Washington Prepares for Somber, High Security NATO Commemoration
NATO’s long-planned 50th anniversary festivities in Washington have been transformed to commemorative ceremonies in keeping with the somber tone of the war in the Balkans. Although the forty some heads of state have calendars packed with meetings and working lunches, Washington’s diplomatic corps have planned so-called non-glitzy cultural and social events to entertain the VIPs. The official State Department and White House dinners have been downgraded from black tie to business attire. The weekend will prove a real challenge for Washington’s new mayor, Tony Williams. Non-essential government workers get a holiday; security is tight; and downtown roads are closed. But that didn’t stop the 3000 press covering the events from partying at a kick-off celebration at the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center.
Washingtonians may have abandoned flirting in this post-impeachment climate, but they couldn’t keep their eyes off the diamond choker that descended down HRH Princess Michael of Kent’s chest at the Folger Shakespeare Library “Naughty Nineties” soiree the other evening. She is a cousin-in-law of Queen Elizabeth. Spotted among the power partygoers: Australian Ambassador Andrew Peacock, Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala and former Texas Governor Ann Richards. . . Tony Bennett enthralled the crowd of VIP revelers at the Kennedy Center’s annual Spring Gala. Among them: actress Lynda Carter, Defense Secretary Bill Cohen, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman, Ethel Kennedy, Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith and Librarian of Congress James Billington.
After President Clinton addressed the nation’s newspaper editors in San Francisco on the situation in Kosovo, he spent a few hours of quality time holed up in a hotel suite with daughter Chelsea who lives nearby. Commenting on a year when Monica Lewinsky dominated the headlines, actress Sharon Stone told the editors: “I’ve become the offspring of your illicit imaginations.” Ms. Stone, who’s married to a San Francisco newspaper editor, said: “You can ask me anything. You have the right to ask but you don’t have the right to know.” And another Stone-ism: “Fame doesn’t come with a conscience; it comes with a lot of baggage.”
Across the Atlantic, Londoners welcomed Monica Lewinsky with such open arms that she’s searching for a flat. Don’t be surprised if the scandal personality reinvents herself there endorsing products, much like Fergie, the Duchess of York, did in the U.S. And Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is using his famous family name to popularize his new bottled water called Keeper Springs Mountain Water. But he’s intending to donate all profits to his pet project–clean water campaigns. Hillary Clinton may drink New York City water but she isn’t having such an easy time finding an apartment there. Co-op owners in the Big Apple don’t want to be disturbed by the post-White House security entourage and commotion that will likely follow her. That’s why former President Richard Nixon moved to New Jersey after leaving the White House.