $150; contact Mandy Katz mkatz@turodrplace.org.
ZOOFARI Join Friends of the National Zoo for food, cocktails, live music, animal encounters and a silent auction. More than 100 of Washington’s top chefs will participate, including Equinox’s Todd Gray, Citronelle’s Michel Richard and Graffiato’s Mike Isabella. 6:30 p.m.; National Zoo, 3001 Connecticut Ave. NW; $150 members, $200 non-members; call 202-633-3034 for more information. CHARITYWORKS POINT VINTAGE WINE TASTING DINNER Lovers of fine wine and food won’t want to miss this exclusive evening benefiting Fisher House and Capital Partners for Education. Ten rare wines, each rated 100 points by either Wine Spectator or Wine Advocate, will be paired with food prepared by Washington’s most celebrated chefs.Tickets go fast, and seating is limited to 200 guests. 6 p.m.; Alex and Susan Mandl Residence, Great Falls, Va.; $5,000; email charityworks@aol. com or call 703-286-0758 for more information.
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INTERNATIONAL PAVILION AT THE PREAKNESS STAKES If just one day of horse racing isn’t enough, head to the “invitation only hospitality destination” at Pimlico Race Course for a day
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BOYS AND GIRLS CLUBS OF GREATER WASHINGTON’S TIM RUSSERT CONGRESSIONAL DINNER The 28th annual event is a great opportunity to recognize national and local leaders for their support of children served by local Boys and Girls Clubs and to raise funds to continue to prepare them for life through lessons on leadership, community service and teamwork. Luke Russert, the son of Tim Russert, will fill his late father’s shoes by serving as master of ceremonies. 6 p.m.; JW Marriott, 1331 Pennsylvania Ave. NW; $500; contact Paul Alagero 202-540-2322.
Rebecca Schwartz, Courtney Whitlow, Sapna Khatvi and Katherine Ragsdale at the 2012 Zoofari (Photo by Ben Droz)
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| M AY | washingtonlife.com
LIFE OF THE PARTY WL-sponsored and Exclusive Events | Catholic Charities Musicá y Sueños Benefit, WNO’s Opera Ball and more!
Corinne Salter and Lindsay Sustaric at The Washington Ballet’s Hemingway Ball (Photo by Kyle Samperton)
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LIFE
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Dancers Marshall Whitely, Jesse Lyon, Ruben Suarez and Kelsey Grene
Can-can dancers WL SPONSORED
THE WASHINGTON BALLET’S ‘HEMINGWAY IN PARIS’ BALL The Library of Congress | PHOTOS BY KYLE SAMPERTON GAÎTÉ PARISENNE: Matadors and Roaring Twenties-garbed flappers dancing to the sounds of “Disco Inferno” in the Great Hall of the Library of Congress? That — plus Folies Bergère-style can-can dancers prancing down the marble staircase, a delectable French feast and lots more — comprised the très jolie scene at the Washington Ballet’s memorable “Hemingway in Paris Ball. THE RIGHT CONNECTION: Former Sen. Chris Dodd, who cochaired the event with his wife, Jackie Clegg Dodd, announced that it was “the first time in 38 years” he had raised money for anything other than his campaigns.
Pilar O’Leary and Septime Webre VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS AT WWW WASHINGTONLIFE COM
Marnie Kennedy and Sen. Chris Dodd
Jane Harman and Tony Podesta
Jackie Clegg Dodd and Sylvia deLeon
Will Buchanan and Laura Wilson 22
Aaron Jackson, Marc Cipullo and Mark Gillespie
Alison and Bill Paley
Justice Samuel Alito and Martha-Ann Alito
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Rev. Mario Dorsonville and Christina Cox
Alejandro Pardo and Muni Jensen Kevin Swanson, Maureen Orth and Cailey Doran WL SPONSORED
CATHOLIC CHARITIES MUSICA Y SUENOS BENEFIT U.S. Chamber of Commerce Headquarters | PHOTOS BY TONY POWELL MUSIC AND DREAMS: More than 400 guests enjoyed salsa dancing lessons, live music and a Latin tapas buffet at this fun-filled inaugural event to raise funds for Catholic Charities’ Spanish Catholic Center. The Center provided food and medical care as well as English lessons to an estimated 18,000 people last year. VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS AT WWW WASHINGTONLIFE COM
Jonathan Colton and Michelle Snyder
Brother Mike Johnson and Monsignor John Enzler
Ralph and Vanessa Renzi
John McCarthy and Angela Shiappetta
Magaly and Jorge Letelier with Rossanna Mahr Abby Harris and Melissa Stahr
Mary Virgil, Anna Fronzaglia and Colleen Brock 24
Cindy Hart, Debbie Beard, Muni Jensen and Lilian Jensen
Sandra Diaz and Veronica Escobar
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Jay and Katie Ele
WASHINGTON NATIONAL OPERA BALL Villa Firenze | PHOTOS BY TONY POWELL
Vice President Joe Biden and Italian Amb. Claudio Bisogniero
VERY SPECIAL GUESTS: Music lovers celebrated the “Year of Italian Culture” at the 2013 Opera Ball, an event made more special than ever by the presence of a si*ing vice president and his wife — a first in ball history. “Every year is the year of the Italian in my house,” Veep Joe Biden told the crowd of 600 guests, noting that while he’s always referred to as an Irish-American politician, he was “smart enough to marry Dominic Giacoppa’s granddaughter.” LAVISH SCENE: Hosted by Constance Millstein, the ball featurd a massive marquee, designed by primo event designer Bryan Rafanelli to resemble the central square of an Italian village, was festooned with cachepots overflowing with lemons and flowers and intertwined with electric votive candles that hung above tables groaning with enough pasta, riso*o, specialty meats, cheeses and desserts to feed Rome for a week. Speeches and performances by Domingo-Cafritz artists preceded the dancing, which heated up to the tunes of Big Ray and the Cool Cats well a+er the hosts, Italian Amb. Claudio Bisogniero and his wife Laura Denise, had escorted their VIP guests to the door.
Jill Udall and Sen. Tom Udall
VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS AT WWW WASHINGTONLIFE COM
British Amb. Sir Peter Westmacott and Lady Westmacott, Jay Johnson and Sidney McNiff Johnson
Laura Denise Bisogniero and Jill Biden
David Rubenstein and Connie Milstein de la Haye Saint-Hillaire
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Newt and Callista Gingrich
Patricia Sagon and Chuck Miller
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Dr. Robert Marshall, Chief of Protocol Capricia P. Marshall, Lee Satterfield and Patrick Steele
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Jeanne Rector, Reid Rector and Mrs. Walter E. Washington (Mary Burke Washington)
Allen Y Lew, Mayor Vincent Gray and Council Chairman Phil Mendelson
Rodney Keller, Marlena Keller, Ellie Djavadkhani with Shawn and Calvin Johnson
WL EXCLUSIVE
WALTER E. WASHINGTON CONVENTION CENTER 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY Walter E. Washington Convention Center | PHOTOS BY DON BAKER
Mary Sutherland and Timora Pratt
IT TAKES A VILLAGE: More than 250 elite guests, including Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, Mayor Vincent Gray, Chairman Phil Mendelson and countless councilmembers, piled into the Convention Center- a building which took nearly two decades to build- to celebrate its 10th anniversary. Events DC President and CEO Greg O’Dell greeted his guests and thanked them for their endless support before le*ing them dig into their plates of roasted lamb, seared sea bass and oriental veggie stir-fry. Past and present city officials, community officials and stakeholders all applauded the more than $3.3 billion in direct spending and 10 million visitors that the Convention Center has generated VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS AT WWW WASHINGTONLIFE COM
Marco Aguilar, Brenda Devrouax, Lesley Devcrouax with Nathaniel and Rosemarie Sims
Eleanor Holmes Norton and Gregory O’Dell
WWCC Board Members WA S H I N G T O N L I F E
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Linda Harper, Robert Demers and Linda Greene
Lillian Iversen, Dianna Waldroup, Kris Rohr and Sharmane Fernandez-Medaris
Norman Jenkins and James Harper III
Tiffany Rose, Erik Moses and Tina Easter
George Price with Pedro and Gabrielle Alphonso and Ron Watkins
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POLLYWOOD The Nexus of Politics﹐ Hollywood﹐ Media and Diplomacy | Vital Voices Leadership Awards and more!
Susuan Monroe and Christine Rales at the 2013 Vital Voices Global Leadership Awards (Photo by Tony Powell)
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POLLYWOOD
HOLLYWOOD ON THE POTOMAC
BELLA DONNAS
Elle and Gucci bring out some of Washington’s influential women for an Italian interlude B Y J A N E T D O N O VA N
Melissa Maxfield and Laurie Knight
Elle and Gucci’s most powerful Washington women (Photo by Tony Powell)
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he evening had Italy written all over it: the waiters, the take-away Gucci embossed leather wallet and especially Villa Firenze of course, the residence of Italian Amb. Claudio Bisogniero and his wife Laura. About 100 well-connected guests turned out to toast Elle Magazine’s most powerful Washington women, an annual list that this year includes Jill Biden, Mignon L. Clyburn, Michelle Freeman, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Maria Teresa Kumar, Alyssa Mastromonaco, Susan McCue, Andrea Mitchell, Jessica Yellin and Susan Molinari. Elle Editor-in-Chief Robbie Myers fit right in, of course, in her elegant all-black enemble, Just back from three weeks of fashion shows in Europe, she noted that a particularly ambitious fashion editor could have seen about 200,000 pieces of designer clothing. “It’s female power that we’re celebrating and that has many different expressions,” she said. “This is my absolutely favorite event because it really speaks to the heart of what
it is that we’re trying to do at Elle and that is talk about issues that are important to women, figuring out how we’re going to make our way and create interesting lives for ourselves and our children and to figure out how to manage all this. It is such a pleasure to be among all of you, these wonderful Washington women empowered in D.C.” As the ambassador noted in his toast, this year marks the Year in Italian Culture in the U.S., an initiative designed to strengthen ties between our two countries with numerous events scheduled in virtually every major American city, including Washington, D.C. “Hosting this event is very significant, particularly this year,” he said. “Fashion and design play such an important role in everything that has to do with Italy and our creativity and our innovation.” Bisogniero went on to acknowledge Italy’s storied history with a nod to the luxury design house Gucci, the magazine’s dinner co-sponsor. “There’s no better way for us — Gucci,
Christophe de Pous and Jill Biden
Lee Satterfield, Kathleen Biden and Nancy-Ann Deparle
Elle and the Italian Embassy and of course our great honorees tonight — to celebrate this enchanting and exciting, stylish night,” he said. The stylish guests were rewarded with Cafe Milano Executive Chef Fabio Salvatore’s luscious Italian fare — blood orange and lemongrass marinated Maine lobster salad, roasted Chilean sea bass filet with house-made sweet-and-sour pickled vegetables and trufflescented polenta with foie gras timbale. But, what diners seemed to enjoy most was the dolci, a selection of raspberry chiboust tart, Zabaione and crunch pearl mousse, lemon tartlet, chocolate hazelnut cup in a chocolate cup and chocolate orange cremoso. Other notable guests included former Rep. Jane Harman, Gucci America President Christophe de Pous, Black Entertainment Television co-founder and Washington Mystics owner Sheila Johnson , awardwinning journalist and author Maureen Orth and Center for American Progress President Neera Tanden. S O
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Melanne Verveer and honoree Sandra Gomes Melo
America Ferrera and Alyse Nelson
Susan Davis and honoree Dr. Hawa Abdi
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VITAL VOICES GLOBAL LEADERSHIP AWARDS The Kennedy Center | PHOTOS BY TONY POWELL
Tina Brown
TRAILBLAZERS: The celebration of women around the world who work to li+ their communities was especially thrilling this year as Hillary Rodham Clinton, in her ďŹ rst public appearance since stepping down as secretary of state, joined Vice President Joe Biden on stageto honor six Global Leadership award winners. DYNAMIC DUO: The evening reunited Clinton with her longtime friend and colleague Melanne Verveer, who received a special tribute as Vital Voices co-founder.
Ann Curry VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS AT WWW WASHINGTONLIFE COM
Valerie Biden Owens, Claudine Bacher and Uri Perrin Mack and Donna McLarty
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Sheikha Alya Al-Thani
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Bobbie Greene McCarthy and Joe Reeder
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Visiting VIPs Scotland’s long good-bye, Eradicating Polio and Singing Russians BY ROLAND FLAMINI
Norwegian Amb. Wegger Strommen; former Prime Minister of Norway and Director General of the World Health Organization Dr. Gro Bruntland and Dr. Hamid Jafari (Courtesy Photo)
SCOTCH SALMOND: Alex Salmond, the first minister of the Scottish government, was in town in April to publicize his campaign for Scotland’s independence from Britain – while at the same time nesting in at the British Embassy. As a visiting senior Brit, Salmond is entitled to hospitality there, even though the embassy said it was not involved in his Washington program. Scotland’s independence bid has got to be the most polite separatist movement ever. In September 2014, five million Scots will vote in a referendum whether or not to end 300plus years of its sometimes restive union with England. David Cameron’s government is committed to accepting the outcome. Salmond pointed out to an audience at the Brookings Institution that, unlike the violence generated by many independence campaigns, “No one has suffered as much as a nose bleed” for the Scottish cause. If the vote were held now, the independent movement would very probably lose: polls show around 36 percent in favor of severing the ties that bind the two nations, and about 46 percent for continuing
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the union. But a year is a long time in politics, and Salmond says, “I’m an optimist.” PARTIES, PARTIES: The range of causes celebrated in embassy residences knows no limits. On April 1, for example, Norwegian Amb. Wegger Strommen and his wife, Rev. Cecilie Strommen, hosted a reception at their Massachusetts Avenue home honoring diplomats from the 44 participating countries in the U.N.’s Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Former Norwegian Prime Minister and ex-Director General of the World Health Organization Gro Harlem Bruntland was the guest of honor. The U.N. campaign is famous for having made significant progress in eliminating the wild polio virus. In 2012, only 224 new polio cases in five countries were reported. At this rate, guests were told, there could be no more new cases by 2014. But then it will take another three casefree years to be sure that the virus has been permanently vanquished. The same evening, the Russian Embassy threw open the doors of its enormous and
ornate reception rooms for a good-bye dinner for four artists from the Bolshoi Theater Young Artists Opera Program. The three singers and a pianist had just completed an exchange with the Washington National Opera’s DomingoCafritz Young Artist Program. Russian soprano Nina Minasyan, tenor Sergey Radchenko, and bass Oleg Tsybulko, teamed with DomingoCafritz counterparts Maria Antunez (soprano), Javier Arrey (baritone) and Soloman Howard (bass) for a display of fine vocal talent despite the informality of the occasion and less than concert hall conditions. Kiril Kuzmin (a Bolshoi Young Artist) and Artem Grishaev (formerly of the Bolshoi) were the accompanying pianists. “The whole two-week exper ience has been amazing, starting from the drive from the airport, with the huge homes on the route, and the clean air compared to Moscow,” tenor Sergey Radchenko noted. “The program is quite similar: classes in Italian and singing are basic. But in Washington we also did stage combat – wrestling and fencing; in Russia we do yoga. In our spare time we went shopping.” On Apr. 6, the Opera Ball, a highlight of the Washington social season, returned to “Villa Firenze” (the Italian Embassy residence), one of its traditional venues. Vice-President Joe Biden and Jill Biden were the evening’s special guests but their immense security detail held up about a hundred ball-goers, including at least four ambassadors, at the gates in unseasonably cold weather. One envoy was seen draping his dinner jacket over the bare shoulders of his shivering wife. Only when the motorcade (yes, motorcade) slid past was the crowd allowed to proceed down the drive to the front door. Once inside the house — colorfully transformed into an Italian town piazza — the freezing guests got to warm up on the dance floor.
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Haithan Hasan Al-Subaihi and Geert Boven
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ETIHAD AIRWAYS LAUNCH EVENT Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium | PHOTOS BY ALFREDO FLORES
Tripp Donnelly, Bret Baier and Adrian Fenty
IN FLIGHT DIPLOMACY: More than 450 guests gathered to celebrate the launch of Etihad Airway’s daily service between Washington and Abu Dhabi and taste test the Arabian cuisine they can expect to find on board from 11 of the more than 100 in-flight chefs. United Arab Emirates Amb. Yousel Al-Otaiba told guests that the new service symbolizes the “strong ties between the U.A.E. and the U.S.” that will “expand trade, enhance diplomacy … and deepen the friendship that binds our countries closer together.” Grammy Award-winning artist Harry Connick Jr. and his band provided the evening’s entertainment.
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Fred Malek with Beth and Ron Dozoretz
Charles Scaperotte, Catherine Kramvis and Richard Douglas Adrienne Arsht and Bill Cohen
Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum and Palestinian Representative Maen Rashid Areikat WA S H I N G T O N L I F E
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Comoros Amb. Roubani Kaambi
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Catherine Nesbitt, Larry Work and Cherrie Wanner Doggett
Larry Christensen and Sgt. Michael Schlitz
Susan Forbes, Gary Sinise and Jim May Pat Harrison and William Tayman, Jr.
INSPIRATION TO ACTION BENEFIT DINNER The Caucus Room Brasserie at the Westin Georgetown PHOTOS BY ALFREDO FLORES
DINING WITH THE STARS: Award-winning actor Gary Sinise, founder of an eponymously named foundation that funds programs and initiates in support of veterans and active duty armed forces personnel, cohosted a benefit at Caucus Room Brasserie with the restaurant’s owner, Larry Work. Sergeant First Class Michael Schlitz, now retired from the U.S. Army, was the evening’s honored guest.
Kevin Wensing, John Studi, Christine Strang, Wm. Randall Cone and Pat Bradshaw
John Underwood and Leslie Smith
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Ginni Rommetty Ashton Carter and Brent Scowcroft
Nancy and Henry Kissinger Maj. Gen. Gregg Martin WL EXCLUSIVE
Cathleen Pearl and Al Zimmerman
NDUF LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS Philip and Nina Pillsbury Ritz-Carlton Hotel | PHOTOS BY ALFREDO FLORES HONORED HEROES: Familiar faces from the defense world turned out to honor one of their own in Brent Scowcroft, the only former national security advisor to server under two presidents: Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush. Longtime friend and colleague Henry Kissinger was on hand with IBM CEO Ginni Rommetty to present Scowcroft with the National Defense University Foundation’s award for a lifetime of achievement.
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Robert and Michelle Stevens
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Guests arrive for the cast party Helen Hayes Award recipients Laura Chachich, Carly Wheaton, Morgann Rose and Francesca Forcella
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THEATREWASHINGTON HELEN HAYES AWARDS Warner Theatre and J.W. Marriott Hotel | PHOTOS BY TONY POWELL
Linda Levy Grossman, Mitchell Shear, Ellen Burstyn and Victor Shargai
LOCAL STARS NIGHT OUT: Actors, directors, producers and all the folks who ensure things go smoothly backstage wouldn’t have missed the 29th annual Helen Hayes Awards to honor this year’s best productions at 90 area companies. A+er all, Washington is the best place to see live theater outside of New York. STAR POWER: Forty-four outstanding performers and plays picked up awards at the black-tie event at the Warner Theatre that was graced by the presence of Emmy-, Tony- and Oscar-winning-actress Ellen Burstyn.
Rita Ortiz and Jose Ozuna
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D.C. Councilmembers Muriel Bowser and David Grosso
Glenn Howard and Actors’ Equity Association President Nick Wyman
Terrell, Ethan, Bill and Kate McSweeny
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Maurice Hines
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Angela Pirco, Anne Haney, Rebecca Speas and Sarah Taurchini
Michael Sazonov, Wendy Rieger and Matt Glassman
Helen Hayes Award recipient Bonnie Fogel with Sarah Fogel
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P H OTOS : A P I M AG E S A N D F I L E
hough many faces have changed, Washington Life’s rules of power remain the same on this, our 8th annual, Power 100 List. Once again we recognize a wide-ranging mix of local personalities guided by the following indicators and attributes: (1) knowledge is power; (2) access is power; (3) influence is power; and (4) the perception of power is often the most powerful of all. Money doesn’t necessarily beget power, as it ultimately depends on how it is used. For listing purposes, we continue the tradition of eliminating anyone drawing a government paycheck since that would be, well, a bit boring. Instead, our list primarily focuses on players — some more behind the scenes than others — who have helped shape legislative and judicial politics, the economy, diplomacy, media, business, real estate and the arts. While things tend to slow down after a major presidential election, there has been plenty happening in Washington, be it the tax skirmishes, immigration debates, gun control, environmental and energy security battles, money in politics, middle east policy or major gay rights cases before the Supreme Court. Behind (and often in front of) the buzz are the power players who help shape
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the national dialogue on these issues and so many more. Nearly 50 percent of our listees are new this year, having proven that through their knowledge, influence or access, they have the ability to profoundly shape the environments in which they interact. They represent a dazzling mix of personalities. Among them are David Corn, who broke a story that may indeed have impacted the outcome of the 2012 presidential election; the Human Rights Campaign’s personable new leader Chad Griffin; Fox News’ Bret Baier, whose ratings continue to surpass his competitors; NPR’s Kojo Nnamdi, one of the most beloved men in radio; and the ONE Campaign’s Michael Elliott, among many others. We also acknowledge leaders in the arts and professional sports for their influence on the cultural life of our region, including Redskins’ quarterback Robert Griffin III, Arena Stage’s Molly Smith, chef extraordinaire Jose Andres, and the Washington National Opera’s dynamic duo Phillippe Auguin and Francesca Zambello. Whether their influence comes from political impact or cultural influence, these individuals show the depth and breadth of power in Washington and beyond. Read on for the full list.
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CORY ALEXANDER Alexander represents the country’s largest health insurance company, UnitedHealth, which insures more than 70 million Americans and was ranked No. 22 on Fortune Magazine’s top 500 companies in 2012. He does this with serious Capitol Hill connections, which is understandable since he was formerly House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer’s chief of staff. A major contributor to Democratic candidates, he was named a top corporate lobbyist in both 2012 and 2011 by the Hill Newspaper.
ROBERT ALLBRITTON FRED RYAN As if owning two local television stations wasn’t enough, Allbritton’s influence is exerted through Politico, which has changed the speed in which American politics is covered with a cadre of reporters breaking news daily from Capitol Hill and beyond. Despite several layoffs in January, Allbritton has given Politico editor-in-chief John Harris and executive editor Jim VandeHei a “clear mandate,” according to the Huffington Post, to continue growing the organization, which includes the subscription-based, policyfocused Politico Pro. The gentlemanly Ryan runs the company by relying upon more than three decades of political experience (which includes serving as chief of staff to President Ronald Reagan after the “Gipper” left the White House).
MIKE ALLEN The quirky hyperactive journalist behind Washington’s morning mustread, the Politico Playbook, finally took a vacation last May after penning his email newsletter for 990 days straight. When he returned, Politico’s chief political correspondent plunged straight through the 2012 election cycle, adding new responsibilities to his plate all the while. Allen hosts a number of wonky “Playbook Breakfasts,” where he interviews Washington newsmakers and recently discussed technology and politics with Microsoft boss Bill Gates at the first ever “Playbook Cocktails.”
TOM ANDERSON DANA LANDRY WILLIAM F X MOODY MARC SCHAPPELL The team at Washington Fine Properties is already on its way to
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meeting last year’s whopping $1.55 billion sales volume with the sales of iconic Laird-Dunlop Coach House in Georgetown, the Ballantrae Farm Estate in McLean, and a District home that once belonged to the mother of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis which sold for $8.6 million. As one of the leading luxury real estate firms in the Capital area, WFP was awarded the “Highest Sales Volume per Agent” distinction and the “Highest Average Sales Price per Transaction” award in both 2012 and 2011 by Real Trends, the real estate ranking organization. WFP also holds the distinction of having participated in over 50 percent of capital area transactions involving homes valued at $5 million plus, with the average sales price for the firm exceeding $1.3 million, that being the highest in the nation. WFP had more agents recognized by the Wall Street Journal this year, including Mark McFadden, Nancy Taylor Bubes, Margot Wilson, Marsha Schuman, W. Ted Gossett, Ellen Morrell, Matthew McCormick, William F. X. Moody & Robert Hryniewicki..
JOSE ANDRES Sure, he’s the chef credited for bringing the small plates concept to the United States, but in Washington, Andrés means that and more. Not only did opening his restaurant empire — which these days includes Jaleo, Zaytinya, Minibar and Oyamel — reinvigorate Chinatown and help create downtown’s bustling food scene, he’s used his position as one of the capital’s top chefs to shape food policy as well. Andrés is partnering with the State Department to spread awareness about toxic stove fumes. He’s also educating diners by opening a restaurant completely inspired by a National Archives exhibit and is teaming up with White House Chef Sam Kass to promote first lady Michelle Obama’s healthy eating initiatives.
PHILIPPE AUGUIN FRANCESCA ZAMBELLO The ascent of the highly esteemed Auguin into the role of Washington National Opera’s music director in 2010 and Zambello as its artistic director in 2012 are two big bright spots for the beleaguered company. With the Kennedy Center officially holding the reins since 2011, Zambello is now planning to expand the opera’s
Jose Andres use of those facilities by staging operas in some of the smaller theaters as well. She has also vowed to reach out more locally. “We have a chance to be in such a city...with such a persona of government and politics, the capital of America, and we’re not connected to any of that,” Zambello told the Washington Post last September when she was promoted from artistic adviser to artistic director. “I want to connect, in terms of both content and audience development.”
BRETT BAIER In February Fox News’ “Special Report” anchor hit a milestone as Baier and his Washington-based team celebrated topping his time slot for 50 consecutive months among cable news shows — a feat only achieved in recent ratings history by NBC’s Brian Williams. Baier’s first day of reporting in Washington was on 9/11, when he drove to the area from his home base of Atlanta. He covered the Pentagon, then the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq for Fox before taking the reins of “Special Report” from Brit Hume in 2009. He’s also earned local goodwill as a major player on the charity scene, while using a personal ordeal — his son Paul was born with five congential heart defects — to raise awareness of that issue.
BOB BARNETT The Hollywood Reporter recently named Barnett the “most sought-after literary agent in America,” pointing out that it’s a funny distinction to give a man whose book agent work is a sideline. Barnett, a partner at Williams & Connolly, has negotiated big-dollar contracts for memoirs from America’s political royalty, including Barack Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, George W. and Laura Bush, and Republican strategist Karl Rove. Most recently, he’s the man behind accused murderer Amanda Knox’s forthcoming
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memoir “Waiting to be Heard” and has represented Ann Curry when she left NBC’s “Today Show” to take on a different role with the network. A Democrat, he’s helped numerous public officials transition out of government service; he’s also been involved in nine presidential campaigns, usually prepping candidates for debates.
JEREMY BEN-AMI It’s been five years since J Street’s founding, but the pro two-state solution Jewish advocacy group has grown quickly and backed the right horses in last year’s election. Besides Ben-Ami being a major player in the discussion — with a pro-Israel, pro-Peace message — J Street has been instrumental in getting young people involved. In 2009 there were just seven J Street university outposts, now there are more than 50. The group boasts around 15,000 donors and 180,000 supporters and its political action committee distributed $1.8 million to candidates during the last cycle, winning 70 of their 71 races, according to the Jewish Times.
glasses without a collective Washington gasp. A CNN mainstay and the host of the weekday newscast “The Situation Room,” Blitzer is the network’s true anchor man. When “John King USA” was pulled off the air last June, Blitzer got the empty hour. When CNN opened its renovated Washington broadcast studio, Blitzer cut the ribbon (and debuted those short-lived “hipster” glasses). He remains a focal point, even as the cable news channels strives to reinvent itself with new hires.
THOMAS “TOMMY” HALE BOGGS JR Patton Boggs turned 50 in 2012, with the firm’s namesake continuing to influence legislation through what the Washington Post names as the “most lucrative lobby shop in Washington.” Last year marked a leaner year for the legal giant with revenue falling from $48.4 million to $46 million, according to Politico, and a number of layoffs besides. But the firm says it’s using the anniversary to reinvent itself in an era in which lobbying has become more diversified and grassroots oriented.
ROBERT S “BOB” BENNETT After 40 years of practicing law, this Washington “superlawyer” includes among his clients former President Bill Clinton, New York Times reporter Judith Miller and, more recently,Washington, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray. He’s the go-to guy for high-profile white-collar crime. In March, he was named one of the country’s 100 most influential lawyers by the National Law Journal.
WAYNE BERMAN Berman made headlines last summer when he left Ogilvy Government Relations, where he had been the managing director since 2004. Now he’s the in-house lobbyist for private equity firm Blackstone Group, Ogilvy’s largest client. Currently, Blackstone is competing to acquire Dell Inc. This bid pits Berman and Blackstone against the company’s founder Michael Dell. Berman brings years of experience in government to his job, having worked for the campaigns, transition teams and administrations of Presidents George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan..
WOLF BLITZER Wolf Blitzer can’t even get new
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DAVID BRADLEY David made his fortune through his two research firms, the Advisory Board and the Corporate Executive Board, but it’s his ownership of Atlantic Media that has transformed him into a major media player. His portfolio includes the intellectual Atlantic, the wonkish National Journal and, since September, the online-only Quartz, which is geared toward worldly business professionals. Bradley is known for recruiting top talent to all the brands and, as the New York Times reported, is “a bit of a brain collector.” Bradley demonstrates his reach in D.C. during White House Correspondents’ weekend, annually hosting an intimate dinner at his home, along with several other star-studded parties.
JOHN B BREAUX TRENT LOTT The bipartisan team of former senators was snatched up by Patton Boggs in 2010 and now commands a diverse group of clients including liquor giant Diageo, American Airlines, Tyson Foods and Fedex, according to lobbying disclosure forms. The team is also on tap to be on the list of high-profile names involved in the fight over federal tax reform on Capitol Hill later this year. As
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a side gig, Lott is a senior fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center, the only think tank in Washington whose sole mission is to find solutions that appeal to both sides of the aisle — something which is very appealing during a time of nonstop political discord.
BILL BURTON It was better late than never for Bill Burton and his cohorts at the proObama Super PAC Priorities USA Action. The organization hammered away at Mitt Romney during the last several weeks of the 2012 presidential election, spending nearly $21 million between Oct. 18 and Nov. 26, according to Politico, and ending the period with $4.33 million still in the bank. And it paid off with President Obama coasting back into the White House for four more years. This access will be helpful to Burton who, in January, signed on with the left-leaning Global Strategy Group. Burton was an early entry to Obamaland, working as the campaign’s press secretary in the 2008 cycle. Previously he worked alongside then-Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., as communications director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
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GUY CECIL Guy Cecil has one goal and one goal only as the 2014 midterm election approaches: “To hold the majority, that’s it,” he recently told the New York Times. Cecil is staying on as executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee after successfully fending off GOP threats and retaining a senate majority for the Dems. Senate races in 2014 look even more brutal, but Cecil has plenty of experience. He came to the DSCC as its political director in 2006 and proceeded to usher Democrats into a majority that year. He left to work on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and then was chief of staff to Sen. Michael Bennett of Colorado, whom he helped re-elect in 2010. The duo is back together going into 2014 because Bennett said he would only take the job as DSCC chair if Cecil was at his side.
John Breaux
A JAMES CLARK The name Clark is practically synonymous with the Washington real estate and construction boom inasmuch as the company owns and is
Bono and former President Bill Clinton TrentPowell) Lott (Photo by Tony
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BILL CLINTON Even with Hillary Clinton not posted up at the State Department, Clinton has powerful ties in Washington and at the White House. (It probably helps being one of only four living U.S. presidents). Clinton long ago buried the hatchet with his wife’s former Democratic primary rival President Obama, even giving one of the most compelling and persuasive arguments for Obama’s re-election at last summer’s Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. In addition, his William J. Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative garner much goodwill in Washington and beyond.
HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
Hillary Rodham Clinton redeveloping large swaths of downtown. Notable projects from the Clark Construction Group, a part of CEI, include the Arena Stage upgrade and CityCenterDC, a joint project with Smoot Construction, which is rapidly transforming the former convention center site. Clark and Smoot teamed up again with H.J. Russell & Company to bring the National Museum of African American History and Culture to the National Mall in what will be the Smithsonian Institution’s 19th outpost. Expected delivery date for this project is 2015. Meanwhile, daughter Courtney Clark Pastrick is making strides in philanthropy in the family’s name, running The Clark Charitable Foundation, which funds programs that target the disadvantaged, medical research, health care and education in the local area.
PAUL CLEMENT Conservatives love former solicitor general Paul Clement for not shying
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away from controversial cases. “In fact, since leaving the position of solicitor general under Bush, he has become, in the Obama age, a sort of anti-solicitor general — the go-to lawyer for some of the Republican Party’s most significant, and polarizing, legal causes,” New York Magazine noted in a profile written last year. Recently the “superlawyer” made headlines arguing on behalf of the Defense of Marriage Act after being hired by House Republicans to defend it. Clement has also defended Arizona’s controversial immigration law before the Supreme Court (the Court ended up striking down parts) and offered the Republican challenge to the Affordable Care Act last year. “Paul truly is the best lawyer of his generation, and if he can’t win the case, no one can,” President Obama’s former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal told New York magazine. Nevertheless, Clement came up short on that one too, with the High Court ruling that the “individual mandate” was, in the end, constitutional.
It’s only been a few months since she’s left the State Department, but Hillary Clinton can’t utter a sentence, shake a hand or approach a podium without the press screeching about the probabilities of her running for president in 2016. She chose a Washington society event to make her first public appearance in private life, speaking at the Vital Voices Global Leadership Awards at the Kennedy Center in early April. And although she kept her speech light on politics and heavy on women power, it still got people talking — especially since she shared the stage with another potential 2016 candidate,Vice President Joe Biden.
G WAYNE CLOUGH During his first five years, the secretary of the Smithsonian has weathered art-related mini-scandals and major money woes so well that, in January, the institution’s board of regents announced that the job was his indefinitely. Clough is raising big bucks for the institution, with a goal of $1 billion over the next five to seven years, while reassuring employees and the public that sequester cuts won’t impact the museums’ day-to-day operations. Meanwhile, attendance climbed to more than 30 million across all Smithsonian museums in 2012, the highest in the past decade.
Means Committee. Since taking over as media relations director for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which employs almost 5,000 people and had a budget of $607 billion in 2008, he has handled the communications for every phase of implementing President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. As full implementation of the health care legislation goes into effect this year and into 2014, Cook will be a key player in the transition.
DAVID CORN If one news story could be blamed for Mitt Romney’s downfall in this past presidential election, fingers would most likely point toward Mother Jones’ and MSNBC’s David Corn. Already a significant liberal media name, Corn was given the secretly taped “47 percent” video, which media critic Howard Kurtz later called the “scoop of the year.” Bartender Scott Prouty, who surreptitiously filmed Romney’s speech, had seen some of Corn’s well-researched stories on Romney’s factories in China and handpicked him to be the reporter to leak the GOP candidate’s remarks. “I respected David Corn’s journalism,” Prouty told MSNBC’s Ed Schultz. More recently Corn scooped again, but more controversially, when he published a story about what was said during a closed-door meeting between Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his campaign staff. When he’s not getting game-changing scoops, Corn is also earning praise as a filmmaker these days with his documentary “Hubris,” a closer examination of how the U.S. got into the Iraq War.
BRIAN COOK Cook earned his communications chops on the Hill working for Rep. Pete Stark and the House Ways and
Paul Clement
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COLIN CROWELL One of the quickest ways to judge a person’s influence is to see how many Twitter followers they have, and as head of global public policy for Twitter, Crowell spends his days leveraging the popularity of the social networking site to gain clout among Washington elite. Described by the Washington Post in 2009 as “one of the most influential tech policy operatives you’ve never heard of,” the rising star of the corporate lobbying world combines both his Capitol Hill expertise as a longtime staffer for Rep. Ed Markey and his communications skills from his days as senior counselor for the FCC to expand Twitter’s presence in Washington. (At press time, Crowell’s personal Twitter account had 5,035 followers.)
JIM DEMINT Just two years into his second term, South Carolina Republican Sen. Jim DeMint made the surprise announcement last December that he was going to leave Congress to become president of the Heritage Foundation in the spring, citing his disappointment that the right had not taken enough control of its message and ideas and communicated them directly to the American people. During his tenure on Capitol Hill, DeMint helped fellow Tea Party darlings, including Sens. Rand Paul, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, to get elected through his Senate Conservatives Fund political action committee. Now, he plans to master the messaging. “We know that lawmakers are not going to push, promote and pass conservative ideas unless people understand and support them,” DeMint told Yahoo News during his second day at the think tank’s helm.
THOMAS DONOHUE SCOTT REED Under the leadership of Donohue and Reed, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce became a much bigger player in the political game, though it predominantly backed the losing horses during the last election cycle. Of the 15 Democratic U.S. Senate candidates the chamber spent $24 million to defeat, only two went down and the group’s luck wasn’t much better in the House. This year, the chamber will instead use its vast influence to get something
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done on immigration, already striking a deal with the AFL-CIO for a new visa program for guest workers while gearing up for battle with the SEC to defeat any rule that would require public disclosure of political donors.
HIV. A brainiac with two degrees from Oxford, this Liverpool native also spent time on the Central Policy Review Staff in Britain’s Cabinet Office, and will likely go a long way to boosting ONE’s policy efforts in Washington.
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This former White House communications director left in 2009 to return to SKDKnickerbocker, which soon doubled in size. Dunn has parlayed her perceived direct connection to the White House to win clients and boost business, but this didn’t happen without controversy. “Members of the AxelrodGibbs-Plouffe axis chafe at the work Dunn’s firm, SKDKnickerbocker, has done for ex-Republican governor Charlie Crist and for a coalition of junk-food manufacturers,” the New Republic recently reported, noting that the sugar campaign was in “direct competition with the first lady’s antiobesity campaign.” During the last election cycle, Dunn played senior adviser to President Obama, even pretending to be CNN’s Candy Crowley during debate prep, but continued to serve her corporate clients, too.
As the Chief White House Correspondent for Fox News Channel (and before that, CNN), Ed Henry has two of the loftiest perches in town, one covering the Leader of the Free World for Fox, and the other as president of the White House Correspondents Association, where he’s finishing up a two-year term as one its most outspoken and effective recent presidents. At The White House for CNN, one memorable moment early in Obama’s first term occurred in 2009 when Henry asked a pointed follow-up to a question that Obama had previously ignored, about the AIG bonus payments controversy. He decamped to Fox News in 2011, where his access to key administration officials has led to scoring a number of scoops with the pointed questions from Henry continuing.
RICHARD FAIRBANK MICHAEL ELLIOTT In 2011 the former Time International editor took over the reins at ONE, the global advocacy organization with the added cool factor of having been founded by U2’s Bono. Since then, the group has grown to include over three million members around the world, thereby adding more voices to the pressing concern of ending extreme poverty and preventable diseases like
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At the helm of one of the most visible financial institutions in the country, with celebrity spokesmen asking “What’s In Your Wallet?” Fairbank has watched Capital One’s common stock jump 37 percent in 2012, according to the Washington Business Journal. When it comes to CEOs, Fairbank may be clustered among the good guys taking no salary since 1997, but he still managed to rake
Jim DeMint in $22.6 million last year — mostly from bonus pay and stocks.
HOWARD FINEMAN RYAN GRIM While Fineman is one of cable news’ most recognizable political talking heads, what Grim does behind the scenes as Huffington Post’s Washington Bureau chief is noteworthy, too. Grim leads a team of talents, including political reporter Sam Stein, a favorite of bookers on MSNBC. He also plucked Eliot Nelson, the lead writer of HuffPost Hill — the Post’s answer to Politico’s Playbook — out of obscurity. Nelson, who had been robbed at gunpoint at his Shaw apartment, penned a particularly colorful police report about the incident. Reportedly two months later, he was hired.
FRANKLIN FOER When Facebook co-founder and former Obama online campaign adviser Chris Hughes bought a majority share of the New Republic last year, the first thing he did was hire back Franklin Foer, who had been the magazine’s editor for five years before vacating the position in 2010. “I had no thought of returning to edit the magazine,” Foer told the New York Times. “But to me, it feels like a new project. It doesn’t feel like I’m going back to my old job.” A lifelong Washingtonian, Foer quickly snapped up local talent including Washington City Paper editor Michael Schaffer and reporter Lydia DePillis, along with a handful of writers from New York-based publications. In January, the New Republic was officially re-launched with a new look
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Gregory O’Dell (courtesy photo) in print, on the Web and in app form. In an interview with President Obama Foer asked the question: had the president ever fired a gun? POTUS offered that he occasionally would go skeet shooting at Camp David, a fact that intrigued the news cycle for several days.
TUCKER FOOTE A veteran of the House Financial Services committee, Foote is not only considered one of the up-andcoming lobbyists on K Street but was named to the Hill newspaper’s list of Top Lobbyists in 2012. The former Capitol Hill aide is at the helm of Mastercard’s Washington office, which, last September, expanded to a team of six. “We want to find new ways to partner with government, not fight it,” Foote told the National Journal at the time. On the horizon for Foote and his cohorts at Mastercard is the debate over credit card swipe fees as retailers continue to push for reform.
P WESLEY FOSTER JR Bit by bit for longer than four decades, Foster has built the largest privately owned residential real estate company in the country. Based in Chantilly,Va., his empire provides mortgage, insurance and title services, manages rental properties and, of course, brings in big dollars from home sales. Foster is cautiously optimistic that the real estate business is getting back on its feet. “We are working our way through and are beginning to see a real shift in the market,” he recently told the Georgetowner. “The good news is
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Stephen Fuller that our company is well positioned to succeed in any scenario.” The company’s top agents include Marc Fleisher, whose team was ranked 13th out of 250 real estate teams nationwide by the Wall Street Journal and Real Trends in 2012 as well as the brothers Wydler (Hans and Steve), whose professional accomplishments include releasing a tell-all book in 2012, “Inside the Sell, Top Agents Reveal Unspoken Secrets and Dangers of Buying and Selling Your Home.”
reputation in the lead-up to the 2012 presidential election as a rain-maker backing fellow Mormon Mitt Romney on the Republican ticket. He lost that one, but his other losses are few and far between. Armed with a seemingly unlimited budget, Gerard has gone right back into the fray on the muchcontested $7 billion Keystone XL Pipeline project, a fight that is reaching a crescendo with the EPA’s justreleased environmental impact report contradicting the State Department’s own assessment.
STEPHEN FULLER Need the sequester explained simply? For more than 40 years Stephen Fuller has made the economy his business. Recently he’s positioned himself to be a knowledgeable media expert who spits out digestible bits of data for public consumption on demand. In the past three years, the professor and economist delivered more than 250 public speeches, according to the Washington Business Journal, and has also released a bevy of highly quoted reports. But being a media star has had its drawbacks, too. A recent Loudoun Metrorail study got attacked by some for being too developement-friendly. “I’m old enough to where I don’t take it personally,” Fuller told the Business Journal. He has also been quoted saying that he plans to retire in the next two to three years.
JACK GERARD As head of the American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry’s biggest and most aggressive advocate earned a
ED GILLESPIE The oft-quoted Gillespie spent this last campaign cycle within Mitt Romney’s inner circle, trying to make the candidate seem more moderate after a sharp turn to the right in the Republican primary. Now, with Romney not in the White House, Gillespie and the Republicans are seeking a reboot and Gillespie is once again in the position to be influential. He rejoined the Republican State Leadership Committee as its chairman in February as the group launched a “Future Majority Caucus” initiative to elect female, Hispanic, AfricanAmerican and Asian-American Republican candidates to state office. The former RNC chairman has had big wins in the past, shepherding both of George Bush’s presidential victories and the GOP’s takeover of both houses of Congress in 2004.
NICHOLAS GIORDANO As one of the leaders of Washington
Council Ernst & Young’s tax and budget practice, Giordano is expected to have his plate full once Congress begins to tackle tax reform. Before excelling in the world of tax lobbying, Giordano served as the chief tax counsel of the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance and Legislative Director and tax counsel for Sen. Max Baucus. Giordano’s combined knowledge of political budget and tax policy issues and the fact that WCEY consistently outperforms the field on tax-related lobbying (they reported $6.37 billion in revenue from the tax service line for 2012) makes him an easy choice as Congress’ go-to consult on tax reform.
BRADLEY GRAHAM LISSA MUSCATINE Married former Washington Post reporters Graham and Muscatine were looking for the next step in their careers when they heard that Politics and Prose, Washington’s preeminent independent bookstore, was up for sale. Carla Cohen, who founded the upper Northwest store alongside business partner Barbara Meade, had become ill and died the autumn before, when in June 2011 the husband and wife team took over the neighborhood bookshop. Besides journalism, Muscatine had spent years working in politics, including as Hillary Clinton’s speech writer. Now she and Graham are in charge of the institution which is the destination for authors, political or otherwise, when they pass through town. Adding to the store’s clout, last November “Saturday Night Live” used the Politics and Prose name
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Chad Griffin in a hilarious skit depicting an author event with Gen. George Petraeus’ mistress, Paula Broadwell.
DONALD GRAHAM KATHARINE WEYMOUTH With the Washington Examiner folding and the Washington Times on shaky ground, Donald Graham and Katherine Weymouth might be the last best hope for daily print newspapers in the nation’s capital. The Post has been making big changes, too. Boston Globe editor Marty Baron came in January to lead the newsroom. In March the Post announced there would soon be a pay wall erected around its website that will also start featuring more video. USA Today’s Jackie Kucinich was also hired to co-anchor a daily political program with Chris Cillizza.
DAVID GREGORY While he’s been criss-crossing the Sunday show ratings with CBS “Face the Nation” host Bob Schieffer, the “Meet the Press” host had his contract extended in February, proving that NBC brass was wholly behind the host, despite rumors to the contrary. Gregory continues to nab highprofile interviews, including one with President Obama in December. Remember, it was also on “Meet the Press” last May where Vice President Joe Biden inadvertently came out in support of same-sex marriage, with POTUS soon following suit.
CHAD GRIFFIN No matter what the Supreme Court says, it’s already been a big year for the
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Robert Griffin, III Human Rights Campaign’s president. Griffin was picked to lead the Districtbased LGBT organization in March 2012 after his work to challenge California’s Proposition 8 caught the group’s attention. It was Griffin who first brought together the bipartisan legal team of Theodore Olson and David Boies there. Since then, the HRC has successfully pressured many politicians, including President Obama, to publicly support same-sex marriage. The group also spearheaded a successful equality-themed Facebook campaign when the marriage cases went before the Supreme Court.
ROBERT GRIFFIN III If you want to see hope and change in Washington, look no further than the Washington Redskins’ quarterback. The former Heisman Trophy winner was the fresh face of the franchise this year, taking the ’Skins to the playoffs for the first time since the 2007 season. And while Griffin sustained a horrific knee injury playing against the Seattle Seahawks in a Wild-Card game, he made his first public appearance in February and didn’t limp as he accepted the Associated Press’ offensive rookie of the year award. So far, so good, Griffin has said of his recovery efforts, telling reporters that he aimed to play in game No. 1 next season.
JASON GRUMET Jason Grumet has not only been instrumental in getting big-name partisans in the same room, he also has them working together on the same
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Jason Grumet problems. Grumet, along with former Sens. Howard Baker, Tom Daschle, Bob Dole and George Mitchell, formed the Bipartisan Policy Center in 2007 as the only Washington think tank that actively promotes working across the aisle. Since then, they’ve attracted a cadre of former members of Congress and have helped move along health care and other major legislation. Going forward, the group plans to be a problem-solver in the immigration debate, recruiting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former H.U.D. Secretary Henry Cisneros and former governors Haley Barbour and Ed Rendell to work on a special Immigration Task Force.
MARY KAY HENRY Before becoming labor’s top woman, Henry spent more than three decades representing healthcare workers and will be adding her spunk to this year’s immigration debate, where she’ll be a major player. She’s also one of the most influential members of the LGBT community, being recently named to Out magazine’s 50 most powerful list. She broke the glass ceiling in 2010 after being unanimously elected as the first female president of the Service Employees International Union.
BOB HISAOKA When his sister Joan passed away from cancer in May 2008 at only 48 years of age, Bob and his wife Paula jumped into action, planning the first Joan Hisaoka Make a Difference Gala in October of the same year. Joan, a prominent public relations professional, made her goal clear: that she wanted
David Gregory to make life easier for those living with cancer. In September, the annual gala returns for its sixth year, having raised millions for the cause, a highlight of the fall social schedule. The couple continues to donate to several other Washington causes as well, including Teach for America.
ILYSE HOGUE Though the elections are long over, the so-called “war on women” is only heating up and the newly minted NARAL Pro Choice leader appears to be chomping at the bit. Pledging to “go on the offense,” this veteran of lefty activism, who honed her skills at online campaign innovator MoveOn.org, is shaping up to be a force to be reckoned with in the next chapter of the feminist movement.
JON HUNTSMAN Despite his conservative record as the governor of Utah, Republican Jon Huntsman proved his moderate chops as President Obama’s ambassador to China and again during his candidacy for president. He’s continued that leaning as the national leader and honorary co-chairman of No Labels, a group formed in early 2013 that he hopes will be a strong voice for bipartisan problem solving. He was also among the first batch of Republicans this year to come out in support for same-sex marriage. With his wife, Mary Kaye, and three Twitter-friendly daughters at his side, he’ll be one to watch in the run up to 2016.
HAROLD ICKES Ickes is truly making it a family
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Ilyse Hogue
Harold Ickes
TECH
The tech sector in Washington is heating up. Here, a few upstarts who are making waves.
NEW MEDIA JOHN STANTON Washington Bureau Chief, Buzzfeed Stanton brings years of Washington reporting experience to the site that was originally known for cat memes and funny gifs.
ADAM SHARP Government, News and Social Innovation at Twitter Sharp isn’t a lobbyist, but a resource in Washington to help government agencies and pols properly use the social media device.
TECH SAVVY EVAN BURFIELD AND DONNA HARRIS Founders, 1776 Burfield and Harris got the District’s blessing to create a gathering place for entrepreneurs
affair. The former deputy chief of staff to Bill Clinton recently announced that he will advise the Ready for Hillary super-PAC in preparation for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s potential 2016 presidential campaign. Ickes has already joined with James Carville to begin reaching out to possible donors. “They don’t have any idea what she’s going to do, but if she runs they want to be ready to give whatever assistance they can,” Ickes told The Sunday Times.
its ability to bring discretionary equity dollars to many different types of products. So far, JBG’s portfolio includes 10.5 million square feet of office space, 2.8 million square feet of retail space, 7,000 multifamily units and 5,000 hotel rooms — a total of $10 billion in assets. Current projects under development include many mixed-use properties (a company specialty) such as the highly anticipated 230,000-square-foot “Louis” building on the hip U Street corridor.
KAREN IGNAGNI
MICHAEL KAHN
A master communicator, the CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans has been at the center of virtually every health care fight in recent decades, with many crediting her with squashing President Bill Clinton’s efforts to pass universal care in the ’90s. When President Obama’s Affordable Care Act was on the table, she supported and then opposed it. But as the ACA is implemented, Ignagni has softened her position. After hearing consumer complaints about the rising cost of health care, Ignagni appears to be using her influence to bring all sides of the debate together to find a solution to control costs.
For 27 years, the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s artistic director has produced high-quality productions and has been able to recruit some of Hollywood’s biggest players to his stage. In 2013 alone he’s hosting “West Wing” alum Richard Schiff, Academy Awardwinner Christopher Plummer and fivetime Tony winner Audra McDonald, who will join the ranks of James Earl Jones, Patrick Stewart and Helen Mirren in his panoply of players here. Kahn has reached out to the greater Washington community to attract fans (including quite a few Supreme Court justices and members of Congress) and can count on Chelsea Clinton as one of his biggest. During his 25th anniversary gala, Clinton said that seeing Kahn’s Shakespearean plays helped her survive eight years in the White House.
WALTER ISAACSON Among the top think tank brass, Isaacson has branded himself as someone who can bring in big name talent to events, recruiting heads of state, secretaries of state and everyone in between to the smaller Washington Ideas Forum and the large Aspen Ideas Festival each year. While he’s accomplished big things at the helm of Aspen, CNN, Time Magazine and as a best-selling author, Isaacson is scoring serious pop culture points for having his biography “Steve Jobs” turned into a movie by none other than “Social Network” screenwriter Aaron Sorkin.
RACHEL HOLT AND ALEX PRIEST UberDC After a year ensnared with the D.C. government, the black car service hailed via Smartphone is street legal and with the addition of Uber Taxi, cabbies are happy, too.
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As the head of the influential American Bankers Association, the former Republican governor of Oklahoma speaks for the nation’s $13 trillion banking industry. He does this often and vociferously, writing impassioned op-eds and appearing on television — usually to talk about what he sees as the many sins of the DoddFrank bill.
JIM YONG KIM
RYAN COSTELLO CEO, Event Farm Needed a smart way to ticket the Congressional Blues Festival and Event Farm grew out of that; features include letting Smartphone users “bump” their phones to swap tickets.
FRANK KEATING
BEN JACOBS BRIAN P COULTER ROBERT STEWART MICHAEL GLOSSERMAN The Chevy Chase, Md.-based real estate developer has come quite a long way since Benjamin Jacobs, Donald Brown and Joseph Gildenhorn founded the company in 1960 with an egalitarian spirit. Since then, a new generation is leading a team that includes top producers Matt Kelley and James Iker in remaking much of Washington’s urban landscape through
President Obama’s surprise pick to head the World Bank Group is just one year into his new job, but he is harnessing his experience as a 20-year change-maker in international aid to make some bold statements, most recently at Georgetown University where he told his audience that ending extreme poverty worldwide by 2030 was possible. We believe him. After all, as the first Asian-American to head a major university (Dartmouth), Kim unraveled the school’s fiscal woes and
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Christine Lagarde developed a streamlined healthcare delivery system that cut costs by 30 percent. As director of the World Health Organization’s HIV/AIDS department, he succeeded in bringing life-saving anti-retroviral therapies to three million more in developing countries.
Jim Yong Kim allowing Israel to exclude selected Americans, including Arabs, Muslims or anyone who is critical of Israeli actions or supportive of Palestinian rights, from entering their country or the occupied territories.
MARIA TERESA KUMAR EZRA KLEIN Just how influential is the 28-yearold Washington Post blogger? Recently, when White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer was discussing what President Obama liked to read, Klein was one of the handful of writers personally named. “It takes serious things seriously,” Pfeiffer said of Wonkblog, penned primarily by Klein. Not only is Klein fluent in domestic and economic policy, but he’s able to explain complicated concepts on television, which he does regularly as a contributor for MSNBC.
HOWARD KOHR The longtime head of the nation’s most powerful Israel lobby, American Israel Public Affairs Committee, has much to contend with these days, including the U.N.’s late 2012 vote to grant Palestine non-member observer status and a strong challenge from JStreet to be the more balanced voice of the American Jewish community. But under Kohr’s leadership, AIPAC is pushing ahead to exclude Israel from being impacted by sequester cuts to the foreign aid budget, pushing Congress to take even more militant positions against Iran and, most recently, promoting legislation that would uniquely allow Israel to enter the U.S. “visa waiver” program, so that Israelis can enter the U.S. without a visa, while
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It’s always nice to have a celebrity sidekick, as Kumar has in Voto Latino co-founder Rosario Dawson, but she’s personally enhanced the brand by being the group’s face in Washington. A frequent guest on cable news, Kumar has helped expand the organization’s original role from simply getting out the vote, to being another robust voice in the immigration debate that resonates with many younger Latino voters.
Maria Teresa Kumar Tapie. Directly after, the IMF’s board of directors expressed a continued confidence in Lagarde.
for his expertise in rebuilding struggling tech companies and convincing investors to see them through.
WAYNE LAPIERRE
TED LERNER
In the wake of December’s Sandy Hook shooting, the National Rifle Association executive vice president has become the face of the gun lobby. And while he’s taken plenty of flak for suggesting that armed guards are the answer to school shootings, the NRA has stealthily helped take many gun control measures off the table, including a ban on assault weapons and highcapacity magazines, and most recently, background checks despite 90 percent public support for the measure. LaPierre and the NRA can also take credit for neutering more comprehensive legislation.
Never has a Washington baseball team received as much publicity as Lerner’s Nationals are getting this season with grand talks of a possible World Series win. The real estate tycoon (one of only 13 Washingtonians on Forbes’ “2013 Billionaires” list) and majority owner of the Washington Nationals prefers to maintain a very low profile at games and has insisted that he entered the baseball business purely for the love of the game. But it is hard to deny the financial boost Lerner has given the team; over the past few years he has boosted the National’s payroll by more than $100 million per season and now it has been announced that he is finally ready to sell naming rights of the stadium “this year or the next.”
CHRISTINE LAGARDE She’s the world’s banker, having taken over the reigns of the International Monetary Fund in July 2011. Since then, she’s helped work out a bailout deal for Greece, all the while continuing to go after those too-big-tofail banks that caused much of the mess in the first place. “At finance meetings all over the world, she is treated practically like a rock star,” former IMF chief economist Kenneth Rogoff recently told the BBC. The first female IMF managing director, French finance minister and chairman of her law firm is not, however, the first IMF head to be investigated. In March, French authorities searched her Paris apartment in connection with a case questioning whether she should have awarded arbitration to French businessman (and Nicolas Sarkozy ally) Bernard
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Howard Kohr
TED LEONSIS Leonsis must feel a bit like he’s walking down memory lane as he has recently returned to his days in dotcom land with his new interim coCEO position with Groupon. When he started with AOL in 1993, it was merely a fledgling Internet service provider trying to get off the ground. He became a key player during the company’s boom, but also helped rebuild it to where it is today before stepping down in 2006 to focus on his Monumental Sports & Entertainment company, which owns the playoffbound Washington Capitals, Washington Wizards, Washington Mystics and the Verizon Center. Groupon is now valued at about $3 billion, after hitting $17 billion in November 2012, and Leonsis has been temporarily brought on board
J W “BILL” MARRIOTT ARNE SORENSON Officially, Marriott may no longer be at the helm of his company, but he’s still an influential force. The business titan recently released another book “Without Reservations” telling his story of turning his family’s first hotel into an international empire. Meanwhile, Sorensen, the company’s third CEO and the first not bearing the Marriott name, is using his position to push for visa reform, which would allow more foreign tourists to enter the United States, thus boosting the country’s hospitality industry. Even though Marriott and Sorenson were big Mitt Romney backers (Romney returned
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to the company’s board, for the third time, after the election in December), President Obama has been lobbying Sorenson on immigration reform. Locally, the hotel industry, which has hit a slump in recent months, has big hopes for the Marriott Marquis Hotel at the Washington Convention Center,w hich opens its doors in 2014.
CHRIS MATTHEWS That infectious chortle is hard to miss whether he’s belting it out from NBC’s Nebraska Avenue studio or walking into a cocktail party. Matthews spends six days a week on the airwaves, with his MSNBC show “Hardball” and Sunday’s “The Chris Matthews Show,” but still finds time to be a best-selling author. Now 16 years old, the show and Matthews continue to be appointment TV for the political classes.
MELISSA MAXFIELD It’s no surprise that one of the country’s leading cable, entertainment and communication companies with a vested interest in legislation protecting copyright enforcement on the Internet would want its principle lobbyist to have a working knowledge of the current political landscape. Enter Maxfield, who joined the company after an extensive career in politics, including work on several Democratic campaigns, a stint as director of Dedicated Americans for the Senate and the House PAC and time on Sen. Tom Daschle’s staff. Within five years of joining the company she was named vice president of its federal government affairs office then started tackling the Comcast/NBC Universal merger.
Wayne LaPierre
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After its successful completion, she was named to her current position as senior vice president of congressional and federal government affairs.
JIM MESSINA After serving as President Obama’s campaign manager, Messina’s next step is twofold. First, he remains in charge of Organizing for Action, the nonprofit successor to Obama for America, which is focusing its resources to the states — getting involved in legalizing gay marriage in Illinois and supporting publicly funded elections in New York state. In addition, he has launched a political consulting firm, The Messina Group, with several Obama campaign veterans, where he’ll do consulting work for the DNC and others.
PATRICIA MILLETT As the head of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld’s Supreme Court practice, Millett occupies a rarified space as one of a handful of women to argue before the Supreme Court. This year, she argued her 32nd case, thereby setting a record for a woman lawyer. In a field dominated by men, Millett is an influential female voice in important cases, most recently arguing for the right of one Native American tribe to build a casino on federal land. She’s also sought after for commentary/analysis on important Supreme Court cases, including the recent Voting Rights Act challenge.
CONNIE MILSTEIN Connie Milstein knows how to bring people together to do good. At
her Georgetown home in December she welcomed surprise guest Joe Biden, who came to cheer on David Axelrod for shaving off his mustache to benefit his charity, Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy. (Milstein serves on its board.) Then there’s her downtown property the Jefferson Hotel, where Obama chose to break bread with Republican senators and Dick Cheney decided to make a rare appearance to congratulate his old friend Alan Simpson on the former senator’s new book. Milstein supports a multitude of philanthropic endeavors. She’s the namesake behind New York University’s new Washington, D.C. campus and an active board member of Blue Star Families, a military charity, as well as a trustee of Ford’s Theatre. This year she served as chairman of the Washington National Opera as well.
SUSAN MOLINARI Soon after Susan Molinari was named head of Google’s Washington office in February 2012, the former New York Republican congresswoman hit the ground running in the famed search engine’s anti-trust battle with the Federal Trade Commission. Less than a year later, Molinari and her team were able to place a huge check in the “W” column as the FTC declared that Google “had not violated antitrust or anti-competition statutes in the way it arranges its Web search results.” By finishing this investigation within two years, Google avoided a costly and lengthy battle that Microsoft fought in the 1990s — the same one that led to Google becoming the dominant leader of the technology sector in the first place.
Jim Messina
JANET MURGUIA As the president and chief executive officer of the largest Hispanic civil rights organization in the country, National Council of La Raza, Murguía plays a major role in the ongoing comprehensive immigration reform debate. She’s testified before Congress and taken her message to the masses via a multitude of media hits. Her group pressured lawmakers to stay on track when many in Washington believed that the gun control debate could derail immigration reform. As a veteran of the Clinton White House, Murguía is a political pro, who will do all she can to make sure this opportunity doesn’t go to waste.
VALI NASR Once a senior adviser to the Obama Administration on Afghanistan and Pakistan, Nasr has now become a vocal critic of the administration’s foreign policy gatekeepers. In his new book “The Indispensable Nation,” Nasr says that the White House ignored prescient advice from the late Amb. Richard Holbrooke (Nasr’s mentor) who believed a military solution would never work in Afghanistan and that the U.S. should negotiate with the Taliban and hash out a solution with neighboring countries including Pakistan and Iran. This story of “Good Sir Richard vanquished by the Dark Knight of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.,” writes James Traub in a review for the Wall Street Journal “crashed into Washington like a minor meteor in March...sending State Department
Melissa Maxfield
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officials scrambling to insist that they had an ‘excellent working relationship’ with White House staff despite Mr. Nasr’s depiction of wholesale neglect.” Besides rattling the White House and State, Nasr brings his years of policy chops to the halls of the Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at John Hopkins University and to his work at the Brookings Institution, where he serves as a senior fellow.
former secretary of state had only missed once in its 12 years. As Vital Voices’ president and CEO, Nelson brought in other big names as well:Vice President Joe Biden, fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg and NBC’s Ann Curry to honor the brightest and bravest women leaders from across the globe. Nelson not only attracts star power, she also uses the group’s financial resources to support its many international programs to accelerate peace and prosperity.
CHRISTOPHER NASSETTA
KOJO NNAMDI
A Washington native, Nassetta was behind Hilton’s relocation to Northern Virginia in 2009, and now he’s using the convenient location to push legislation on Capitol Hill. Like Arne Sorenson at Marriott, Nassetta is pressing for visa reform so that more foreign travelers can enter the United States and stay at Hilton hotels. In 2012, he was named to the steering committee of “Partners for a New Beginning” an Aspen Institute project that aims to “deepen connections” between the U.S. and the Middle East through publicprivate partnerships. At the same time, Hilton continues to expand in that part of the world and elsewhere. In April, the company opened the first DoubleTree by Hilton hotel in South Africa.
Nnamdi is arguably the most respected radio journalist in Washington, with his thoughtful interviews covering news, politics and — on Wednesdays — food. Nnamdi came to the U.S. in 1968 from his native Guyana to participate in the Civil Rights movement and this, along with years of covering District and U.S. politics, allows him to give his listeners a more global perspective on political issues facing the city and country. As for his interview style, NBC4’s Tom Sherwood told the Washington Post that “Nnamdi will want to know if the guest really did ‘take all that money,’ and it sounds like he’s asking you out for a date.” While Nnamdi has no problem attracting guests from the highest echelons of political power, he doesn’t seem to mind adding a little pop culture into the mix, too.
ALYSE NELSON As Hillary Clinton stepped back into private life, the first place she publicly stood back up again was behind the podium at this year’s Vital Voices Global Leadership Awards gala, an event the
GROVER NORQUIST The head of Americans for Tax Reform may have had a bumpy year, as a number of Republicans broke with his “taxpayer protection pledge.” That
GOP REBOOT
2012 was not the brightest year for the GOP, with big losses in the executive and legislative branches. But now they are focusing on rebranding with a few key faces forging the path.
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ROBERT COSTA Washington Editor, National Review Named by Politico as one of the 10 breakout political reporters of 2012; was promoted to Washington Editor in December
ANA NAVARRO Republican strategist A needed Latina voice among Republican talking heads
KEVIN MADDEN Executive Vice President of Public Affairs for JDA Frontline A veteran of team Romney, who’s now taking his expertise to K Street
S E CUPP MSNBC’s “The Cycle” The bespectacled conservative offering news and commentary daily on the liberal cable channel
KEN MEHLMAN KKR, Global Head of Public Affairs The former RNC Chairman who came out of the closet and now out for gay marriage; he’s among the Republicans leading the charge
Vali Nasr
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said, 219 representatives and 39 senators still signed on, which means in the House, Norquist still has considerable support despite the razor-thin majority. In addition, he has been a proponent of comprehensive immigration reform, using his popular “Wednesday Meeting” model to gather select conservatives and Republicans to hash things out.
GREGORY O’DELL Few people have had the opportunity to affect the physical landscape of the nation’s capital as much as Gregory O’Dell. As president and CEO of Events DC, O’Dell joined the quasipublic convention and sports authority company a year into the building of Nationals Park — the first LEEDcertified major professional sports stadium in the U.S. — and was tasked with bringing the project to completion on time and within the city council-mandated budget constraints. He did both, completing construction in a total of 23 months, for $693 million. Between managing the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium and the surrounding Festival Grounds, the non-military functions of the D.C. Armory and, of course, Nationals Park, Events DC’s properties bring more than a million tourists and about $2 billion in revenue to the city each year, not to mention creating countless new employment opportunities for local residents. Never one to rest on his laurels, O’Dell keeps busy with the construction of Washington’s largest hotel, the 1,175-room, 46suite Washington Marriott Marquis Convention Center hotel, which broke ground in 2010.
Theodore B. Olson and David Boies
THEODORE B OLSON AND DAVID BOIES
Alyse Nelson
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Kojo Nnamdi
Their odd coupling could mean marriage for gay and lesbians in the state of California and maybe even across the land. Olson, who won Bush vs. Gore for “W” back in 2000, and Boies, then his liberal legal foe, teamed up to challenge the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8, with Olson arguing the case before the Supreme Court this March. When the justices hand down a decision in late June, even a narrow ruling could mean victory for the duo since many believe the cases mark the beginning of the end of opposition to gay rights.
MILT PETERSON JON PETERSON Milt Peterson founded his family’s real estate development business in 1970, literally building it from the ground up, and these days he’s the face of Maryland’s National Harbor. In November, construction began on the Tanger Outlet complex there, bringing the first upscale retail complex to Prince George’s County by Christmas. Peterson used his political clout and his cash — $400,000 for an advertising campaign — to get Marylanders to vote yes on Question 7 to expand gambling legalization in the state. This allows a deal to go forward to bring an MGM Resorts casino to the riverfront facility as well. Son Jon has been with the family business since 1986.
ERICH PICA With the threat of the Keystone XL pipeline still looming and the company behind the project, TransCanada Corp., rerouting it to try to avoid opposition from Nebraska, Pica and his allies are trying to kill Keystone by showing how development of Canada’s dirty tar sands constitutes “a carbon bomb” in the words of famed NASA scientist Jim Hansen, and would be devastating for the climate security of our planet. The environmental group has also been instrumental in the fight to shut down dangerous old nuclear plants such as the troubled San Onofre facility in Southern California as well as working with Republicans and Democrats alike to fight wasteful government subsidies to polluting industries.
HEATHER PODESTA The beginning of 2013 marked the separation of one of Washington’s most prominent power couples, Heather and Tony Podesta. But the founder of Heather Podesta + Partners, the lobbying shop she started in 2007, has her own set of clients that she lobbies for and big wins she can tout. For example, at the end of last year Podesta’s client Uranium Energy was given Environmental Protection Agency approval to pollute an aquifer in Goliad County, Texas, as part of the process to mine for uranium. The plan, when first proposed, was deemed dead on arrival, but Podesta used her clout to take her plea to the No. 2 at the EPA with the agency eventually reversing its decision.
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JOHN PODESTA NEERA TANDEN John Podesta guided President Obama into the White House as chairman of his transition team. Now, in the president’s second term, his group, the Center for American Progress, has become the preeminent think tank on the center-left. CAP was founded in 2003 to respond to the progressive movement’s having many issue-oriented groups but no umbrella organization to unite them under one roof. This led to Podesta and Tanden — who deals with the day to day business of the group — being frequently quoted and involved in a vast array of debates in Washington.
TONY PODESTA Podesta is one of the most effective and seasoned lobbyists in Washington with clients such as construction giant Bechtel, Lockheed Martin, BP Oil, General Motors and Bank of America. In 2012, the Podesta Group booked more than $21 million, according to lobbying disclosure filings. This year, Podesta used his influence to help former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel land the secretary of defense job at the Pentagon. He also signed on the Iraqi Government as a client in February.
MARTHA RADDATZ For the past decade, Martha Raddatz has been praised for her war stories, covering the ins and outs of Iraq and Afghanistan as ABC News’ chief global affairs correspondent. But in 2012, it was domestic politics that made her a power player in journalism. Raddatz was one of four presidential debate moderators posing questions to Joe Biden and Paul Ryan in the sole vice presidential debate. And with George Stephanopoulos comfortably at the helm of ABC’s Sunday show “This Week,” Raddatz is his primary substitute (while also appearing frequently on the “This Week” panel).
A BARRY RAND Statistics alone make a compelling case for the American Association of Retired Persons’ influence. The nonprofit, nonpartisan organization is the world’s largest, boasting more than 37 million members and its magazine has the largest circulation of any publication in the United States. And while the organization as a whole
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represents people over age 50, baby boomers hitting the retirement age of 65 are doing so at a rate of 8,000 a day. This means that Rand, who has been at AARP’s helm since 2009, has major say on the issues of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
MICHAEL RANKIN JONATHAN TAYLOR MARK LOWHAM DAVID DESANTIS AND DERRICK SWAAK The area’s luxury real estate market is back on track and TTR Sotheby’s is taking full advantage. In 2012, the firm participated in more than 1,300 transactions with sales that closed for 96 percent of the list price on average and set several impressive price records — finding a buyer for the most expensive sale ever at the Watergate; brokering the sale of the most expensive condo ever for the D.C. area; and also being the firm behind the most expensive condo sale of the year for the District, according to Curbed D.C. They’ve even bested themselves with sales in 2012 rising 52 percent to $1.3 billion from 2011. TTR Sotheby’s became a part of the Sotheby’s International family in 2006 and has grown to over 200 agents in offices in Georgetown, downtown D.C., McLean and Chevy Chase. In November, the firm marked one billion in sales for the year, by throwing a festive fête at the Four Seasons in Georgetown.
Heather Podesta
DAVID RHODES He’s not even 40 and is shaking up broadcasting. Rhodes was named president of CBS News in February 2011 and got his start in the business at Fox News Channel, the only CBS executive to do so. He reinvigorated “CBS This Morning” by putting together Charlie Rose, Gayle King and Norah O’Donnell. With the “Today” show in trouble, “CBS This Morning” is seriously trying to overtake the NBC show in the ratings. At night, “CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley” was up 6 percent in the coveted 25-to54-year-old demo for the first quarter in 2013. In Washington, Rhodes has happily watched Bob Schieffer’s “Face the Nation” overtake NBC’s “Meet the Press” in the ratings.
John and Tony Podesta
JOHN F W ROGERS Years of Washington experience plus Wall Street connections make Rogers
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breeding and in January, he announced he would be giving another $50 million to the Kennedy Center. In addition, he has also scooped up some of history’s most precious documents and then loaned them to area museums. His purchases include copies of the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, the 13th Amendment, the Emancipation Proclamation and one of the first U.S. maps drawn after the Revolution.
AUBREY SARVIS After more than four years at the helm of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, an LGBT advocate group that played a crucial role in the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” this Army veteran took a step back from the limelight to focus on increasing LGBT representation in corporate America and aiding Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. He maintains a direct line of contact with all the heads of military commands and former and current chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and led President Obama’s charge to engage service members in the 2012 election.
David Rhodes
BOB SCHIEFFER Sunday is CBS “Face the Nation” host Bob Schieffer’s day to shine. The 76-year-old newsman has consistently been besting longtime rival “Meet the Press” in the ratings and has used his platform to criticize Washington for the sequester cuts and badger the gun lobby in the wake of Sandy Hook. Around town, Schieffer proves he’s a man of the people performing, from time to time, with his country rock band, Honky Tonk Confidential, at Hill Country Barbeque in Chinatown.
Molly Smith one of the “scariest, most important people at Goldman Sachs,” Business Insider once said of this “Colossus bestriding the globe,” who spent his earlier years working at the White House under the Reagan and Ford administrations before taking a position at the treasury department. Today he uses his vast network of connections to exert influence on the job at Goldman Sachs and help nonprofit institutions by serving as a board member of National Museum of American History, as treasurer of the Ronald Reagan
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David Rubenstein Presidential Foundation board, vice chairman of White House Historical Association.
DAVID RUBENSTEIN The Carlyle Group co-founder would personally prop up the Washington Monument if he had the strength. In any case, the billionaire ended up splitting the tab for the cracked structure’s $15 million repair bill with the U.S. government. Rubenstein also gave $4.5 million last year to the National Zoo to continue panda
STEPHANIE SCHRIOCK The energetic leader of EMILY’s List, the organization dedicated to supporting and electing pro-choice Democratic women to local and national office, made a splash on the 2004 presidential campaign trail as Howard Dean’s finance director. She went on to help get long-shot Al Franken elected to the U.S. Senate and handled the complicated legal challenge that followed the razor-thin election results. More recently, she helped elect three new women to the Senate, boosting their number to a record high in the 113th Congress.
GARY SHAPIRO Working with the bipartisan team of Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Gary Shapiro’s Consumer Electronics Association and other online allies helped stop SOPA and PIPA legislation last year. Shapiro and the CEA are also influencing the immigration debate by taking the conversation of high-skill visas to lawmakers. He and his tech-savvy crowd have also created new ways to entice Congress to do their bidding. In April, for instance, they debuted an app with a geographic component so lawmakers can see what CEA members are up to in their home districts.
MOLLY SMITH Molly Smith can boast that she’s attracted legendary actress Kathleen Turner twice to Arena Stage — first for “Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins” and again soon for next season’s production of “Mother Courage and her Children” in which Turner will take on the title role of Mother Courage. Smith has been at the Arena Stage’s helm since 1998 and helped usher the company into a new era when the renovated Mead Center for American Theater opened its doors in 2010. Now it’s a popular events venue as well as playhouse for the greater Washington community. Smith has also proved her chops as a director with “The Music Man” and “Oklahoma!” in recent years. She is also politically involved, having organizing a Washington march for gun control in January after the massacre in Newtown, Conn.
PATTY STONESIFER For Stonesifer’s sake, we hope the old saying “it’s better to be a big fish in a little pond” is true. In January, the former founding CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the largest philanthropic institution in the world, accepted a new position as president and CEO of Martha’s Table. It came as quite a surprise that this foundation-world heavyweight would want to go from managing a $39 billion endowment fund and a staff of more than 500 to the $6 million budget and 81 employees of the local food pantry and nonprofit organization, but Stonesifer decided she wanted a more “hands-on”
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position. Her move to Martha’s Table follows her service as chairwoman of the Smithsonian Institution Board of Regents and White House Council for Community Solutions and two decades with Microsoft, where she helped develop MSNBC, Encarta and Slate magazine.
RICHARD L TRUMKA With President Obama back in the White House, the AFL-CIO head has changed his mission as he looks to rethink and remake the American labor movement. In the lead up to his organization’s convention in September, Trumka is gathering input from workers, academics, civil rights groups, and other allies to figure out ways labor can serve workers better. “Instead of saying to our community partners and the civil rights movement or the Latino movement, ‘that’s your issue and this is my issue,’ they’re going to be our issues, and we’re going to work together,” Trumka said in a recent interview on C-SPAN.
CHRIS WALLACE There’s no questioning Wallace’s journalistic pedigree, but the “Fox News Sunday” host has long held his own, in part because his tough and comprehensive interview style. He was the first journalist to score a postelection sit-down with Mitt and Ann Romney and is also happy to call out guests from the right such as Wayne La Pierre of the NRA. His folksy charm has captivated Washington’s media establishment, in part thanks to his wife Lorraine’s two cookbooks, “Mr. Sunday’s Saturday Night Chicken” and “Mr. Sunday’s Soups.”
RANDI WEINGARTEN With schools closing, student loan debt soaring and sequestration threatening to do even more slimming to the budgets of public schools across the country, Weingarten represents her 1.5 million members with passion. In March she made this point clearly when she was arrested in Philadelphia for protesting public school closures. She’s been vocal recently on the negative effects sequestration will have on the nation’s teachers and schools. She’s also among those in the labor community who are gearing up for gubernatorial races in 2013 and 2014, planning a substantial counteroffensive against right
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wing state leaders who have tried to gut union power since 2010.
GEORGE WILL Mitt Romney might be president if he had listened to columnist George Will and released his tax returns. And while Will has been a steadfast voice for conservatism, he’s occasionally surprised his rightward-oriented readers by supporting a few ideas from across the aisle, for example when he agreed with Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown’s proposal to break up America’s biggest banks. Will likes to keep his readers on their toes with his often scathing commentary, while keeping the general public informed of his positions via numerous television appearances.
George Will
DANIEL YOHANNES A former banker born in Ethiopia and raised in California and Denver, Colo. ,Yohannes knows a thing or two about investing. He built his fortune with the launch of M&R Investments and co-founded New Resource Bank in San Francisco to fund green businesses and projects. He uses his considerable knowledge in growing businesses to good effect directing Millennium Challenge Corporation’s considerable financial support to help developing countries such as Honduras and Nicaragua meet specific — not to mention life-changing — development goals.
Chris Wallace
DAVID ZASLAV AND JOHN HENDRICKS As head honchos of the Silver Spring-based “nonfiction entertainment juggernaut” (as AdWeek calls it), they’ve watched Discovery continue to grow. In April, the company announced that major names like Kal Penn, Tamron Hall, Susan Lucci and Jerry Springer would be anchoring shows across the networks as new, creative shows were being added to the lineup (“My Teen Is Pregnant and So Am I” on TLC and “Eel of Fortune” on Animal Planet. The company also continues to grow internationally with the launch of TLC in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Zaslav has also expressed confidence that the flailing OWN Network, Discovery’s joint venture with Oprah Winfrey, is turning the narrative around.
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Patty Stonesifer
Bono and former President Bill Clinton RandibyWeingarten (Photo Tony Powell)
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A Clean Sweep at the Top Musical Chairs bring fresh talent to Washington BY ROLAND FLAMINI
Choral Arts Society Music Director Scott Tucker (Photo by Stephen Fuller)
Suddenly, the winds of change are blowing through Washington’s main musical institutions. In the past few months, key shapers of what District audiences can hear in the opera house and concert hall have been replaced for one reason or another. The full impact won’t be felt immediately – artists and programs are chosen well in advance. But the appointments carry the promise of new energy and fresh ideas to combat the challenge of steadily declining ticket sales. It’s a distinguished list. At the Washington Performing Arts Society (WPAS), Jenny Bilfield has succeeded Neale Perl as president (Perl was named president emeritus). Bilfield comes to the District from several years directing Stanford Live, Stanford University’s campus-based arts producer. WPAS, based at the Kennedy Center with forays to the Strathmore Music Center in Bethesda, is the 48-year-old concert organization with a well earned reputation for hewing closely to the mainstream repertoire (classical, jazz and dance), always performed by top tier
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musicians. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma doesn’t perform at WPAS concerts every other week; it just looks that way. Pulitzer Prize winning composer and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, another WPAS regular, was a member of its search committee that hired Bilfield. But what jumps out about Bilfield’s work at Stanford is her apparent commitment to contemporary music and what the WPAS press release on her appointment in January called “cutting edge artists.” At Stanford, she commissioned and had performed new works by – among others -- Philip Glass, John Adams and Steve Reich. She is married to composer Joel Friedman. Anne Midgette, the Washington Post’s erudite, if sometimes bristly music critic, wrote recently that Bilfield has “a reputation for innovation, vision, and curiosity about the new.” And Bilfield herself called the move “exciting and a different environment.There’s a real sense of mission and opportunity.” So the question is: Are avant garde composers like John Cage poised to enter the WPAS repertoire?
Staying at the Kennedy Center: the Washington National Opera (WNO) will this month stage Jerome Kern’s “Showboat.”This will be Francesca Zambello’s formal debut as the company’s new artistic director. But the woman referred to backstage with a certain reverence as “Cesca” is already a known quantity to Washington audiences from her daring version of Wagner’s “Ring” cycle, suspended because of money problems in 2009 after three of the four individual productions had been staged. (The WNO will stage Cesca’s “Ring” in 2016. Zambello (as if you didn’t know) succeeded the formidable Placido Domingo, which appears not to daunt her. Domingo insisted on the inclusion of contemporary American operas in the repertoire (William Bolcom’s “Death of a Salesman”) as well as, early on, an occasional zarzuela (Spanish operetta). Zambello moves easily between classical opera and American musicals, and the latter may become the WNO’s regular infusion of American music. A third commanding position in the Kennedy Center, still unresolved, is a successor
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to Michael Kaiser, the center’s outgoing president whose contract ends in 2014. Kaiser, who made a reputation saving the financially ailing London opera house Covent Garden, recently, enhanced it by also rescuing the WNO from its serious post-Domingo money problems. The euphemism for this very necessary operation was amalgamation; the real narrative was that in 2011 the WNO faced the stark choice of either giving up its independence in return for financial security, or ceasing to be a major opera company. Kennedy Center chairman David M. Rubenstein, founder of the global private equity Carlyle Group, and Anthony Welters, executive vice-president of the UnitedHealth Group, cohead the search committee for Kaiser’s successor with a hopeful deadline of the end of 2013 so as to allow for a comfortable period of transition. Rubenstein said at the Opera Ball in April that the search was in its early stages. “Michael Kaiser’s fine stewardship over the past 12 years has ushered in a golden age at the Kennedy Center,” the co-chairs of the search committee said in a statement in January. And there is no question the job is a formidable challenge involving the running of an opera company, two orchestras, and a ballet company, as well as extensive theater, dance and jazz sessions. In addition, the Kennedy Center president
Michael Kaiser (Photo by Tony Powell
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is called upon to raise an additional $80 million each year to buttress the $200 million received from the U.S. Congress – and is answerable to a 59-member board of trustees, more than half of them appointed by the president of the United States, and the rest sitting by virtue of their respective offices, including the secretary of state. Next year, there will be the added responsibility of overseeing a planned $100 million Kennedy Center extension across the highway from the main building, with a floating stage on the Potomac River, rehearsal facilities and class rooms. If the choice falls to a woman, add Zambello and Bilfield and you have for the first time a female triumvirate (mulierate?) dominating the Kennedy Center, the largest cultural complex in the United States. Meanwhile, the tongue-in-cheek murder mystery “Shear Madness,” which has been running at the Kennedy Center for 25 years is unlikely to be affected by changes at the top. At Wolf Trap, a new president is putting the finishing touches to his first season. Arvind Manocha took over on January 1 from Terence D. Jones, who retired after running the place to more or less everyone’s satisfaction for 16 years. For Manocha, much of it is déjà vu. He came to Virginia after years of running the Hollywood Bowl, the granddaddy of all open-air
concert venues.The Bowl, which has flourished since the 1920s, is the summer venue of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, of which Manocha was also chief operating officer. Manocha has left one of the most prosperous city orchestras (the L.A. Philharmonic has a budget of $96.9 million) for an equally – though more modestly – prosperous Washington-area concert venue. The 7,000-seat amphitheater has a budget of $29 million: sales last year were up 12 percent from 2011. In 1971, the Choral Arts Society of Washington D.C., under its founder and director Norman Schribner performed Brahms’ “Eine Deutsches Requiem” as part of the ceremonial opening of the Kennedy Center. At the time, the choir had been in existence for five years. If the Choral Arts Society performs at the opening of the new addition to the Kennedy Center it’s a safe bet that it will be led by its new director Scott Tucker, former professor of music at Cornell University. Tucker took over this year following Scribner’s retirement after 47 years at the head of the orchestra. Tucker, said Scriber of his successor, “has an intense natural musicality, a consummate technique, a fabulous ear, and a vast reservoir of knowledge and experience in virtually all periods and styles, together with a clear vision for the future of music in our own time.” Isn’t that, more or less, what was true of Norman Scribner?
Francesca Zambello (Photo by Scott Suchman)
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LIFESTYLES
On Reese: DSQUARED2 tuxedo jacket ($1,755), DSQUARED2 tuxedo trousers ($460), THEORY woven shirt ($215), and PRADA camo sequin loafers ($950), Saks Fifth Avenue, 5555 Wisconsin Ave., Chevy Chase, MD 20815, 301-6579000; DIESEL leather bow tie ($98), 1961 Chain Bridge Rd., Tysons Corner, VA 22102, 703-485-4755; ROLEX watch ($15,800), Liljenquist & Beckstead, 2001 International Drive, McLean, VA 22102, 703-749-1200. On Eryn: CELINE sleeveless top DIESEL T-Vepar and tank ($138), 1961printed ($1,300), CELINE Chain Bridge Rd., Tysons pants ($1,900), SaksCorner, Fifth Avenue, VA 22102, 703-485-4755; 5555 Wisconsin Ave.,3.1 Chevy PHILIPP LIM MD jacket ($1,195) and Chase, 20815, 301-657-9000; CHLOE booties Saks ($235) TED BAKER($1,345), beaded clutch Fifth Avenue, 5555 Wisconsin and JOAN AND DAVID platform Ave., Chevy 20815, pumpsChase, ($200),MD Bloomingdale’s, 301-657-9000; VINCE CAMUTO 5300 Ave., Chevy Chase, MD leather20815, pants 240-744-3700; ($1,250), Neiman LILJENMarcus, 5300& Wisconsin Ave QUIST BECKSTEAD diamond NW Washington, DC, 202-966pave earrings ($17,000) and MIKI9700; TIFFANY’S 18-kt olive leaf MOTO moveable south sea pearl drop earrings ($4,500), 5481as Wisnecklace (pictured bracelet) consin($39,900), Ave. Chevy Chase,& MD Liljenquist Beckstead, 20815, 2001 301-657-8777; stylist’s ownMcLean, International Drive, ring; IBEAUTIFUL MIA ELLIOTTIBEAUVA 22102, 703-749-1200; silver chain andMIA rhinestone braceTIFUL ELLIOTT silver disc let ($175), www.ibeautifulmiaelliott. necklace ($250), ibeautifulmiaelcom
On Eryn: DIANE VON FURSTENBERG “Amya” sleeveless top with silver balls ($325) and GIUSEPPE ZANOTTI embossed slingback platform pumps ($750), Saks Fifth Avenue, 5555 Wisconsin Ave., Chevy Chase, MD 20815, 301-657-9000; REISS trousers ($161), Bloomingdale’s, 5300 Ave., Chevy Chase, MD 20815, 240-744-3700; IBEAUTIFUL MIA ELLIOTT “Remi” earrings ($150), Soliloquy Bridal, 754 Elden St., #103, Herndon, VA 20170, 571-449-2580; IBEAUTIFUL MIA ELLIOTT “Lapis” necklace ($325), Saks Jandel, 5510 Wisconsin Ave., Chevy Chase, MD 20815, 301-652-2250; LILJENQUIST & BECKSTEAD diamond and gold ring ($9, 625) and MARCO BICEGO gold link bracelet ($11,060), Liljenquist & Beckstead, 2001 International Drive, McLean, VA 22102, 703-749-1200. On Reese: THEORY cotton blazer ($525), VERSACE stretch woven shirt ($295), HUGO BOSS silk neckwear ($30) and GUCCI “Dynamics Keep” loafer ($495), Saks Fifth Avenue, 5555 Wisconsin Ave., Chevy Chase, MD 20815, 301-657-9000; DIESEL “Tepphar” trousers ($198), 1961 Chain Bridge Rd., Tysons Corner, VA 22102, 703-485-4755; LILJENQUIST & BECKSTEAD platinum and gold ring ($3,700) and ROLEX watch ($15,800), Liljenquist & Beckstead, 2001 International Drive, McLean, VA 22102, 703-749-1200.
On Eryn: DIESEL “D’Emile” halter dress ($285), 1961 Chain Bridge Rd., Tysons Corner, VA 22102, 703-485-4755; IBEAUTIFUL MIA ELLIOTT ivy jewel cuff bracelet ($225), Saks Jandel, 5510 Wisconsin Ave., Chevy Chase, MD 20815, 301-652-2250; LILJENQUIST & BECKSTEAD diamond and gold ring ($9,625) and MARCO BICEGO 18K gemstone ring ($3,540), Liljenquist & Beckstead, 2001 International Drive, McLean, VA 22102, 703-749-1200. On Reese: DIESEL “Jalvorada” vest ($228) and DIESEL chi-reg trouser ($178), 1961 Chain Bridge Rd., Tysons Corner, VA 22102, 703-485-4755; DOLCE & GABBANA pique collar woven shirt ($525), TOM FORD eyeglasses ($370) and FERRAGAMO wing-tip oxford shoes ($695), Saks Fifth Avenue, 5555 Wisconsin Ave., Chevy Chase, MD 20815, 301-657-9000; LILJENQUIST & BECKSTEAD platinum and rose gold ring ($3,700), Liljenquist & Beckstead, 2001 International Drive, McLean, VA 22102, 703-749-1200.
On Eryn: PAUW scarf neck print dress ($1,075), Saks Fifth Avenue, 5555 Wisconsin Ave., Chevy Chase, MD 20815, 301-657-9000; DIESEL bistral print belt ($98), 1961 Chain Bridge Rd., Tysons Corner, VA 22102, 703-485-4755; IBEAUTIFUL MIA ELLIOTT “Prisilla” earrings ($85), ibeautifulmiaelliott.com; MIKIMOTO moveable south sea pearl necklace (pictured as bracelet) ($39,900),Liljenquist & Beckstead, 2001 International Drive, McLean, VA 22102, 703-749-1200. On Reese: HUGO BOSS contrast sleeve blazer ($545), and DOLCE & GABBANA pleated trousers ($525), Saks Fifth Avenue, 5555 Wisconsin Ave., Chevy Chase, MD 20815, 301-657-9000; DIESEL floral shirt ($178), 1961 Chain Bridge Rd., Tysons Corner, VA 22102, 703-485-4755.
LIFESTYLES | GLITTERATI
THE GREAT GATSBY COLLECTION BY TIFFANY & CO. Necklace with 49.59-ct, emeraldcut aquamarine with diamonds and platinum. Inspired by Baz Luhrmann’s film in collaboration with Catherine Martin ($250,000); Tiffany & Co., tiffany.com
THE GREAT GATSBY COLLECTION BY TIFFANY & CO. Art Deco-inspired ring with a 10.52-ct, emeraldcut tanzanite, diamonds, tsavorites and platinum. Inspired by Baz Luhrmann’s film in collaboration with Catherine Martin ($23,000); Tiffany & Co., tiffany.com
LULU FROST Silver-plated glass crystal necklace ($265); lulufrost.com
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(IGEHIRGI Add some color to your art-deco inspired jewelry this spring for a fresh and glamorous look
KATE SPADE NEW YORK in the mood thick bangle ($98); Kate Spade, 3061 M St. NW, katespade.com
KENNETH JAY LANE Rhodium-plated cubic zirconia earrings ($169); Neiman Marcus, 5300 Wisconsin Ave. NW, neimanmarcus.com
KATE SPADE NEW YORK run around super statement necklace ($328); Kate Spade, 3061 M St. NW, katespade.com
MATTHEW CAMPBELL LAURENZA Sterling silver cuff bracelet with topaz mix and enamel ($1050); Tiny Jewel Box, 1147 Connecticut Ave. NW, tinyjewelbox.com
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JUICY COUTURE Rhinestone friendship bracelet ($28); Juicy Couture, 3034 M St. NW, juicycouture.com
LILJENQUIST & BECKSTEAD one-of-a-kind 2.20-ct. Rubellite (Nigeria) ring set in 18K white gold with pave diamonds ($7, 200); Liljenquist & Beckstead Jewelry Boutique, 1780M Tysons Galleria, McLean,Va., landbjewelry.com
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P H OTO S C O U RT E SY O F E AC H C O M PA N Y
MATTHEW CAMPBELL LAURENZA Sterling sliver ball earrings set with colored sapphires ($465); Tiny Jewel Box, 1147 Connecticut Ave. NW, tinyjewelbox.com
LIFESTYLES | TREND REPORT CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN Funky snakeskin buckle-up sandals ($1695); Saks Fifth Avenue in Chevy Chase, saksfifthavenue.com
TORY BURCH Large pythonprint tote ($775); Tory Burch in Tysons Galleria, toryburch.com
GIAMBATTISTA VALLI Snake-print dress ($1545); Barneys New York, barneys.com
JIMMY CHOO Python shoulder bag ($3875); Saks Fifth Avenue in Chevy Chase, saksfifthavenue.com
4=8,32 46-28 Sizzle this summer in stylish snake prints BY ALISON MCLAUGHLIN
VALENTINO Studded leather and elaphe flats ($1,095); Saks Fifth Avenue, saksfifthavenue.com
BLOCH Snake-print canvas ballet flats ($130); blochworld.com REBECCA TAYLOR Python jacket in black ($295); rebeccataylor.com
KAREN MILLEN Python-print knitted top ($150); Karen Millen stores in Chevy Chase and Tysons Galleria, us.karenmillen.com
C. WONDER Python-embossed zip clutch ($48); C. Wonder in Tysons Corner Center, cwonder.com WA S H I N G T O N L I F E
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PROENZA SCHOULER Python-print long sleeve tee ($280); Saks Fifth Avenue, saksfifthavenue.com
REBECCA TAYLOR Python fit & flare dress in black ($295); rebeccataylor.com
ROBERTO CAVALLI Snake-print skinny jeans ($860); shop. nordstrom.com
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LIFESTYLES
Amy Baier, Beth Dozoretz, Mariella Traeger, Marisol LaMadrid and Cindy Jones
Wilma Bernstein, Debbie Dingell, Leonard Lauder and JoAnn Mason Lorraine Rockefeller and Sharon Percy Rockefeller
Jason Wu
GREAT DIES LUNCHEON AND FASHION SHOW Saks Fifth Avenue, Chevy Chase | PHOTOS BY KYLE SAMPERTON
Ron Frasch and Nancy Corzine
Faith Diamond and Christy Gosnel
LET’S HEAR IT FOR D.C.: The Washington fashion scene might be looked down upon by those in more “fashion-forward” cities like New York, but this year’s Great Ladies Luncheon and Jason Wu fashion show was nothing to scoff at. Everything about the tented production, from the bumping Amy Winehouse/Adele tunes to the crystal chandeliers, had a distinct New York vibe, and Mr. Wu’s fall ready-to-wear collection only added to the allure. His new line was laden with texture, from the fur-trimmed tops and leather bodices to feathered dresses and pleated chiffons. Since it was a Washington show, there had to be a philanthropic element which explained the connection to the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation and Great Ladies Award honoree Sharon Percy Rockefeller, who lost her father, Sen. Charles Percy, to the disease.
Charlie Lefkowitz VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS AT WWW WASHINGTONLIFE COM
Alexandra and Arnaud de Borchgrave
Jason Wu with Elise and Mark Lefkowitz Jimmy Holloway, Kerri Larkin, Pat Trammel, Katie Jaggers and James Taylor
WL EXCLUSIVE
Nancy Lynn
DINNER FOR JASON WU AND SAKS FIFTH AVENUE Lefkowitz Residence | PHOTOS BY KYLE SAMPERTON LASTING MEMORIES: A handful of special guests were treated to an intimate dinner for fashion world darling (and first lady Michelle Obama favorite) Jason Wu and Saks Fifth Avenue in honor of their support of the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation. The designer mingled with guests over cocktails and throughout light piano entertainment before the everyone retired downstairs for lobster and lamb. The perfect hostess, Elise Lefkowitz, brought outa pile of pashminas for the ladies when the wind kicked up before an early spring storm, capping a perfect evening that no one wanted to end. VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS AT WWW WASHINGTONLIFE COM
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John Pyles, David Decklebaum and Barbara Harrison Bill Homan
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Kert Rosenkoetter and Wolf Blitzer
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PROUST PLUS
Jason Wu Fashion designer and First Lady Favorite Jason Wu was the design partner for the 3rd Annual Great Ladies Luncheon, where he previewed his Fall 2013 collection. and personal accomplishments in my life. The reason that I moved to New York was to pursue a career in fashion and to be a part of American history through this experience means the world to me.
inspiring because of the way he narrated such compelling stories through his photograph.
WHAT FASHION DESIGNER DO YOU MOST ADMIRE AND WHY? Charles James, I have always admired his work. He is one of the original masters of couture.
WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF IN TEN YEARS? I built my business with the goal of being around for a very, very long time. I see the Jason Wu brand expanding significantly and globally to include an entire lifestyle.
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE WOMAN FOR WHOM YOU ARE WHAT INSPIRES YOU WHEN DESIGNING? YOU ARE DESIGNING? The Jason Wu woman has All sorts of things inspire me, an appreciation for beautiful but traveling has been the major craftsmanship and refined source of inspiration for many details that make a garment of my collections. extraordinary.
OW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR DESIGN AESTHETIC? Refined femininity
WHAT DO YOU COLLECT? Beautiful stationery
PHOTO COURTE SY OF JASON WU STUDIO
WHAT CAUSE IS CLOSEST WHAT WAS THE TO YOUR HEART? INSPIRATION BEHIND YOUR AIDS Community Reseacch FALL COLLECTION? Initiative of America (ACRIA) The fall collection was inspired by the strength of women with WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE a focus on statement shape and PLACE IN THE WORLD? silhouette. New York WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT TO DATE? There is no doubt that designing the first lady’s inaugural gowns has been the single greatest professional
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IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME WHICH HISTORICAL PERSON WOULD YOU WANT TO MEET? Richard Avedon. I think his work is especially
WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO? I’ve always lived by the motto “quality over quantity.” WHAT QUOTE OR SAYING INSPIRES YOU? My mother once told me that you should never stop learningadvice that I think everyone can take to heart. Washington Life’s PROUST PLUS series is adapted from the timeless list by French writer Marcel Proust to reveal aspects of an individual’s inner personality.
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LIFESTYLES | ON THE CANVAS
THE
COLLECTORS
As part of TRANSFORMER’S annual Collector’s View series (on view through May 19), five Washingtonians opened their homes to share their private art collections with the public. Here, three speak about their love of art and the art of collecting.
BY ANNE KIM-DANNIBALE PHOTOS BY JOSEPH ALLEN
ANDREA EVERS and BRIAN AITKEN Contemporary art featuring Western pop art and noted Washington artists.
‘This is the first big piece I ever purchased. I had a little heart attack when I saw it. It’s an explosion of color with a narrative quality that feels like a comic spill. I never get sick of looking at it.’ . — ANDREA EVERS
“Belletriste” by Ian Whitmore, showed 2005
My husband and I are both native Californians, so we’re drawn to pieces that remind us of suburbia. We also love Ed Ruscha and Mel Bochner, who tend to include words in their pieces. That speaks to me because I have a master’s in literature. As we’ve collected more, we’ve become much more focused, not as impulsive. We think of an artist or a piece we want for a while and talk to gallery directors around the country before we buy. We tend to stay away from pieces that are too heavy handed, political or didactic. I’m not into political art. Right now, we’re looking at Fred Tomaselli. That’s probably the next thing we buy. My husband has been talking about it for two weeks.
From the Experts
ANDREA POLLAN
VICTORIA REIS
director/owner, Curator’s Office
executive & artistic director, Transformer
Beginning collectors sometimes buy impulsively. Acquire what you really respond to — either you love it or it gets under your skin. Research is important. Don’t be afraid to ask questions.
Beginning collectors commonly make uninformed purchases like not knowing if a work is archival, how to protect it in the long term, and buying works on paper without knowing how to frame them.
Even the most experienced collector finds that the art market can be one of the most fickle. Experienced collectors can surprise themselves as they acquire different media. Video is a case in point.
For me, a truly great collection has a “wow” factor that evokes questions and feelings.
The Internet and proliferation of art shows has changed how people collect. But gallery shows are the best way to learn about an artist’s greater body of work in depth. A collection that is truly great is one that shows passion and vision.
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It’s absolutely possible to have a great collection for li*le money. Transformer’s FlatFile is a great place to start. When pu*ing together a collection look for what inspires you, a work you keep thinking about, how you will present it and how additions will speak to works you currently have.
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ANN LUSKEY ‘Eco-pad’ of contemporary art with nature and conservation themes.
‘When I bought this piece I had not yet discovered I was a water person. Since then she has become our watery talisman keeping us safe when we lived at sea. I loved the subtle lines and colors the artist used, and I enjoy imagining how she came to life from a simple plank of wood.’ — ANN LUSKEY
Large Mermaid Relief by Stephen Balkenhol, 1995
The pieces in my collection represent a distinct period of my own evolution. A decade after graduating college, I discovered ocean conservation, rediscovered my inner bohemian, and started collecting pieces that made a statement about our planet and its declining health. I don’t really look for anything when adding to my collection. If it calls to me because it’s funny or has a great message, then I know it’s right. Right now I’m actually working on making art myself. Practical things may dissuade me from buying, like will it fit in my house? Is it ridiculously expensive?
DEBORAH KALKSTEIN and CARLOS BACHRACH International collection with works by artists from Kalkstein’s native Peru.
‘I love the contrast between the extreme detail and depth of the man’s portrait with the almost child-like graffiti drawings. It brings me back to my Peruvian origin and really shows the street life in a very graphic way.’ — DEBORAH KALKSTEIN I see a collection as something that should ignite feelings from whomever is living with it. It’s not that we collect a particular type of art. I’m hesitant to even call ourselves “collectors.” We really are drawn to pieces that mean something or talk to us in a certain way. Most of our pieces come from Latin American and I think it’s that they take us back to where we came from. We like and appreciate living surrounded by art. I can’t have it any other way either because they make us feel uncomfortable because of their graphic content or very comfortable because of their innocence and beauty.
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“RAMON” mixed media on wood, 2008, by Aaron Lopez
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LIFESTYLES | THE DISH
A SOUTHERNER’S FRANCE Chef Ed Hardy dishes on emotional food connections, his dream Washington diner and the last meal he’d ever want to eat.
Bistro Vivant’s new executive chef, Ed Hardy, originally hails from Richmond, Va., attended the University of Virginia to study history and media, and spent several years in Washington working on campaigns before he jumped ship to pursue cooking full-time. After following his future wife to New York City, he graduated third in his class from the French Culinary Institute and then worked as a sous chef for some of the biggest names in the industry. Now, the Southernerat-heart is thrilled to have returned to his roots, and recently changed over his entire seasonally-driven menu to focus his own special touches to classic French dishes. WHAT IS YOUR COOKING PHILOSOPHY? Everything has to taste like something. Whatever is on the plate, I want to make sure it will strongly pull your taste buds in one direction or another, to hopefully give my food an emotional connection. If I am making something with fennel, I want you to know I’m using fennel.
DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE DISH YOU’VE MADE? It’s actually on the menu currently — Amish Chicken. I want it to take people back to a time when chicken was still exciting, like when your grandmother made it, which is why it is called “Grand Mere,� meaning grandmother in French. I borrowed ideas from three New York chefs in its making, and added my own touches along the way.
IF YOU HAD TO CHOOSE ONE COOKBOOK YOU COULDN’T LIVE WITHOUT WHAT WOULD IT BE? My wife’s grandfather actually worked for [Auguste] Escoffier, so we have a signed copy of “La Cuisine d’Auguste Escoffier.� It is in French of course, but I am WHAT DO YOU SEE AS THE teaching myself French and it helps to read it in French, too. I think this SIGNATURE WASHINGTON connection is why I feel so comfortable at Bistro Vivant. MEAL? These days it has to include oysters, because we have great locally-sourced oysters. I can WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE WASHINGTON RESTAURANT name 30 restaurants off the top of my head that serve great oysters. APART FROM BISTRO VIVANT? Sushi Taro Local beef is also on the rise. Steak houses have always been a part of POWER PLATES local culture, but now smaller independent restaurants are also offering steak dishes and that’s exciting. Washington’s dining scene may be Move over steak. Washington’s rising gastro creds are leading to more options for the power elite to mark their culinary territory. Here, a changing, but the signature dishes are still power dishes, and those are taste of what’s on the menu at a few perennial power hubs. typically oysters and steak.
IF YOU COULD COOK FOR ONE WASHINGTONIAN FOR WHOM WOULD IT BE AND WHAT WOULD YOU MAKE? My man RGIII and I would make him a chicken fried steak biscuit with ramp butter. And whatever else he wanted! I’ve cooked for a lot of celebrities before, but cooking for him would be fantastic, and I’d tweet about for a month afterwards. WHAT WOULD BE YOUR “DEATH ROW� MEAL? I am a Southernerat-heart so I’d want to have black-eyed peas, biscuits, fried chicken and white mace gravy.
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The Bombay Club’s Ashok Bajaj tells us that the most requested dish from the power-suit set at his popular Indian spot is the tandoori salmon ($20), notably ordered by new CIA director John Brennan on a recent evening. Influence gets up early (we’re looking at you Mike Allen) and when it does, it wants the griddled banana and nutella croissant French toast or skillet roast salmon with eel sauce, sticky rice and shiitake miso broth at Clinton, BeyoncÊ and Jay-Z favorite Seasons at the Four Seasons. The seafood cobb salad ($27.75) keeps diners coming back to the beloved P.J. Clarke’s, which has, through the years, seen its fair share of Washington power diners. Despite the restaurant’s nod to local history, The Federalist’s hush-hush clients are inclined to order something lighter while conducting the day’s business: the Chesapeake rockfish ($28) with jumbo lump crab meat, Carolina gold rice and shellfish essence. Blue Duck Tavern is a perennial power hub serving a Pollywood mix of luminaries including Harrison Ford, Hillary Clinton, Newt Gingrich and Larry David. The most oft-requested dish? The equally glamorous wood oven roasted bone marrow ($14) with rhubarb butter and a pepper crust.
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P H O T O C O U R T E S Y O F B I S T R O V I VA N T
THE WASHINGTON FOOD SCENE HAS CHANGED DRASTICALLY IN THE LAST FEW YEARS WHERE DO YOU SEE IT GOING? I think we will see more recognizable restaurant groups, like Knightsbridge and Neighborhood, with three to five restaurants each. And smaller operators will really capitalize on the areas that are underserved.
VOCAL ROYALTY BY PAT R I C K D. M C C OY
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n the eve of her performance at Strathmore, mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves talks about rebuilding after a fire, a new teaching post and performing before her hometown audience. WASHINGTON LIFE: You’ve recently accepted a teaching post at Peabody Conservatory. What are you enjoying about this new aspect of your professional career? DENYCE GRAVES The best part is working with the students, getting to know them, their voices, finding solutions to help make their process easier and loving them as I do. My life has been so busy that I didn’t think I had any room for anything else. As it turns out, there is a tremendous amount of heart space there. It’s really true that I am a better singer because of the work that I have been doing with them. WL: You and your family recently went through a difficult time that had you and your husband, Dr. Robert Montgomery moving to Baltimore. Tell us about that. DG We were on vacation last July camping with the children and the dog in an RV. We were having some work done to the house when it burned to the ground. There wasn’t anything left, except the chimney. We had to shift gears really quickly and find a place to live. Now we are in the city and we love it because we were not used to being around a lot of people. It’s fantastic for my husband because he travels quite bit. It takes him no time to get to work. I like being able to walk to the store and the cleaners, walk the dog or get my nails done. Now, we are in the process of rebuilding, so we shall see where that journey takes us. There has been a lot of change, but that is what life is about and seeing how flexible you can be to that change. WL: With a busy schedule that currently has you on the road there is certainly no grass growing under your feet. How do you balance your professional and home lives? DG This year has been a great challenge. With my being away so often, I think my husband has had the most difficulty accepting that. My
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daughter left a heartbreaking message for me the other day on the phone. Those kinds of things rip you to shreds. You think gosh, what am I doing this for? I have been trying to integrate the Denyce Graves family life into my work, since I have (by Devon Cass) been away so much. It depends on the support and nourishment in Washington. I love engagement and the situation. If that Washington and being from Washington. All of means my daughter misses a day or two of my memories are so much in the ground of the school, I think she’s getting something else [by city herself. For me, there is a responsibility. being with me.] I feel that I am modeling for her a strong independent woman who is able WL: For your upcoming concerts at Strathmore to take care of herself and her family and live a with the National Philharmonic, you are singing life that is honest to who I am, doing something that I believe I am called to do. At the end of the the Brahms ‘Alto Rhapsody,’ a welcome contrast to your other recent projects. What was your day I think that when you take your last breath, first introduction to that work? you are probably not going to be thinking about your performances. You are going to be thinking DG I have heard it over the years because I don’t think that you can come along as long as about your children and the people you love. I have been doing this and not know certain standard works that are for my voice type. WL: How do you feel about performing before Brahms is a wonderful composer and composed your hometown Washington audience? beautifully for darker voices. So, it is something DG In some ways, it is more pressure, like singing in front of your voice teacher. I know that that I am looking forward to. I love Strathmore. It is a wonderful space to be singing in and I the people who mean so much to me are going am happy that my students can come and hear to love me anyway. Because of that, you want and see me perform. I have required them all to do your very best. I have waves of different to show up at the Sunday concert. What is kinds of emotion when I am performing at home. First of all, it is such a feeling of gratitude. interesting is coming back to a piece that is so melodic and tonal is that it sounds so strange I don’t take it for granted. My prayer when I after all this new music I have been doing. I perform is to be present, that is first for me, no matter where I am. When I am at home, in many started out the year with the world premiere of Douglas Cuomo’s “Doubt” at Minnesota Opera, ways I have to protect myself more. Although playing the role of Mrs. Miller. After leaving I am among lots of friends and family, I would Kansas, where I am now preparing for “Mikado,” say that I am required to do more. The other I am doing Terence Blanchard’s “Champion” and pressure that is self-imposed is that the people in the Washington area who have heard me sing then the “Alto Rhapsody,” so that is going to be a breath of fresh air. It is really gratifying, and a lot have a sound that they believe is mine, sometimes a mezzo-soprano does not always and so I am competing with that. I always try to get to say that. do better than what I think they heard the last time. Being in this profession is one of constant self-improvement and chasing after perfection. Denyce Graves joins the National Philharmonic at the I feel I have gotten a tremendous amount of Music Center at Strathmore, May 4 and 5 in Bethesda.
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LIFESTYLES | HEALTHY LIVING
UNDERSTANDING AND COMBATING
ALUMINUM A new documentary raises awareness of the dangerous health effects of aluminum as philanthropists work to raise funds to help eliminate the life-threatening diseases this everyday object can cause. BY CLAIRE DWOSKIN
he Age of Aluminum” begins with the jolting image of a patient who has scar tissue where her breast had once been. The documentary silently asks why this fit young woman with a career and relationship faces an uncertain future. For this and so many other health issues, ubiquitous aluminum may be the reason for such suffering. Children’s Medical Safety Research Institute aims to discover why so many are becoming sick and disabled.
What’s the urgency? Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s Disease, breast cancer, autism, gastrointestinal disorders, food allergies, autoimmune diseases, heart disease, strokes, and other chronic and debilitating conditions have been increasing rapidly. Science’s best efforts to find treatments can’t slow the tide. Chronic illness, rather than infectious disease, is now the greatest threat to the healthcare and education systems, and therefore the economy. Pressure to find treatments are driven by both a desire to alleviate suffering and lucrative payoffs as new discoveries are heralded.. Who’s speaking out? The film focuses on the
unsung work of scientists around the world studying aluminum’s health effects, a question that’s ebbed and flowed for the past 30 years. Dr. Jim Olds, director of the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Studies, said he has never understood why aluminum research fell out of favor, as it was yielding very promising answers to Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases back in
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the 1970s. Dr. Chris Exley, of England’s Keele University, is more direct. “The neurotoxicity of aluminum is without doubt. We do not know unequivocally that aluminum is a cause of Alzheimer’s disease but we do know how its presence could contribute towards the onset, progression and aggressiveness of the disease. We now need to test the “aluminum hypothesis”of Alzheimer’s disease and, if funding were available, we now know how this can be achieved.” Dr. Philippa Darbre of Reading University has made similar discoveries tying aluminum to breast cancer. In collaboration with Professor Mannello of Urbino University, Italy, fluid collected from the nipple of breast cancer patients was found to contain twice the level of aluminum found in fluid from healthy women. In the laboratory of Dr. Mandriotta in Switzerland, non-transformed breast cells turn into cancer cells in the presence of the same aluminum concentrations found in human breast tissue. This discovery was made after Darbre and Exley found significantly more aluminum in the breast quadrant closest to the armpit, which is also where over half of breast cancers start now in the U.K. and the U.S. New research also links aluminum to the migratory and invasive qualities of human breast cancer cells, possibly implying its role in cancer metastases. “No one dies of a lump in the breast, but rather from the ability of the cancer cells to spread to distant sites. Therefore it is very important to identify the causes of breast cancer spread,” Darbre says.
How can one substance cause so much harm?
Scientists searching for causes of autism, allergies, and autoimmune diseases are finding a common link in aluminum.The same properties that make aluminum ideal for crafting into the thousands of objects used on a daily basis may be the reason. It’s an amazing and highly reactive element that readily binds with others to form highly useful products. That same reactivity allows it to bind to substances in our bodies. However, aluminum has no metabolic role and is highly disruptive to all aspects of biology. Should interest in aluminum be reignited in the medical community? Academic Pediatrics
reported last year that 54 percent of all children under the age of 18 now suffer from some type of chronic health condition, and 90 percent of these conditions remain chronic beyond the age of 18. Our health care system is not designed to bear a burden of chronically ill children who will be heavy users throughout their lifetimes. Many patients have symptoms that defy all efforts to cure, and medical practitioners are increasingly frustrated at the inability to diagnose, treat and prevent this explosion of complex chronic diseases. A group of scientific and medical leaders are behind the wave of new research that’s beginning to find substantive associations between chronic illness and aluminum. Where is aluminum found? We must become aware of hidden aluminum in foods, medicines,
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P H OTO BY B E N D R OZ
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injections, cosmetics and other items used routinely. Women thinking about starting a family would be wise to skip deodorants containing aluminum, as it’s excreted in breast milk. It’s also found in baby formula, IV feeding fluids and in antacids recommended to quell heartburn during pregnancy. Aluminum in excess of safety standards can be found in some vaccines and enteric coatings of many vitamins and medicines meant for daily use. Should adults also be concerned? Aluminum has been associated with dementia, and rates are increasing. As people age, the ability to excrete aluminum diminishes, so levels can accumulate. Package inserts on antacids warn against long-term use and recommend monitoring aluminum levels, yet few doctors or patients are aware of this caveat. Processed foods containing
certain dyes, emulsifiers, personal care products, as well as cooking pans, increase the burden. What do critics say? Aluminum that is used in
vaccines is said to have a long “safety profile” and that more aluminum is present in the environment and in food, so the quantity in vaccines is said to be insignificant. A safety profile relies on known information, but relatively little is known about aluminum safety because it has never been subjected to human safety trials. No one knows which route or timing of exposure causes the greatest toxicity, or what thresholds infants or the elderly, can safely be exposed to. Are there simple solutions? A report of a
non-invasive test of the aluminum hypothesis for Alzheimer’s disease was published in the
Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, providing preliminary evidence that aluminum in the bodies of Alzheimer’s patients could be reduced simply by drinking silicon-rich mineral water. It also demonstrated improvements in cognitive function in some of the subjects.. What can we do? Understanding the mechanisms of aluminum toxicity, whether ingested, injected, or topically applied, will likely yield the most fruitful bounty of discoveries. Any philanthropist who wants to make a significant and substantial impact on human health is more likely to be successful by funding studies of toxin and gene interactions, which lead to chronic disease and disability. Unraveling aluminum’s potential to do harm would likely be the single largest contribution that anyone could make to the future of medicine.
Dr. Jim Olds and Tim Meyers
Claire Dwoskin, Katherine Bradley and Dr. Robynne Chutkan Monica Langley and Dr. Rita Colwell
WL EXCLUSIVE
“THE AGE OF ALUMINUM” FILM SCREENING
Dr. Marty Wasserman and P.J. Murphy
Carnegie Institution for Science | PHOTOS BY BEN DROZ BUYER BEWARE: It seems as if new health risks lurk around every corner these days, and now we need to add an item found in just about every household to the list: aluminum. The 375 guests of the Environmental Film Fest’s screening of “The Age of Aluminum” documentary heard a laundry list of chronic diseases that are now being linked to aluminum, including autism, allergies and autoimmune diseases. They le+ the screening with the knowledge of how to eliminate, or decrease, aluminum usage in their daily lives. VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS AT WWW WASHINGTONLIFE COM
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Marion Guggenheim
Peter O’Brien and Nora Pouillon
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WASHINGTON S O C I A L D I A R Y Around Town﹐ Martin’s Tavern _`th Anniversary Celebration and More!
Event chairwomen Cindy Jones, Amy Baier, Mae Haney Grennan and Susanna Quinn at the CNMC’s fashion show fundraiser at the Versace boutique (Photo by Tony Powell)
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Hope and David Bass
Angel and Anna Saltos Julie Chase and Nancy Taylor-Bubes Torrey Shalcross and Ray Schupp Mayor Vincent Gray and Billy Martin (Photo by Neshan Naltchayan) WL EXCLUSIVE
MARTIN’S TAVERN 80TH ANNIVERSARY Martin’s Tavern, Georgetown | PHOTOS BY TONY POWELL VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS AT WWW WASHINGTONLIFE COM
Where Everybody Knows Your Name Billy Martin revisits his family’s ties to Martin’s Tavern, one of Georgetown’s oldest restaurants I N T E R V I E W B Y J A N E T D O N O VA N
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here are currently five generations of William Martins, but it was William “Billy” Allen Martin Jr. who recently celebrated the 80-year anniversary of his family’s restaurant and bar with Mayor Vincent Gray. The mayor even took a turn behind the bar, which has played host to presidents and celebrities over the years. There are plenty of stories about how the tavern got started. Billy’s favorite involves Prohibition-era gunmen who confiscated a shipment of whiskey from up north and killed everyone but his grandfather. “I think he was spared because Sam Rayburn was one of his best friends,” says Billy, adding that Lyndon B. Johnson was as well. Growing up a Martin meant that Billy, his four older sisters and younger brother played dress up from time to time to entertain at the Carriage House, which the family also owned. “I recall having to be on our best behavior. The food critic at the Washington Post before Phyllis Richmond was very impressed to see my brother and I, who
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were 5 and 6 at the time, eating lobster and caviar,” he says. Likely to his father’s joy, Billy wasn’t carousing at the tavern as a teenager. After his parents divorced, Billy went to live in Florida and didn’t return until he was 22 when he took a job behind the bar. “Working six nights a week does tend to lead you down some paths that maybe aren’t the best,” he says. “However, I don’t think I would trade them for anything. I had a lot of fun with a lot of different people, whether they were Kennedys, Skakels, some of the Exxon Mobil children or just people going to Georgetown University. “I didn’t have any concept then of how rooted Martin’s Tavern is, or who walked through the doors here,” Billy remembers. “Now I really impress upon my children — my son Billy Jr. is 15 and my daughter is 17 — the richness, the history and what an institution Martin’s Tavern is. ... They don’t quite see it yet, but I know that they will.”
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Event co-hosts Amy Baier, Cindy Jones, Susanna Quinn and Mae Haney Grennan
Jean-Marie Fernandez and Karen Donatelli
Holidae Hayes, Cindy Thompson, Julie Giuliani, Verna Flemming and Patty Milligan
WL SPONSORED
CNMC/VERSACE’S SHOPPING BENEFIT Versace Boutique, Tysons Galleria | PHOTOS BY TONY POWELL FASHION FORWARD: Social connectors Cindy Jones, Amy Baier, Mae Grennan and Susanna Quinn co-hosted a super sartorial evening to benefit the Children’s National Medical Center. Guests at the chic Versace boutique enjoyed a fashion show of Versace’s latest collection, as well as a discount on all purchases. GUILT-FREE SHOPPING: Ten percent of all sales was also allocated toward funding for CNMC’s various programs. VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS AT WWW WASHINGTONLIFE COM
Kristen Lund
Jessica Gibson and Victoria Michael
Krysti Hinton and Liz Petkevich
Cid Szegedy
Beth Masri
Model in Versace’s latest collection Nina Snow
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Versace’s Alla Farberov and Shane Robbins
Runway model
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OVER THE MOON
Hollywood in Hunt Country The National Sporting Library and Museum hosts the premiere of “Summer in February” BY VICKY MOON
National Sporting Museum and Library guests Wilhelmina Holladay, Melanie Leigh Mathewes and Jacqueline Mars. ( Photo by Saskia Paulussen)
CAST CALL IN MIDDLEBURG: There is a
subtle unspoken dichotomy when it comes to Middleburg style. Horsewomen wear their best jewels and well worn jeans to ride and muck stalls. Men who possess hundreds of acres and countless cattle are blissful when bumping along on a tractor. Katty Kay, the brilliant blonde British television journalist, is spotted tossing trash at the county dump on a Saturday morning. At the recent wedding of Lt. Col. and Mrs. Oliver North’s daughter, Dornin Ann, to Peyton Randolph Tochterman, guests were seated on bales of straw for the ceremony at Narnia Farm in Bluemont. Drinks were served in Mason jars at the reception which included dinner and dancing. No matter the occasion the objective is unpretentious. Such was the case recently when the National Sporting Library and Museum produced a dinner and a movie gala that will go down in local lore. British Amb. Sir Peter John Westmacott was honorary chairman and Jacqueline Mars and Clarice Smith (plus NetJets) were sponsors. The evening included a peek at the exhibition of “Munnings: Out in the Open” by the revered British artist Sir Alfred Munnings. The film, “Summer in February,” set in Cornwall in 1912 portrays a tortuous love triangle involving Munnings, his
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wife Florence and their close friend Gilbert Evans, played by Dan Stevens of “Downton Abbey” fame. The Old Guard came out: Ohrstroms, Mathesons, Wileys and Fouts (Virginia Fout flew in from L.A. to add her magic touch as event planner), former Sen. John Warner, Mimi Abel-Smith and her sister, Phyllis Wyeth plus Monica Greenberg, Dielle Fleischmann, Charles Fleischman and Richard Viets. With more than 450 attending, the parade just didn’t stop … Manuel Johnson, the library/ museum’s chairman, greeted Sheila Johnson (hosting her own Middleburg Film Festival in late October) who strolled the museum with husband William Newman Jr. Turner Reuter, a major force in pulling the magnificent event together, introduced the new director, Melanie Leigh Mathewes. From the world of the horse came George Strawbridge, Helen Groves (of the King Ranch), Robin and Gerry Parsky (from Rancho Santa Fe) and Olympic Gold Medalist Joe Fargis. Other locals and neighbors included Luciana and Robert Duvall, Joe Perta, Jim Thompson and Tracey Weinberg, Lucy and Brian Conboy and Trevor Potter. Ann and Bill Nitze, Susan and Michael Pillsbury, Grace Bender, Sylvia deLeon (chairman of the Washington Ballet) and April Gow came out from Washington. Finally, everyone settled in for a dinner of salad and game pot pie. The table decorations included vintage paint brushes and boxes of oil paint tubes, sugar horse cookies and M&Ms (courtesy of Mars) And, in true Middleburg style, popcorn with truffle oil. REAL ESTATE NEWS: Recent transactions in hunt country include the sale of 152-acre “Chilly Bleak Farm” by Jennie Darlington to Jim Fitzgerald of Lexington, Ky. John Coles
of Thomas and Talbot handled the $2.5 million sale. Mrs. Darlington is the widow of Harry Darlington, whose mother, steel heiress Ethel Shields Garrett, was noted for saving the circa 1828 columns from the East Portico of the U.S. Capitol and then installing them at the National Arboretum. For those interested in joining the hunt country life, agent Cindy Polk of Washington Fine Properties in Middleburg is offering
The ceilings at “Rallywood” are high enough to include a horse as well as the horsey set. (Washington Fine Properties Photo)
the 115-acre “Rallywood,” designed by local architect Thomas Beach, who has also done work for Bunny Mellon. A horse lover’s dream, it features a magnificent 12-stall center aisle stable, two-level attached owners apartment with cathedral ceilings and a living room with a gorgeous stone hearth flanked by French doors opening to an expansive terraced slate patio overlooking the 150-by-300-foot outdoor arena. The indoor arena is ideally located with direct sheltered access from the stable. Additional appointments include two lovely residences, a two-bedroom guest apartment, a one bedroom apartment, a professional office and a spectacular site to build your dream home, if desired. Price: $5,999,000.
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Carol Melton, Horst Schulze and Adrienne Arsht
Bruce and Sharon Bradley Alex Obertop and Finlay Lewis
WL SPONSORED
Pergrin Pervez
CAPELLA HOTEL GRAND OPENING
Melissa and Lou Hayden
Capella Hotel | PHOTOS BY TONY POWELL
Andrea Rinaldi and April Yvonne Firoozabadi
GEORGETOWN LUXE: For Georgetown developer Bruce Bradley and his wife Sharon, the opening of the much-anticipated Capella hotel signalled the conclusion of a seemingly never ending process of construction delays. That resulted in a few low-key parties for close friends and investors, co-hosted by Capella Chairman & CEO Horst Schulze (who founded the ultra-luxe hotel chain a+er a long tenure as head of Ritz Carlton) and General Manager Alex Obertop. Arriving guests immediately experienced the “wow” effect a+er viewing the lobby’s antique parquet floors (reclaimed from a European castle) and a two-story solid onyx fireplace anchoring the seating area. The 49 guest rooms and suites are both spacious and private — aimed at a*racting visiting dignitaries and high-end business travelers.
David and Marni Gootzit
Willee Lewis, Trina Sams-Manning and John Page
Ed Kassoff
Ellen Kassoff Gray WL EXCLUSIVE
NEW JEWISH PASSOVER SEDER WITH TODD GRAY
Harrison Gray and James Dohlman Chef Todd Gray
Equinox Restaurant | PHOTOS BY TONY POWELL TASTY RITES: The traditional seder may never be the same again thanks to Chef Todd Gray and Ellen Kassoff Gray whose “The New Jewish Table” just out from St. Martin’s Press puts a modern, seasonal spin on Jewish classics for traditional holiday meals. FAMILY TIES: Only a handful of guests were invited to a special Gray family seder to try out dishes from the new book; a dinner made that much more special thanks to son Harrison’s humorous serenade. VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS AT WWW WASHINGTONLIFE COM
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Rachel Pryor and Lauren DeSantis
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Andrew Huston and Christina Breuer
Paddy and Jay Katzen Meg MacKenzie and Ana Elisa Benavent
Ed Miller WL EXCLUSIVE
Steve and Heather Roby
EDWARD MILLER ART OPENING Foundry Gallery, 1314 18th St. NW | PHOTOS BY ALFREDO FLORES HOMETOWN TALENT: The debut of the exhibition “Earth Flowing Plane” by Edward “Bear” Miller drew a crowd of collectors and friends in honor of the artist (who was born and raised in the District). The show was devoted to his “fresh, gri*y paintings with soul,” especially renderings of the Potomac River, Rock Creek and various local landscapes. VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS AT WWW WASHINGTONLIFE COM!
Christian and Melinda Fromm
Jeffrey Winter and Jennie Buehler
Zeyneb Lange and Anne Emmet
William Howells and Rosie Howells WL EXCLUSIVE
Chad Breckenridge and Charles Dubow
Edith Schafer and Isabella Breckinridge
Preston Brown
‘INDISCRETION’ BOOK PARTY Private Residence, Washington, D.C. | PHOTOS BY KYLE SAMPERTON Glowingly described as a “quintessential Manha*an novel” by one reviewer, “Indiscretion” also proved to be a major hit with the old guard Cave Dwellers who came to celebrate the publication of Charles Dubow’s elegant tale of marital infidelity set amid the WASPy confines of New York’s Upper East Side and Southampton’s Georgica Pond. COMME IL FAUT: “He definitely has a way with words,” one reader declared to the evident satisfaction of the author’s mother, Isabella Goodrich Breckinridge, as guests discussed family ties, alma maters and upcoming spring jaunts while nibbling hors d’oeuvres prepared by the host’s formidable cook.
Jim Elder
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John Peters Irelan and Pie Friendly
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Frederick and Meredith Thomas with Tony Culley Foster John Duff, Steven Knapp, Hillary Thomas Lake, Deanie Dempsey, Gen.Martin Demspey, Jackie Hrabowski, Freeman, Hrabowski, Marc Albert and Edie Fraser Marillyn Hewson, Charles Bolden and Heidi Shoup
WL EXCLUSIVE
GLOBAL EDUCATION GALA
Abelrahman Al-Mazmi, Dima Al-Faham and Marc Albert
Ritz-Carlton Washington | PHOTOS BY KYLE SAMPERTON LOVE OF LEARNING: Those who aid education in all fields in the U.S. and around the globe were honored at this year’s event, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, Gen. Martin Dempsey, who gave the keynote address; UAE Amb. Yousef Al Otaiba, who received the Distinguished Diplomatic Service Award; Dr. Freeman Hrabowski III, president of the University of Maryland Baltimore Campus, who received the Educator of the Year award; John Chambers, chairman and CEO of Cisco, recipient of the Global Education Award; and the Global Communications Award winner, Frederick Thomas, founder of MHz Networks.
Rachel Birtha Eitches and Robert Hormats
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Michelle Kwan and Grega Daley
Pat Finn and Kate Mulvany
Alex Barth, Diana Spencer and Katie Bridges
Drs. Sharon and David Lockwood
Tony and Buffy Miles KIPP DC President and CEO Allison Fansler
WL EXCLUSIVE
FRIENDS OF CHOICE IN URBAN SCHOOLS HONORS ITS FOUNDER Mike Peabody
The Washington Club | PHOTOS BY TONY POWELL NOBLESSE OBLIGE: Friends of Choice in Urban Schools (FOCUS) lauded Malcolm E. (“Mike”) Peabody for shepherding a movement that now includes 35,000 D.C. students enrolled in 57 charter schools on 100-plus campuses making up 43 percent of the total public school population — and with a waiting list of 15,000 parents. THE LAST WORD: The everdebonair guest of honor, who is retiring as FOCUS’s founding chairman, marveled at the changes that have taken place since he started the group in 1996. “Who da thunk?” Peabody told the admiring crowd. “I certainly never imagined we would get to this level so fast.” VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS AT WWW WASHINGTONLIFE COM!
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Nancy and Paul Ignatius with Pamela Peabody
D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson 77
AROUND TOWN
Spring Soireés Hope for the vision impaired, embassy chefs demonstrate their craft, and a stuffed sequel to ‘Downton Abbey’ BY DONNA SHOR
LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS Big news at
the Foundation Fighting Blindness’ 11th annual Visionary Awards Dinner at the Ritz-Carlton. Gordon Gund, the group’s chairman and co-founder, told of breakthroughs in cases once deemed hopeless thanks to FFB’s research funding and leadership. Guests watched a video of two adorable little siblings, Derrick and Meredith Day, both born blind, but with hope for the future, and heard teenager Louie McGee, who began losing his sight at age 5, explaining what improved vision will mean to his quality of life. Paul D’Addario, 58, of Arlington Va., demonstrated from the audience the Argus II retinal prosthesis, whose research FFB has actively funded and which won FDA approval in February. D’Addario, diagnosed at Johns Hopkins with retinitis pigmentosa, explained that the Argus II combines a camera in a pair of sunglasses with a chip implanted in the retina. He has achieved partial improvement with the device, the only one of its kind being manufactured in the world, but is convinced of future benefits as research develops. The evening’s three honorees were Ann McLaughlin Korologos, a former secretary of labor and co-founder of the Visionary awards in 2003; her husband, Tom Korologos, a former ambassador to Belgium; and Dr. Hendrik P.N. Scholl of Johns Hopkins University, who was honored for his ground-breaking work in retinal diseases. Speakers included former Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez and Rep. Pete Sessions. Alison Starling, Emmy Awardwinning anchor of ABC/WJLA-TV News was the emcee.
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was the amusing and effective auctioneer, so hands-on that she even grabbed one end of the heavy carpet when manpower was lacking, and helped haul it onstage. Foreign ambassadors really show up to support their chefs and enjoy the dishes of other countries at this event. We spotted Natalia Kislyak. wife of the Russian Federation’s ambassador, as she waited patiently in a long, long line without pulling rank.
Guests at the Foundation Fighting Blindness dinner included Tom Korologos and Ann McLaughlin Korologos (above) and Marlene Malek and Bill and Donna Marriott (below). (Photos by Neshan Naltchayan)
A FINE FRIEND REMEMBERED There was
a touching moment at Cultural Tourism’s Embassy Chef Challenge, held on the premises of the event’s co-sponsor, the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. The honorary host committee paid tribute to the late Pat Skantze, who chaired so many good Washington causes, including the first Embassy Chef Gala in 2003. The special committee included A. Scott Bolden, Annie Totah, Kim Watson and Timothy and P.J. Trudeau. Shahin Mafi spoke of Skantze’s many achievements, and incidentally was the donor, we found out — but not from her — of the stunning Heriz carpet, valued at $12,000, which she donated to the auction to raise seed money for an annual award in her friend’s name. TV chef and cookie magnate Carla Hall
DOWNTON DELIGHTS “Have some bling,” said lawyer Bob Heggestad, gesturing grandly to a glittering tray of earrings, tiaras and rings with “diamonds” big as a baby’s fist, feathered fans and hair plumes — dress-up time for grownups — at his “Downton Abbey”-themed dinner. (See photos on the next page.) An over-the-top Victorian table setting — a marvelous clutter of crystal and gold that included different china services for each course — was replete with opulent dishes and special wines. Consider: braised rabbit-shitake consommé with a fine Amontillado, then sole meunière with Pouilly-Fuissé followed by a trou Normande refresher of clementine sorbet with anisette à l’orange. The roast quail with truffled foïe grasstuffed Turkish figs was paired with a Leacock’s Rainwater Madeira. Filet of beef with a blue cheese, red wine caramelized onion glaze matched well a full-bodied wine of Saint-Émilion, a Clos des Menuts 2008. Veuve Cliquot accompanied dessert while a Graham’s Six Grapes Reserve Port was well chosen for the cheese. Eminent Edwardians ate truly prodigious dinners and their latter-day counterparts can, too!
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Bob Heggestad with Tandy and Wyatt Dickerson
Baba Groom, John Peters Irelan and Olga Ryan
WL EXCLUSIVE
Carole Feld and Donna Shor Rose Marie Bogley
‘DOWNTON ABBEY’ DINNER PARTY Robert E. Heggestad Residence, Kalorama | COURTESY PHOTOS
Lady Westmacott and Sophie L’HÊlias Delattre
Gen. Jim Jones, Stuart Bernstein, Arnaud de Borchgrave and Albert Small
Nancy Itteilag, Adam Bernstein and Annie Totah
WL EXCLUSIVE
LIGHT OF HEALING HOPE FOUNDATION RECEPTION
Isabel and Jerry Jasinowski
Lucky Roosevelt and Lea Berman
French Ambassador’s Residence | PHOTOS BY KYLE SAMPERTON Supporters of the Light of Healing Hope Foundation gathered at the French ambassador’s residence to pay tribute to Alexandra de Borchgrave’s mission to provide spiritual pathways to hope, peace and healing to those who need it the most. “You are the ame ‌ that gives it life and warmth,â€? said the evening’s host, Sophie L’HĂŠlias Dela re, wife of the French ambassador, noting that more than 3,000 beautifully bound and illustrated books of de Borchgrave’s poetry have been given to hospital patients, 9/11 survivors and others experiencing great personal tragedy. VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS AT WWW WASHINGTONLIFE COM
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Alma Gildenhorn, Alexandra de Borchgrave and Alma Powell
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Juan Coronado, Emily Kearney and Chris Schmid
Taha Ismail
Melanie Kimmelman and Katie Funk
Chukwumaa
Katy Lernihan and Lindley Thornberg
ARTINI AT THE CORCORAN Corcoran Gallery of Art | PHOTOS BY BEN DROZ
Ashleigh Toner, Diego Gonzalez and Kasie Clouser
IN THE MIX: With the caliber of bartending talent in this town, the Corcoran’s 1869 Society annual liquid-infused celebration gets more difficult to judge. Eight of some of the best ba*led it out, but in the end critics chose an elixir by The Gibson’s Frank Jones inspired by Henri Regnault’s “Head of a Moor,” while fans went for a fruity mixture by Joe Ambrose of W Hotel’s P.O.V. inspired by Pierre-August Renoir’s “View From Cap Martin.” In between tastings Washington’s more colorful characters bopped to classic soul and funk, while nibbling caramelized brown sugar bacon and Jazz Age bites in the VIP lounge. VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS AT WWW WASHINGTONLIFE COM
K.C. Price and Svetlana Legetic
Vikrum Aiyer and Smita Satiani
Christian Aiello, Jackson Prentice, John Dalton and John Thompson
Don Caron, Dexter Manley and Mike Manatos
Q. Bernard Driscoll
MARCH MADNESS: ZERO’S BENEFIT TO END PROSTATE CANCER
Mike Smith and Skip Lockwood
Steve and Heather Roby
Nationals Park | PHOTOS BY KYLE SAMPERTON ENDING THE MADNESS: There isn’t much that men love more than watching March Madness basketball games and nibbling sliders, nachos and chicken wings while they cheer; except for doing it in the name of charity! 215 generous sports fans showed up to watch the first round of basketball games at Nationals Stadium, following tours of the stadium and ba*ing cages, a silent auction and sessions on the pu*ing green. Guests got quite the surprise when Redskins great Dexter Manley walked in to join the festivities. More than $18,000 was raised to raise awareness and help educate men about prostate cancer.
Scott Tucker and Bruno Fabi
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Jennifer Stockman
Chuck Conconi and Bill Press
Michael Petruzzello and David Stockman
Bill Nitze and Finlay Lewis
Flavius Mihaies and Salman Al-Jalahma
DAVID STOCKMAN BOOK PARTY Qorvis Communications | PHOTOS BY KYLE SAMPERTON CHOICE STATEMENTS: Former-O.M.B.-director-turned-financier David Stockman had few kind words for the U.S. political system at a party celebrating his latest book, “The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in America,” hosted at the downtown offices of Qorvis Communications. Among the more notable epithets from Stockman’s exhortations to the crowd of lawyers, bankers and other K Street types: “glorified concierges” (the political parties for their role in funneling campaign cash to candidates); “bubble machine” (the Federal Reserve) and the best of all: “Roach Motel” — to describe the banking system, “ where money goes in but doesn’t come out.”
Ron Faucheux, Stan Collender and Maura McGinn
Gordon Dale and Christopher Pooch
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Eric and Vivian Wilson with Martha Ann Alito and Dominic Capolgo
Gabrielle Urquhart, Tamara Darvish and Candy Duncan
Dr. Jim Davis
LEUKEMIA BALL
Janelle and Larry Duncan Steve and Beth Gorman
Walter E. Washington Convention Center | PHOTOS BY KYLE SAMPERTON
Kate Michael, Michael Andrews and Cheryl Romero
BLACK-TIE BASH: The Leukemia Ball has has raised over $45 million dollars in the past quarter century and this year’s event added even more to the total. Featuring performances by comedian Dana Carvey and Jim Belushi & The Sacred Hearts Band, more than 2,000 guests came to dine, dance, bid on silent auction itms and take a chance on a Mercedes-Benz Raffle while raising funds to support the fight against leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma. The James L. Eichberg Lifetime Achievement Award went to Tamara Darvish of Darcars, for her support of the cause.
Brad Scarborough, Matthew Beaver, Jeremy McCullam and Randy Randolph
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Tim Carmody and Joan Piccolo
Tom and Linda Daschle with Jane Harman
Italian Amb. Claudio Bisogniero, Laura Denise Bisogniero and Ellen Tauscher
WL EXCLUSIVE
Monaco Amb. Gilles Noghès and Ellen Noghès
Rep. Cherrie Bustos and Gerry Bustos
PREVENT CANCER FOUNDATION’S FESTA DELLA DONNA National Building Museum | PHOTOS BY KYLE SAMPERTON
Jim Mulshine with Bo and Jim Aldridge and Pamela Mulshine
BELLA NOTTE: Italian Amb. Claudio Bisongniero and his wife LauraDenise were patrons of the Prevent Cancer Foundation beneďŹ t, a black-tie fete that featured a numerous members of Congress and other high-proďŹ le guests. The evening raised an estimated $1.3 million for cancer research and programs for the medically underserved.
Shamin Jawad, Lala Abdurahimova, Rosa Djalal and Marie Royce
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Pamela and Mike Peabody with Bobbie Brewster
Michael and Susan Pillsbury
Nina Pillsbury, French Amb. François Delattre, Sophie L’HÊlias Delattre, Evelyn DiBona and Marie Royce
ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE BENEFIT French Ambassador’s Residence | PHOTOS BY TONY POWELL
Paul Blue
DOUCE FRANCE: “It looks like a home,â€? French Amb. Francois Dela re said at the Alliance Francaise beneďŹ t at his temporary quarters on Foxhall Road NW. “Our Bonnard is here and our [portrait of] Lafaye*e is, too.â€? Truth be told, none of francophiles paying $1,000-a-pop were heard to complain that the annual seated dinner had —Voila! — been transformed into a chic cocktail soirĂŠe due to the closing for renovations of France’s grand manorial ambassador’s residence in Kalorama. COMME IL FAUT: Guests enjoyed exquisite hors d’oeuvres and ďŹ ne wines as they congratulated “rock starâ€? chairwomen Nina Pillsbury, Evelyn DiBona and Marie Royce for not only pulling it o but raising a record $85,000 for the group’s educational initiatives.
Joan Carl, Vibeke Lot and Antonia Gore
Francesca Craig and Ruthie Leall
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Winson and Wendy Cumberland
Kathryn Duvall and Jessica Frust Johnson
Andrew and Nancy Ray Adler Jordan Kaye and Cpt. Jason Miller
Andy Boyle and Marisa Yoneyama
Theresa and Joseph Bauman
JUNIOR LEAGUE OF WASHINGTON CENTENNIAL FÊTE National Building Museum | PHOTOS BY BRETT BAGLEY The Junior League celebrated 100 years of service in Washington with members, spouses and guests gathering to enjoy cocktails, a dinner prepared by celebrity chefs and dancing at a special “après fête.”
Elizabeth Somerville and Amber Huffman
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Will and Whitney Wright
Sunita, Dan and Michelle Leeds
Samantha Schwartz
Meg Gruber, Kellie Blair Hardt and Jason Hardt
Mark Chichester, Reg Weaver and Robert Adams
SALUTE TO EXCELLENCE IN EDUCATION GALA
Bob Guerin, Chris Bodden and Bob Michelin
National Building Museum | PHOTOS BY BEN DROZ THREE CHEERS FOR TEACHERS: More than 800 education supporters helped celebrate the achievements of the NEA Foundation’s 38 honorees from across the country. The coveted Member Benefits Award for Teaching Excellence, for which Northern Virginia teacher Kellie Blair Hardt was a finalist, was given to Leslie Nicholas of the Pennsylvania State Education Association a+er a touching video made by his students was shown. During a seated three-course dinner, guests were treated to performances by students from the Closing the Achievement Gaps schools in Lee County, Fla. They were joined by jazz musician Kevin Eubanks for the finale performance, “Too Perfect,” to honor the life of their music teacher who was killed in a car accident a few years ago. VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS AT WWW WASHINGTONLIFE COM!
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Caryce Gilmore and Gera Summerford
J.M. Ruscetti and Emily Chiappini 83
Ken and Bonnie Feld
Savanna Clark and Joanne Bauers
Randall Odeneal, Doreen Spiegel, Nancy Opel (Dolly Levi), Sue Odeneal and Eric Spiegel Sebastian Rivera WL EXCLUSIVE
Micheila Leighland and J.P. Qualters
‘HELLO, DOLLY!’ CAST PARTY Old Ebbitt Grill | PHOTOS BY TONY POWELL MORE WITH LESS: It wasn’t hard to spot Nancy Opel at the cast party after the opening night of “Hello, Dolly!� at Ford’s Theatre. Starring in the title role once “owned� by the venerable Carol Channing (and to a lesser extent by Pearl Bailey and Barbara Streisand), the actress had clearly made it all her own and was basking in the limelight with fellow players. “They put on quite a show!� one guest exclaimed, noting that the 16-member cast gracing Ford’s relatively small stage was only one-third the size of the original Broadway production.
Chris Ciccarelli, Morgan Cowling and Derek Parker
“Hello, Dolly!� Director Eric Schaeffer VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS AT WWW WASHINGTONLIFE COM!
Amanda Bennett, event chairman Don Graham and L.D. Ross
Event chairwoman Deborah Lehr, John Bolten and Meg Hargreaves
Patti LaBelle, Denyce Graves, Jordin Sparks and Amber Riley
DC-CAPITAL STARS TALENT COMPETITION
Hamid Fallahi, Tamara Darvish and Nima Fallahi Robert Shedrick and Kaya Henderson
Kennedy Center | PHOTOS BY ALFREDO FLORES TOP TEENS: Ten very lucky, and incredibly talented, Washington high school students had the chance to perform for four famous African-American female performers. Pa i LaBelle, Denyce Graves, Jordin Sparks and Amber Riley were on hand to watch these ten ďŹ nalists compete in the performing arts. It’s safe to say that everyone was deďŹ nitely a winner this night. VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS AT WWW WASHINGTONLIFE COM
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Josi Bakari, Sarah Bakari, Finalist Ayanna Bakari and Adisa Bakari
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Ken Harvey and Leland Melvin
| M AY | washingtonlife.com
PARTIES PARTIES PARTIES
Office openings, masked balls, cheers for love and celebrations for higher education. VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS AT WWW WASHINGTONLIFE COM!
UNITED NEGRO COLLEGE FUND MASKED BALL
EVERS & CO. REAL ESTATE OFFICE OPENING 7032 Wisconsin Ave., Chevy Chase, MD | COURTESY PHOTOS A fourth Ever & Co. Real Estate office was opened last month, and it was a cause for celebration, with works by local artists exhibited, including Walt Bartman and Jordan Bruns.
JW Marriott PHOTOS BY JASON JOHNSON
1. Kristina Ellis, Donna Evers and Andy Stern
The inaugural UNCF Masked Ball raised $370,000 to support the education of nearly 4,000 students from the Washington area who a end historically black colleges and universities.
2. Catherine Arnaud-Charbonneau, Marina Krapiva, Eric Murtagh and Michele Arnaud
3. Adrienne and Frederick Brooks with Kinshasha Conwill 4. Dr. Dallas and DeDe Lea with Ernie and Debbie Jarvis
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5. Pedro and Kim Alfonzo with Dr. Michael Lomax
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6 BOOK PARTY FOR “CAPTURING LOVE: THE ART OF LESBIAN AND GAY WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY” Equality Center at the Headquarters of the Human Rights Campaign PHOTOS BY CARLY FULLER
At this launch party, authors Kathryn Hamm and Thea Dodds signed copies of their first-of-its-kind guide to photographing same-sex weddings and celebrated the book’s nationwide release with leaders in the wedding industry such as WeddingWire CEO Timothy Chi and AC Warden of Capital Cermonies.
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9 AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF AFGHANISTAN BENEFIT DINNER
6. Thea Dodds, Kelly Posey, Kathryn Hamm and Kelly Durden 7. Kendra and Jay Brown with Christopher Speron
National Museum of Women in the Arts PHOTOS BY KYLE SAMPERTON
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More than $200,000 was raised at this annual dinner to support scholarships given to American University of Afghanistan’s female students and the International Center for Afghan Women’s Economic Development built on the new Kabul campus. 8. Marie Royce and Shamim Jawad 9. Ma hew Bullion, James Bullion, Gen. George W. Casey and Sheila Casey
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10. Sameena Hakimi, Sultana Hakimi and Nilofar Sahki 11. Amb. Crocker, Bill Schweitzer and Kerry Healey
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HOME LIFE | INSIDE HOMES
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ou’d never know it from its unassuming white stucco façade, but the P Street NW home of Thomas Anderson and Marc Schappell was once the glamorous epicenter of Washington’s social and political world in the 1800s. At the heart of it all was a teenaged bride, the beautiful daughter of a relatively unknown Georgetown family, and a Russian baron 50 years her senior who fell in love with her at first sight. They were soon married and for years afterward Washington’s top society folk attended the couple’s lavish parties where crowds were known to gather for a glimpse of the beautiful and well-heeled. “That’s the original stone step that’s worn down from so many previous homeowners and guests,” a clearly delighted Anderson says, pointing to a stepping stone in the doorway. “You can see we had to shave the bottom of the door to fit that groove,” adds an equally excited Schappell. Such details had the co-founders of Washington Fine Properties (one half of a team of founders that includes partners Dana Landry and William F.X. Moody) smitten with the historic four-story Federalstyle house in 2005. It’s tempting to wonder about the families and visitors who lived in those many rooms, looked out the upstairs window to the nearby mansion (now owned by the Allbritton family) which was built with the same windows, and lost coins in the widening gap between the original floorboards. When it was built in the 1790s, it was one of a handful of residences, including “Tudor Place,” that faced south toward the Potomac. But in the 1800s, the orientation was flipped when P Street was cut into the street grid and the front door became the back door. Today, the homeowners enjoy treating guests to a surprise view of the house’s majestic south-facing Georgian side. “It’s the original Virginia country house
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OPPOSITE PAGE: The Georgian side of the house reveals an early chapter of Georgetown’s history before P Street was cut through on the other side. The library’s wood paneling purchased at auction from the London Stock Exchange, helps create a cozy, lightfilled room. Downstairs, the couple have created a bar with a speakeasy feel that also showcases the mural from shuttered Nathan’s. Homewoners Thomas Anderson and Marc Schappell consider themselves preservationists.
THIS PAGE: The furniture thorughout the home is accurate to the period of the house. The dining room features Vanderbilt chairs where Jackie Kennedy once sat and a 1700s Irish Georgian chandelier that’s never been electrified, and never will be. The kitchen, installed over the garage added in the 1950s, is a light-filled gem with gourmet amenities — the perfect example of blending the charm of older homes with the conveniences of modern times. The foyer (also pictured in the opening page) with its staircase and banister is part of the original 1790s structure.
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from the back,” Anderson notes. History is an integral part of Anderson and Schappell’s personal and professional lives. Schappell sits on one of New York’s most prestigious and active boards, the Landmarks Conservancy Board, while Anderson launched and ran Sotheby’s International Realty, the luxury real estate arm of Sotheby’s auction house, for many years. Together, they also maintain historic homes and barns in upstate New York. “We are preservationists,” Anderson says. “It’s innate. We’re fortunate to have these wonderful homes in communities like Georgetown, and we treasure the fact that those that exist are maintained and kept as part of our history.” “I may have been an architect in a previous life,” adds Schappell. “Whether houses or barns or churches, they all speak to me in some way. I think they should all be preserved unless they’ve been changed beyond recognition and there’s no more original fabric left.” True to their beliefs, much of their 7,500-squarefoot residence is original. They spent five painstaking years making sure the restoration (not renovation, as they emphatically point out) honors the past. The main living area was virtually untouched as was the staircase and several fireplaces. Doors in the upstairs master suite — one of six bedrooms — still bear ironwork latches and faint stenciling revealed by accident under several layers of paint. “It ended up being a little treasure,” says Anderson. Because the house went through four renovations under previous owners, it took some guesswork to return other aspects back to their period finery. Artisans were brought in to replicate mantles and the banister on a new staircase leading down into a basement bar, which proudly bears the old Georgetown mural from shuttered Nathan’s. Other areas suffered from nonsensical planning that created a “warren’s nest” of rooms, according to Schappell. These were combined to create a functioning dining room so that the couple could entertain comfortably.
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They took more liberty with areas that went through recent upgrades like the garage, which was added in the 1950s and has been turned into a light-filled gourmet kitchen upstairs. “People want all the amenities of a new house and a lot of the character of historic houses doesn’t make that easy,” Schappell says. “Those who view themselves as custodians of historic properties don’t care.You make certain sacrifices because you don’t want to destroy the character or the fabric of the house.” Not that new is bad, Anderson quickly adds. “But sometimes buyers who would love to live in something older may not find their way to be sensitive to the house and create all the amenities that we all would like to have.” Fortunately for clients who are predisposed to purchase their own piece of history, Anderson and Schappell can shed some light through their first-hand experience as custodians themselves. “That’s very rewarding for us,” Anderson says.
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HOME LIFE | REAL ESTATE NEWS
Historic Houses
The former Georgetown residence of Jacqueline Onassis’ mother sells for $8.6 million and a Middleburg farm with a Civil War history changes hands BY STAC E Y G R A Z I E R P FA R R
THE DISTRICT Don Roth, EMP Global private equity firm founder and a former World Bank executive, sold O STREET NW for $8.6 million to real estate developer Conrad Cafritz and his wife Ludmila. The house is the former residence of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’ mother, Janet Lee Bouvier Auchincloss, who purchased it with her husband, Hugh D. Auchincloss, during John F. Kennedy’s presidency. Previous owners include steel heir Laughlin Phillips and his wife Jennifer (who had been previously married to Mr. Cafritz) and Armistead Peter, the chatelain of Tudor Place and a descendant of Martha Custis Kennon, the great-great-granddaughter of first lady Martha Washington. Built in 1870, the four-level brick Queen Anne-style residence boasts more than 11,000 square feet of living space, making it one of the largest houses in Georgetown. It features soaring ceilings, 12 fireplaces, nine bedrooms, seven bathrooms, a deep garden with a swimming pool and a three-car garage. Washington Fine Properties represented both sides of the transaction. Kimberly Casey and Daryl Judy represented the purchasers and William F. X. Moody, Robert Hryniewicki and Adam Rackliffe represented the sellers. The Cleveland Park residence of Isabelle Scott, TH PLACE NW, sold to The Hecker Family Revocable Trust for $1,750,000. Scott, who died last November, was a noted philanthropist and the eldest grandchild of Samuel Lehrman, founder of the Giant Food grocery chain. The four-bedroom Dutch Colonial was built in 1925 and overlooks the highly sought after 34th Place NW. Margot Wilson, William F. X. Moody and Robert Hryniewicki of Washington Fine Properties were the listing agents, while Coldwell Banker’s David Getson was the buyer’s agent.
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Robert Macgregor sold CHESAPEAKE STREET NW to Candace Kaller and Charles Rosencrans for $2,025,000.
The five-bedroom Arts & Crafts home was completed earlier this year and features radiant heat floors, wood-burning fireplaces, a gourmet kitchen and wired media room. The listing agent for the sale was RE/MAX’s Thomas Holbrook, while the buyer’s agent was McEnearney Associates’ Alyssa Crilley. Dr. Richard Gerber sold TRACY PLACE NW for $2,225,000 to another physician, Dr. Michael Atkin (second in command of the The former residence of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’ mother sold for $8.6 million to real estate developer Conrad Cafritz. cancer clinic at Georgetown Hospital), and his wife Susan Crockin, an attorney,The warm and embracing create a strong contrast to the red brick walls. If five-bedroom residence was built in 1923 and you look carefully, you can see one of the area’s brightens up the street with its light-colored, only oeil-de-boeuf (oval) windows on the façade, steeply pitched front-facing gable. An upper a classical motif first seen on Michelangelo’s deck and a fountain garden in the back provide dome at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Bobbie unsurpassed outdoor beauty for a close-in Brewster of Washington Fine Properties location. The listing agent for the transaction represented Portugal, and Ben Tessler of W.C. was Bobbie Brewster with Washington Fine & A.N. Miller represented the purchasers. Properties, while the buyer’s agents were Sylvia Bergstrom and her daughter Marin Bergstrom MARYLAND Leo C. Mullen bought STANMORE of Coldwell Banker. DRIVE in Potomac for $2.8 million from a private Meanwhile, The Republic of Portugal sold trust. Mullen is the CEO of NavigationArts, its military attachÊ office at TRACY a McLean-based IT firm. The five-bedroom PLACE NW for $2,101,000. The purchasers, Colonial was built in 2001, sits on 3.6 acres Maggie and Tom Sheedy, plan to restore the and features his and hers main-level offices, a six-bedroom property, built in 1916, to a temperature-controlled wine cellar, storage barn, private residence. The architectural energy and heated pool and separate guesthouse with fivegreat style is evident in the Georgian Revival car garage. Long & Foster’s Wendy Banner was façade. White keystone lintels, fluted pilasters the listing agent, while Hans Wydler, also of Long and a fine sculptural pediment over the door & Foster, was the buyer’s agent.
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the listing agent while Long & Foster’s Hans Wydler was the buyer’s agent.
a gym, sauna and staff apartment. The listing agents were Michael Rankin, Russell Firestone and Lawrence Calvert, while the buyer’s agent was Mike Anastasia — both of TTR Sotheby’s.
VIRGINIA
Brent Mercke bought
SNAKE HILL ROAD in Middleburg from Middleburg
CHAIN BRIDGE ROAD ,
the Georgianstyle estate of the The Republic of Portugal’s Military AttachÊ office at 2310 Tracy Place sold for $2,101,000. late Alexander Pa t r i c i a and Clarke and Naomi Camper bought Haig, sold for $5,175,000 to an undisclosed KIRKE STREET EAST from Richard Marsh IT corporation executive who is relocating for $2.6 million. Mr. Camper is an executive from California. Gen. Haig was secretary of at NYSE Euronext. The seven-bedroom state under President Ronald Reagan and classic Colonial was built in 1908 and is died in 2010. Mrs. Haig died in October situated in the heart of Chevy Chase Village. 2012. The one-acre property on McLean’s The house offers the style and elegance of Gold Coast was built in 1989. Neighbors another era with all the amenities of today’s include the ambassador of Saudi Arabia. The lifestyle. Flaherty Group’s Cynthia Davis was five-bedroom house boasts eight fireplaces,
Bank for $2 million. The historic property, known as “Mortgage Hall,� was built in 1850 and was once owned by the Mills family of Richmond (who ironically made their money in the World War II uniform milling business). The eight-bedroom Georgian is a traditional Virginia hunt country manor. Civil War battles were fought on its sprawling 121 acres, which now feature a long, tree-lined driveway, a lake, three barns, a swimming pool and a heated equine exercise pool. Middleburg Real Estate’s Peter Pejacsevich was the listing agent, while the buyer’s agent was Scott Buzzelli.
PROPERTY LINES NEWS PREZ LISTS Bradley S. O’Leary is selling his penthouse in Arlington’s posh Waterview Condominium, built by renowned architects Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, for $3,375,000. O’Leary is the president and CEO of Associated Television News, a political strategist and author. The 28th floor residence offers the convenience and amenities of the onsite 5-star Le Meridien Hotel. The 3,800-square-foot unit features floor-to-ceiling glass walls overlooking expansive views of the Potomac and numerous monuments. This unique property boasts dramatic entertaining spaces, a paneled library, modern gourmet kitchen and three bedroom suites. The listing agents for the property are William F. X. Moody and Robert Hryniewicki of Washington Fine Properties. BUSINESSMAN BIDS ADIEU Alex and Susan Mandl listed their seven-bedroom Great Falls Colonial for $5,995,000. Mr. Mandl, ranked by Forbes as
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“One of America’s Most Powerful Businessmen,� is a former president of AT&T and currently chairman of SmartCard giant, Gemalto. The property, at AKHTAMAR DRIVE, is located on five acres with multi-leveled terraces and boasts a pool, pool house, sport court and a carriage house with guest quarters. The interior includes three kitchens, a library, salon, four seasons room, theater, sports bar and wine cellar with tasting area. Long & Foster’s Daniel Laytham is the listing agent. GEORGETOWN GEM The former abode of the late legendary hostess Evangeline Bell Bruce and millionaire diplomat David K.E. Bruce is on the market for $8,995,000. Bruce was the only American to serve as ambassador to France, Germany, the United Kingdom and China. TH STREET NW, an eight-bedroom Federal brick mansion in the West Village built circa 1810, played a central role in Georgetown society and world affairs as a meeting
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place for the likes of George Kennan, Frank and Polly Wisner, Dean Acheson, Joseph and Susan Mary Alsop, Katharine and Philip Graham, Averell and Pamela Harriman and Allen W. Dulles. The house sits on a one-third-acre lot with an original smokehouse, guest cottage, lap pool and a large tiered garden designed by Rose Greely. Other amenities include two wine cellars, a gourmet kitchen, 34-foot ballroom and a greenhouse. Washington Fine Properties’ Eileen McGrath is the listing agent for the seller, Deborah Winsor, whose husband, banker Curtin Winsor, died last year. “EVERMAY� ADJUNCT Robert Hacker, an attorney with K&L Gates, is selling TH STREET NW for $14,250,000. The eight-bedroom brick Federal mansion’s original structure was built in 1880 and was once part of the “Evermay� estate. The completely renovated residence features two kitchens, a billiard room, motor court, solarium, wine
cellar and a one-third-acre garden bordering “Evermay.� Alex Venditti of TTR Sotheby’s International Realty is the listing agent. NETWORK NEWS HOUSE Bob Pincus and Roxanne Little have put CALIFORNIA STREET NW on the market for $5,250,000. Mr. Pincus is vicechairman of EagleBank and chairman of Blackstreet Capital Management and Milestone Merchant Partners LLC. Built in 1916, the residence is the former home of William and Norma “Cappy� Leonard. Mr. Leonard was the CBS News executive credited with selecting Dan Rather and creating “60 Minutes.� Mrs. Leonard is the mother of Fox News host Chris Wallace. The property is listed by TTR Sotheby’s Michael Rankin and Michelle Galler. Stacey Grazier Pfarr is a real estate agent for Delaware Realty in Lewes, Del. Contact her with real estate news at staceypfarr@gmail.com.
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HOME LIFE | OPEN HOUSE
Modern Metropolitan Properties for sale in Washington, Virginia and Maryland are loaded with the latest in luxury technology KENT UNIVERSITY TERRACE NW WASHINGTON DC
ASKING PRICE $19,500,000
This listing presents the extraordinary opportunity to own over six acres in the sought-after and convenient Kent neighborhood. The property includes a light-filled residence, built in 1995 with 12 foot ceilings, up to six bedrooms, an elevator, abundant parking along a private gated motor court, a separate two bedroom guest cottage, working greenhouse and a pool. A fabulous terrace off the first floor overlooks beautiful landscaped gardens. The an ambassadorial residence. Subdivision is possible.
LANGLEY FOREST BENJAMIN STREET MCLEAN VA
LISTING AGENTS: Heidi HatďŹ eld and Anne HatďŹ eld Weir, 202-2431634; Washington Fine Properties property is ideal for
ASKING PRICE $2,650,000
LISTING AGENT This New England-style Colonial is sited on Marianne Prendergast, a spectacular one-acre lot in the sought after 703-873-5155; Long & McLean neighborhood of Langley Forest. The Foster Real Estate, Inc. interior includes over 7,000 square feet of beautifully finished living space with custom appointments. Amenities include a chef ’s kitchen, library with mahogany built-ins, great room with walls of windows, gracious two-story foyer and main-level bedroom with private bath. A huge light-filled walkout lower level with kitchenette and au pair suite add to the luxury of the property.
CHEVY CHASE
ASKING PRICE $2,495,000
QUINCY STREET CHEVY CHASE MD
Š Maxwell MacKenzie / Architecture by Robert M. Gurney FAIA
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LISTING AGENTS: This award-winning and published modern residence Michael Rankin, was designed by renowned architect Robert M. Gurney 202-271-3344 and and built to exacting standards by Peterson and Collins. Corey Burr, 301346-3345; TTR Located in the heart of Chevy Chase, the light-filled house Sotheby’s Internaspans four levels and includes four bedrooms and five and tional Realty one-half bath. The first level offers a gracious dining room and gourmet kitchen with Wolf and Sub-Zero appliances. Adjoining the kitchen is a spectacular family room with a gas fireplace, which opens to the patio and rear yard. As practical as it is beautiful, this house offers 23 closets, many built-ins, and home automation technologies on one of the quietest streets in Chevy Chase.
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MY WASHINGTON Bob Schieffer, Moderator, ‘Face the Nation,’ CBS News WHOM DID YOU ADMIRE THE MOST IN YOUR FIELD WHEN YOU WERE STARTING OUT? I wanted to be like Walter Cronkite when I was a young reporter. The truth is I still do. WHAT IS THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE IN COVERING THE NEWS SINCE YOU STARTED? I have been a reporter more than 50 years. When I worked at the Ft. Worth StarTelegram back in the 1960s, most people got their news from newspapers. After the Kennedy assassination, television became the dominant media. Now we are bombarded with information from so many sources we don’t really know where most people get their news.
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WHAT DO YOU LIKE BEST ABOUT YOUR WORK? Finding out stuff. Getting to talk to the people who make the news directly.
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HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH SOMEONE WHO IS OBNOXIOUS, RUDE OR GETS OUT OF LINE DURING A LIVE INTERVIEW? Just keep asking them questions.
MY TOP SPOTS 1. Hill Country Restaurant (410 7th St. NW) has the best Texas BBQ north of Ft. Worth. 2. Chef Geoff’s (3201 New Mexico Ave. NW) I know the chef, Geoff Tracy, who is the best cook in town. 3. De Carlo’s Restaurant (4822 Yuma St. NW) Great fish, great pasta — everything a neighborhood restaurant should be. 4. Bistrot Le Zinc (3714 Macomb St. NW) My kind of French food (not nouvelle) and a glamorous crowd. 5. My favorite place to walk is around Washington National Cathedral, which is in my neighborhood. I never get tired of looking at it. 6. The Lincoln Memorial is my favorite monument. Enough said. 7. I like the Newseum for obvious reasons. 8. I also love the National Gallery of Art, one of the great art museums of the world.
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SHARE SOME ADVICE FOR A BUDDING JOURNALIST TRYING TO CLIMB THE LADDER. Show up on time with a smile on your face, a shine on your shoes and don’t go home until you have completed your assignment.Then show up on time the next day. One other thing: if the phone rings answer it – you never know who might be on the other end.
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BOB SCHIEFFER COURTESY OF CB S NEWS
IT HAS BEEN SAID THAT THE U.S. SENATE USED TO BE FILLED WITH “TITANS” BUT THIS IS CLEARLY NO LONGER THE CASE. DO YOU AGREE? The ability to raise money is such an overwhelming force now that politics is dominated by those who are willing to spend most of their waking hours begging people for contributions. A lot of good people are not willing to do that. This has reduced and changed the talent pool and we are all worse for it.