City Desk » Famous People

Photos: Don King

Darrow Montgomery — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 18:49:29 +0000

National Cathedral, April 29

1800 Block of Columbia Road NW, January 20

Darrow Montgomery — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:33:52 +0000

Celebs Invade Ward 8

Mike DeBonis — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:21:13 +0000

Ashton! Demi! Tobey!

At Ballou!

That's right—honest-to-god A-listers made their way out to the oft-maligned Congress Heights high school this morning. There, a breakfast was held commemorating today's "day of service" on the occasion of Martin Luther King's birthday.

Also in attendance: Superman star Brandon Rauch, West Winger Richard Schiff, California first lady Maria Shriver, and some dude LL didn't recognize but who's supposedly on CSI. Charlie Rose—buds with Michelle Rhee—was emcee.

The event was put on by an outfit called Service Nation and sponsored by Target (whose logos were all over the place), among others. The Ridgewells-catered quiche breakfast was followed by opportunities for dozens and dozens of volunteers to participate in projects around the city. Many went a block down the hill from Ballou, to Simon Elementary, to help paint classrooms. There, the Ballou band pepped up volunteers, and Mayor Adrian M. Fenty gave brief remarks, as did Rauch. Maguire—who LL nearly knocked over before snapping the above fuzzy cameraphone photo—pitched in with the painting.

LL wasn't able to pick many celeb brains for their thoughts on school reform—to wit, teachers unions, 90-day improvement plans, "red tier/green tier," et al.—because (a) none of them "did media" and (b) LL showed up late.

In any case, LL showed up at Ballou just in time to watch Kutcher and Moore leave the school, in separate black luxury cars. LL did hear one entourage member say, "We need to find a Starbucks."

They were in for a drive.

UPDATE, 12:45 P.M.: Shakira is pitching in at Oyster-Adams. SHAKIRA! Her multilingual-ness should come in handy while visiting the Spanish-English bilingual program.

Tom Gjelten, Tim Lewis, and Pamela J. Martin: The Authors City List Missed

Mike Riggs — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 17:59:39 +0000

Every week, City Paper's City List does its best to tell readers about all the authors destined to come through town pushing their work (as well they should, the publishing industry needs more than prayer). This week, City List found only one reading, and chalked up the dearth to the holiday season–boy were we wrong. How do we know? Our very own Mark Athitakis has a really fine literary blog (check out his entertaining comment scuffle with Rick Moody), and on that blog, he has a page for local DC readings. Because Athitakis is such a great guy, he probably won't complain that City List is piggy-backing on his events gathering skills just this once. Without further ado, the author listings City List missed:

Dec. 12
Michael J. Griffin, Redemption Road (Busboys & Poets 5th & K)
Jonah Lehrer, Proust Was a Neuroscientist (Corcoran Gallery of Art)
Richard Marcinko, Rogue Warrior (Borders Springfield)

Dec. 13
Alan Cheuse (To Catch the Lightning) and Colin Sargent (Museum of Human Beings) (National Museum of the American Indian, 400 7th St. SE)
Pamela Edwards (B&N Reston)
Lynn Johnson, Out of the Flames to Self-Discovery (Borders Silver Spring)
Pamela J. Martin, Saved, Sanctified, and No Love (Borders Bowie)
Daniel Spiro, Moses the Heretic (Borders Silver Spring)
J. Tremble, Naughty Little Angel (Borders Largo)
Stef Williams, Joy Happened (Borders Largo)

Dec. 15
Tim Lewis, The Virginiad (Busboys & Poets Shirlington)

Dec. 16
Mort Gerberg, Last Laughs (DCJCC)

Dec. 17
Tom Gjelten, Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba (Busboys & Poets Shirlington)