COLUMNS

FBI flack met bin Laden in ’98

  • The Washington Examiner
  • |
  • March 28, 2006

by Karen Feld

buzz
Does FBI spokesman John Miller have a familiar face?

Turns out he’s the same John Miller who spent five years as a television correspondent and anchorman at ABC News.

He scored a journalistic coup by traveling to the caves of Afghanistan in 1998 for an interview with Osama bin Laden. CQ Homeland Security says it’s somewhat ironic and perhaps unseemly “that the man who gave bin Laden a global megaphone when the Saudi fugitive was issuing fatwas to kill Americans is now the face of the FBI.”

BILL & HIL SHOW IN LA-LA LAND

Former President Bill Clinton is scheduled to speak in L.A. at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion April 5 and 6 as part of the Music Center Speaker Series. Sen. Hillary Clinton will have a big fundraiser in La-La Land for her senatorial — not presidential — campaign on April 21 at Green Acres. That’s the old Harold Lloyd estate now owned by supermarket mogul Ron Burkle.

A dinner will be followed by a reception and show. Her other half will be back on the West Coast for this event, too. After all, Bill Clinton sits on the board of Burkle’s Yucaipa Cos.

A LITTLE EXTRA ON ETHEL AND EUNICE

Last week, we confused two Kennedy women — Ethel and Eunice. Eunice Kennedy Shriver had a stroke several months ago and still has problems with her eyesight but otherwise is doing well and en route to South Africa. As for Ethel, she’s feeling great and is just back from a trip to Africa, where she visited one of her sons, who is on a humanitarian mission.

AND STILL GOING STRONG …

Crooner Tony Bennett will be serenaded in honor of his 80th birthday by members of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers April 14 on Capitol Hill. ASCAP’s songwriters who will salute him include Alan and Marilyn Bergman (“How Do You Keep The Music Playing?”), Jimmy Webb (“MacArthur Park”), John Mandel (“The Shadow Of Your Smile”) and Richard Adler (“Rags To Riches”). The star-studded lineup also includes Michael Feinstein, Bill Charap and Sandy Stuart, Keely Smith, John Pizzarelli, Dianne Reeves, Ben E. King, Brian Stokes Mitchell and Jack Jones. Bennett, who is also an artist, created portraits of himself and Jones on the latter’s last album, “Jack Jones Paints A Tribute to Tony Bennett.” Jones bows at Blues Alley in Georgetown on April 6.

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