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Top o’ the morning to you, readers.
Vanity Fair’s got a scathing profile of Sally Quinn, formerly of that other paper in Washington. In sum: she’s a social-climbing, husband-stealing, self-important she-wolf who used the power of the pen to air her dirty laundry and rip presidents she didn’t feel were sufficiently receptive to her overtures. It’s too bad we don’t have that voice to read in the paper anymore, huh?
That woman you saw covered in black shit outside the White House the other day? It was Q’orianka Kilcher, best known for playing Pocahontas in ‘The New Word’ and presently in “Princess Kaiulani,” playing the title role. That’s one wayto promote your movie.Girls, hang on to your credit cards: J. Crew’s sister store, Madewell, has finally launched their e-commerce site. No more schlepping out to Tyson’s (or, as Sia called it, the “place where all the rich people live”) for supercute scarves, frocks, Oxfords, and the like. So much for paying off my Mastercard balance within the year.
If you’ve noticed an abundance of food and beer events around town the last few days, you’re not wrong. Nearly every domestic craft brewer you can think of is coming to town this weekend for SAVOR at the National Building Museum. There are pre-SAVOR events at Brickskeller and RFD tonight, and Dogfish Head’s Sam Calagione will be signing books and growlers tomorrow at D’Vines. If you’ve never tried Dogfish Head Midas Touch, do it.
It’s ‘Top Chef Masters’ time! After Marcus Samuelsson won the quickfire challenge by cooking Jonathan Waxman’s soup to perfection, the chefs “got the night off” and saw a Groundlings show, the L.A. improv troupe that launched the careers of dozens of today’s most successful voices in comedy, including Conan O’Brien, Will Ferrell, and Kristen Wiig. In a throwback challenge from the Second City show in ‘Top Chef Chicago,’ the chefs had to create a dish inspired by a combination of words thrown out by audience members. Samuelsson also took the elimination challenge, and my fave, Waxman, got tossed for his Avocado, Burnt Sienna, and Depression dish, with the judges deeming it simplistic. Next week’s the final, and my money’s on Susur Lee.
Speaking of Second City, they’re in town tomorrow and Saturday at the Lansburgh Theater, performing twice each night. They’re awesome, and they’re from Chicago—a redundancy, perhaps. And, as my colleague Jonathan L. Fischer points out, they’re one of the three petri dishes of American comedy, along with the aforementioned Groundlings and the Harvard Lampoon. If you’ve got an extra 40 bucks laying around, go!
Photo: oprah.com.