LL just got off the phone with a nearly manic Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham. Manic, because he says that he's being unfairly deemed a pizza-banning legislator by a local TV station.

"I have been in media for 30 years, and there's never been a more preposterous story than this one," he says.

When WJLA-TV trained his cameras on him last week outside the John A. Wilson Building, he says, he mentioned nothing of legislation---only that jumbo slice pizzerias happen to be associated with certain problems, he says. "When they turn their speakers to the sidewalk, ramp up the volume, and have terrible fights occur not only outside the place but inside the place, when they provide kind of an unruly boardwalk atmosphere, they become a nuisance." But that doesn't mean legislation! He has no such bill in the works, Graham says.

"It's wrong, it's inaccurate, and it's unfair," he says. "To suggest that this is my point of view is absurd."

LL is currently seeking a response from Channel 7.

UPDATE, 6:10 P.M.: WJLA-TV reporter John Gonzalez says Graham indeed told him, in response to a question, that he was considering legislation. “He said, ‘Oh yeah, I’ve already talked to the mayor.’ And I asked, ‘You mean to revoke licenses?’ He said, ‘I mean, yeah.’”

“I have it on camera,” Gonzalez adds. “I have the raw video!”

If Graham has a quarrel, he says, it might be with the lede-in read Friday night by anchor Leon Harris, which said that Graham “wants to ban the sales of single-slice pizza.”

Says Gonzalez, “I can understand why that made him a little upset…it’s sexy to say that the councilmember wants to get rid of pizza, but that’s not really true.”

Gonzalez adds that many of Graham’s anti-pizzeria comments were left on the cutting-room floor. “I don’t think he realized the kind of reaction he was going to get,” he says. “Apparently people take those jumbo slices very seriously.”

If you've ever honked in Dupont Circle because you think Scientology is a cult, well then grab your Guy Fawkes mask. May 24 is your chance to act on the familiar weekend chant (Free Katie Holmes! Free Katie Holmes!). The bobbed wonder, fresh from All My Sons (which Entertainment Weekly hilariously and mistakenly refers to as My Three Sons, which Arthur Miller did not write), will be among the studded cast of the National Memorial Day Concert. Blissfully, she will not be singing. She is instead performing a dramatic reading with Dianne Weist. Also on the bill: Gary Sinese, Joe Mantegna, Colin Powell (doesn't he live here?), Laurence Fishburne and former American Idol contestant Katharine McPhee. The show will be broadcast live on PBS. After which Katie will shake off her shackles and begin eating again. One piece of advice, Joey: Be wary of the jumbo slice.

Flickr photo by danoz2k9