Bill Cohen, Michael Douglas and the Ploughshares Fund’s Joe Cirincione (Photo: Chajana Harder)
Which of these things is not like the other: ex-Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel, former Democratic Sen. Sam Nunn, Georgetown School of Foreign Service Dean Bob Gallucci and … Michael Douglas?
Yes, the actor was the odd man out Wednesday night at the Italian Embassy, on a panel of foreign policy stalwarts brought together by the Ploughshares Fund to discuss nonproliferation.
After initiating the discussion, he left most of the wonkishness to the experts. But he showed he is getting wise to the ways of Washington, as he and the other luminaries spent plenty of time thanking each other for their “leadership.”
Douglas said he became involved in nonproliferation through his work with the United Nations. “I was looking at the different [non-governmental organizations] and I kept seeing Ploughshares and the groups they were funding,” he said.
He’s been on the organization’s board of directors for the past five years.
Unlike seemingly every other celebrity who’s breezed through town of late, Douglas told us he had no plans to visit the White House, remarking that he thinks President Obama has “better things to do” than meet with him. But the new administration, he said, “is exciting. The people in this room spent their entire lives fighting an uphill battle, and it’s nice to have some wind in your sails.”
Also spotted at the event: former Secretary of Defense Bill Cohen, radio host Bill Press, Air America’s Ana Marie Cox and Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., who’s been nominated for Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security.
“I’m doing two jobs,” she said, as she prepares for her confirmation hearings. “And I’d like to do only one.”
