Around Town

THIS MONTH: ONE IN A MILLION/REAL? TO BE OR NOT TO BE/A PRAYER FOR ADRIAN/MOVING FORWARD/THERE IS NOTHING LIKE THESE DAMES/ KALEIDOSCOPE

WITH DONNA SHOR

ONE IN A MILLION
It's great to be one in a million, but one in 500 isn't bad either; especially when the French ambassador says you're one in only 500 Americans to be named Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur since 1802, when Napoleon created the award. Decreed by President Jacques Chirac, Ambassador Jean-David Levitte granted the coveted title to Wilhelmina Holladay for her service to French art through the National Museum of Women in the Arts she founded and directs. The late Art Buchwald, a long-time Paris resident and Paris chronicler, earned one as well. So now it's 501.

REAL? TO BE OR NOT TO BE
The WIPAC Gala was as lively as its president, bubbly Chateau Gardecki, who founded the international piano competition with her husband John. Impromptu conga lines broke out, plumed masks were donned, and there were two sparkly embassy redheads, Bulgarian Ambassador Elena Poptodorova, and Hanna Reiter, wife of the Polish ambassador. Memorable Moment: Margo Deekman Illes, wife of the ambassador of Suriname, explaining to her tablemate Nancy Dunton how to check if pearls are the real thing: Rub them together, fakes roll like ball bearings; real ones are slightly scratchy.

A PRAYER FOR ADRIAN
When the D.C. Commission on Women honored Virginia Hayes Williams at the Mayor's Toys for Tots party, son Anthony Williams, D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton and Women's Commission chairperson Christine Warnke all made speeches. (Christine's 11-year old son John made his speech when he presented Mayor Williams with the toys.) Then compassionate Virginia rose to speak of incoming Mayor Adrian Fenty, asking the crowd to "Hold him in your hearts and your prayers. He will make mistakes - I make them, so do you - but he is a good man, and he will be a good mayor."

MOVING FORWARD
Viola Herms Drath, political essayist and author of ten books, honored Sen. Chuck Hagel at a reception she hosted at DACOR/Bacon house launching Nebraska professor Charlyne Berens's book Chuck Hagel: Moving Forward. Charismatic Hagel, often a maverick who follows his own convictions, is on the short list for 2008. Guests included Gen. Ed Rowney; Rep. Jeff Fortenberry; and several former U.S. diplomats, among them Richard Burt, Esther Coopersmith, and Brandon Grove. Viola has garnered a few titles and honors herself: executive committee member of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy; recipient of the William Flynn Peace Initiative Award; and delegate on disarmament to the U.N. She is author of a seminal work promoting the reunification of Germany.

NOTHING LIKE THESE DAMES
Les Dames d'Escoffier, the gour met foodie pros, celebrated the birthday of Georges Auguste Escoffier (19th century "King of Chefs, and Chef of Kings") and the 25th anniversary of the founding of their D.C. chapter at a very special black tie dinner hosted by Marie-Cécile Levitte at the French embassy residence. Among the guests was dynamic Dame Barbara Fairchild, editor of Bon Appetit, who a few days later was feted at Charlie Palmer's Steak House by chef Bryan Voltaggio who served hors d'oeuvres from her stunning new Bon Appetit Cookbook.

KALEIDOSCOPE
Indefatigable Frida Burling arrived at Shelley and Bruce Ross-Larson's cocktail party carrying three invitations. "I loaned my car to my assistant today, and she's driving me around tonight, so I can make all the stops." Many Georgetown neighbors were among the guests in the Ross-Larson's landmark house, where for years Susan Mary Alsop held her legendary salon. Seen were Alsop chum Kevin Chaffee; Michael Sullivan; art critic Blake Gopnik and his wife (Cate Blanchette look-alike) Lucy Hogg; Ann and William Nitze, and Carmen Petrowitz, just back from an idyllic European stay at the Austrian castle of Count Heinrich Matthias von Thurn ... Local publisher Jeremy Kaye of Bartleby Press is happy two of his authors are in the news. Jacques Haeringer of L'Auberge Chez François is making history as the first chef to have a show on the History Channel. He wrote the Chez François cookbook of classic Alsatian cuisine, and Two for Tonight recipes for romance. Also, Dennis Quaid will play the coach in Universal Pictures's The Express, based on Robert C. Gallagher's Bartleby Press account of the life of Syracuse University running back Ernie Davis and his battle with cancer ... Cathy Lanier, D.C.'s new chief of police, wowed the group of BWW's (Brainy Washington Women) when she spoke at the Christmas luncheon of Mary Waters' Potomac Society at the Robin's Nest of the Willard Hotel ...Many present had Austrian ties when Vienna-born Gertie d'Amecourt gave a party for visiting Monica Tuerk, wife of the former Austrian ambassador. Hot-shot Georgetown developer Anthony Lanier was born there, and Sylvia Mitchell's parents were the Wilfred Platzers, a popular Austrian ambassadorial couple when posted here; (her husband Glen's father was Howard Mitchell, the National Symphony Orchestra conductor.)

Members of the Library of Congress' Madison Council - Raja Sidawi, Monique Duroc-Danner, Kerbey Clark, Edwin Cox and Joan Wegner - enjoy the 2006 Kluge Prize Gala festivities at the Library of Congress' Thomas Jefferson Building	Andreia Butler, Charrisse Jordan, Ione Jamison, Illia Miles, Laura Govan, Nichole Thomas, Keisha Booth, Mistye Ruffin and Sonia Daniels at Jordan's home for a Washington Wizards wives baby shower honoring Jamison, Govan and Shalaun Newton

Katie Preston, senior marketing manager, Hickok Cole Architects; Katy Murnane, traveling exhibitions coordinator, Corcoran Gallery of Art; and Jessica Lawrence of Hemphill Fine Arts at Hickok Cole's "Art Night" at their Washington office	Swedish Ambassador and Washington International School parent Gunnar Lund (left) greets Head of School Richard Hall and World Bank manager Michele De Nevers at a reception at the House of Sweden honoring major donors to the WIS "Gateway to an International World Capital"

Actress Meg Gillentine sings to Gilbert Mead at Arena Stage's celebratory Next Stage Dinner at the Mandarin Oriental. Mead and his wife Jaylee have donated more than $35 million to Arena Stage's effort to build a new theater complex	Jonathan Taylor of Tutt, Taylor & Rankin Sotheby's International Realty; Fred Bahrami, Michael Rankin, of Tutt, Taylor & Rankin; and John Mahshie at a cocktail reception honoring Bahrami, a real estate developer, upon his completion of the new Q-14 residences in Logan Circle

Tony Borgia and Terry Robinson with Adam and Tracy Bernstein at Indebleu for an afterparty following a screening of the film Bobby