Party of 40
You know that it’s not a typical Washington party (same 500 faces, same 10 conversation topics, different place) when people drop lines like this: “I met him through the Dalai Lama.” But that’s what Michele Bohana, director of the Institute for Asian Democracy, said when asked how she came to know the Most Rev. Desmond Tutu, archbishop emeritus of Cape Town and Nobel laureate.
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The occasion was a dinner for Tutu hosted by Vanity Fair Editor Graydon Carter and his wife, Anna, for the A List’s A List (all 40 of them) on Monday evening at 1789 in Georgetown.
The diminutive Tutu wore African dress and joked about a photo of him and President Bush, taken by Vanity Fair’s star photographer, Annie Leibovitz. “I look like I’m taking confession from your president,” he told attendees at the beginning of his remarks, and the room dissolved into laughter. Tutu and Bush appear on one of the 20 covers used for the July issue of the magazine, whichfocuses on Africa and was guest-edited by Bono. Tutu gave a toast in honor of pro-democracy leader and Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest in Burma. Kyi turned 62 this week.
Other attendees included George Stephanopoulos and Ali Wentworth, Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn, Jim and Kate Lehrer, Tim Russert, Andrea Mitchell, Gene Sperling and his scriptwriter wife, Allison Abner. Vanity Fair’s presence included National Editor Todd Purdum, Contributing Editor Dee Dee Myers, Deputy Editor Aimee Bell, Editor-at-Large Cullen Murphy, Special Correspondent Maureen Orth and Executive Director of Public Relations Beth Kseniak. Rounding out the dinner were the Right Rev. John Bryson Chane (eighth bishop of Washington), the Rev. Mpho Tutu (daughter of Desmond Tutu and assisting priest at Holy Comforter in the District) and the Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas (assistant rector at the Holy Comforter Church), who was joined by her husband, Lamont Douglas, and son Desmond Douglas (godson of Desmond Tutu).
The group dined on a choice of filet of beef, pan-roasted chicken or roasted ivory salmon. As for drink? Who cares: Just being in the exclusive group was probably enough to swallow.
