Live Q&As

I'm wearing.....flip flops. My invite got lost, too. (Like they were ever going to invite me!) Will be intereting to see who made the cut.

I think we're still a couple of seasons away from Bravo deciding that "Housewives" should be an elimination show. I predict by 2012, they'll encorporate gladiatorial combats into the season.

Poor Sen. Goodwin -- he was probably appointed too late. The Hill spends WEEKS putting together this list. He's probably a shoo-in for next year. What can I tell you? He's from a prominent West Virginia family. And sorry, ladies, he's married.

Borrow money? Sell blood? Is there a Holiday Inn in Rhinebeck?

Quite a contrast, huh? She's been married since 1996 to a tech guy she met in grad school. She has one kid. And largely, no one's paid much attention to her since her activist undergrad years at Brown.

Eh, you know... Probably there's a web site, or several, that compile all of these Hollywood geography glitches, so there'd be no value in a book. Besides, it's more fun to talk about.

That is the cycle. I have to say I enjoyed this week's dueling People and US covers. People has an interview with Angelina, "My Life with Brad." US has excerpts from an unauthorized biography, cover line: "How She Stole Brad."

Amanda made the cut for a two-sentence item on account of it being July and nothing else happening. Her so-called retirement did make a fair amount of three-sentence news a couple months ago.

I assume her parents----but that's one of the million questions for which we don't have the answer. But ignore those stories about a $2 million wedding. Chelsea will wear a beautiful designer dress, but it's highly unlikely she will pay $20,000 for it. The dress, like so many other things at a celebrity wedding, will probably be wholesale or discounted---the publicity value will more than make up the difference. It wouldn't be a cheap wedding, but nothing like the figures some wedding planners are throwing around to create buzz.

Relax. That's just speculation on what a huge wedding with a crazy unlimited budget would cost----if you had no connections and no one would cut you a deal. The kind of wedding planners would LOVE to see more people pay for because it ups their fees.

Not the case with the Clintons, trust me. 

The Clintons haven't told anyone what this is costing. The numbers you see are guesswork provided by high-end wedding planners, and you know what? It's just their opportunity to spew propaganda on behalf of the bridal-industrial complex. Like, they say, "well, nice wedding dresses range from $10,000 to $30,000 -- but Chelsea is modest so she'll only spend $20,000." They're doing this to mess with your head and redefine your notion of  "normal" so that you, too, will think that you have to spend $10,000 on a wedding dress. These are bad people.

He's Jewish.

Yep.

Do you know who you're talking to? I spend most of my time in the Finger Lakes and have been guzzling Dr. Frank's wines for years. Anyway, I don't think that item was dissing NY state wines. We're just raising an eyebrow at Sen. Schumer's photo-op -- calling on the White House to serve only domestic wines, when in fact that's what they've been doing for a generation.

Aw. Too bad. The Hill insists on having a completely fresh list every year -- no repeats -- so they really need the pretty-face turnover in Congress.

Oh, lots of little things, but my favorite was when they had street signs indicating Angelina was at 6th and Indiana... which didn't look a thing like the real 6th and Indiana. Link to follow.

He's at Wolf Trap this week? Why, I just saw him in Baltimore the other night. I bet he's a tourbus kind of guy. It looked like a pretty good bus. Like a band of gypsies they roll down the highway.

No one is admitting before the fact. A few will admit it after the fact (the famous folks seen arriving, etc) but plenty will not for fear of appearing to exploit their friendship with the newlyweds. 

Two separate issues:

Andrews had every reasonable expectation that she was free to roam naked in her hotel room without being photographed (as long as the curtains were drawn) and is suing both the stalker and the hotels for making it possible for him to videotape her through the peephole.

Tiger's wife faces a more complicated situation. Maybe she had no clue about his infidelity, but she married a superstar, with all the baggage and risks that comes with that lifestyle. That doesn't excuse the mistresses, but it also doesn't mean that his cheating was probably not specifically directed to hurt her, unlike Andrews's case. Was Elin humiliated? Sure. But your outrage should be directed toward the health risks he exposed her to more than her reputation.  

I think some of that will leak out after the fact---there's enormous interest and people will probably be wiling to talk about details like that.

Well, probably not so much need a $7 million yacht as WANT a $7 million yacht. The news today is that he will "voluntarily" pay $500,000 in Massachusetts taxes to fend off allegations that he's docking it in R.I. to avoid that cost.

As if! Did you see the report that Chelsea and her mom stopped by Ver Wang's shop yesterday? But Hillary also swung by Oscar de la Renta. My guess: Wang is doing Chelsea's gown, Oscar is doing Hillary's MOTB dress.

He's a finance guy -- works for a hedge fund, used to work for Goldman Sachs. He's the son of two former members of  Congress -- Ed Mezvinsky of Iowa (who recently got out of prison on a fraud charge) and Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky of Pennsylvania (who some of you may remember as a long-ago local TV reporter in D.C.) He and Chelsea have known each other since they were young teenagers; they went to Stanford at the same time but didn't start dating until about five years ago.

Who knows? But it would not surprise me----it places Vera in the center of the biggest wedding of the year. 

That may be why she got several lifetimes-worth all in one shot while the show was still on.

I hope you had time to tweet the news.

I didn't manage to get out to that event last night; don't know how the movie is.

Exactly. Either decline outright or go---but don't no show at the last minute.

I'm related to many accomplished drinkers who went to Cornell, and I can vouch that they are well familiar with the many quality wines of New York's Finger Lakes region.

I know. It made the stuffed Willie Nelson dolls, priced at $25, seem almost affordable. It was a very good show, though. Carpal tunnel has diminished his most ferocious guitar strumming, but he still plays very well and sounds amazing.

Propaganda, I tell you.

Exactly! Let them pour some money into the economy! Though I'm not sure what the trickle-down benefit of a quarter-million dollars in floral arrangements are.

Strangeness in Hollywood depends on success. For a long time, his movies were huge hits and he could do no wrong----especially since he was seemingly happily married with kids. My guess is that his wife took the brunt of his abuse, and other hints of weirdness were dismissed or brushed under the rug by agents and managers.  

I hear you. Not sure if she's still with the hedge fund, but last fall she started studying for a graduate degree in health policy and management at Columbia.

Smart money says she goes. There will be several people (Spanish reports say a couple dozen) on the trip, and she was in England and France with them last summer. 

Hey, why not just re-wear one of your earlier wedding dresses?

My understanding is that he put a camera up in the peephole. But yeah, what you said -- that's why Andrews is suing the hotels.

Yeah, but there was much less coverage, right?

Clearly, that was the start of their problems.

Intersting question:  Lots of big names tied the knot this month, but it is summer. There's probably a celebrity wedding website where were could compare----if we cared enough. Anybody?

No one knows what Chelsea's plans are.

In all, though, it was more than anyone had paid attention to  Amanda Bynes in a while.

Larry King gets my only vote. That would be magnificent.

Fair enough on the first part. But plenty of people with bipolar disorder don't commit bank fraud, so let dad off the hook that easily.

"While you're young, I guess you need to make a name for yourself." That's a brilliantly subtle dis.

They (or Chelsea) have decided to no comment everything. That's what happens.

Am I the only one who gets a little upset at the amounts brides spend on "Say Yes to the Dress"? I worry about the  burden it puts on some of the families. 

I believe one of the D.C. "Real Housewives" vacations up there -- does that count? And we have some very big deal race car drivers come through Watkins Glen, but they're working, not vacationing... If I were you, I'd try to rent a cabin on Seneca or Cayuga or Keuka Lake, and then take some day trips out to the wineries.

Can't he do both?

Lots of different dynamics. There's a bigger celebrity/paparazzi culture. There's more fascination with weddings these days, for whatever reason. And the public always had a stronger protective feeling about Chelsea, as the only child, than it did about Amy Carter, it seems...

It is a lot of money! For a dress you're only going to wear once.

Panelist write our own bluffs---it's one of my favorite parts of the show, although I feel a bit guilty misleading a caller trying to win. The producers send all three of us the real story the day before the show, then one rewrites the real one and the other two come up with something with the same theme and try to make it crazy/realistic enough.

We're not allowed to know any of the questions on the show: the brilliant staff puts that part together, but everything panelists say is spontaneous. (If you've never been to a live taping, you should try and come---it's a great chance to see the process.) 

What do you need me to explain to you? Did you get that it's about dreams?

That's how I read it.

It was estimated that she'd be out by early August.

It's only called Air Force One when the president is aboard.  The first family isn't allowed to fly commercial for security reasons----they'll be on a military plane.

That is correct, they did.

Maybe on Saturday! Tabloid explosion! "Cut to Chelsea....no, back to Lindsay!"

Yes----national security will have to wait while Bo pees.

You don't see "Chinese" and "dude" in the same sentence that often. Good for you.

Worse than creepy. Dangerous.

Yes, if you can see the sun through that umbrella, then you can get a sunburn through it. Trust me on this. It may be the reason why Lindsay Lohan is so freckled.

Hey, there: it's about 99% better than most of the wedding "commentators" out there---and I have a pretty good chance of being right!

Kids, with all this wedding bliss, time has slipped away from us. Got a column to write. (FYI: I'm headed off next week for a little vacation, so Amy is flying solo. Then we'll both be gone for two weeks of well-needed R&R. )

Stay cool, and send every single tip and sighting (summer is quiet in these parts) to reliablesource@washpost.com. Cheers.