Leahy remembers his screen time with Ledger

Despite the fact that he has a cameo in last year’s “The Dark Knight,” Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., isn’t bitter that the film didn’t get an Oscar nod for Best Picture.

 “I don’t get into any of that,” Leahy told us Wednesday night at Lucky Strike, where Tracy’s Kids was holding a fundraiser for kids with cancer. “I do think it was the best of the Batman movies.”

Leahy said he was most pleased that the late Heath Ledger — with whom Leahy appeared with in his lone scene — got a nomination for Best Supporting Actor. “That’s what I was happy about,” said the senator. “He was unbelievable. We were in the same hotel and he would just walk around in jeans and a T-shirt” before transforming into the Joker.

Leahy was joined by his wife Marcelle, one of the evening’s presenters, who handed out an award to Sen. John McCain, a melanoma survivor. His advice? “Wear sunscreen and stay out of the sun.”

After the charity’s awards presentation, attendees headed upstairs to the Regal Cinemas, where six Oscar-nominated films were playing. Leahy said he had to return to Capitol Hill before he could take in a flick, but he said he didn’t expect that anything could top his involvement with the Oscar-nominated films of the year before. “Last year I saw ‘Charlie Wilson’s War,'” he said. “I saw about three scenes — and I was there when they [actually] happened.