Capital Classics, a night at the movies, Washington-style, when politicos and journos of note get to pick and then view a film, preceded by a buffet dinner. The Week magazine sponsors the periodic outing here to raise its profile locally and get people out of the habit of “always going to panel discussions,” in the words of Justin Smith, president of the New York-based publication.
TV pundit-interviewer Chris Matthews’ fave was “Dave” at Wednesday’s nonpartisan gathering for a few fewer than 90 invited guests at the Phillips Collection.
“I’m a movie nut,” he proclaimed. “It’s all I care about besides politics and my family.”
Maybe family comes first; his wife, Kathleen Matthews, a top Marriott hotel executive, was on hand with their son Thomas, a student at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
“This one is about our hopes for America set in the first Bush administration,” Mr. Matthews explained, giving Frank Langella, one of the movie’s stars, a plug. (Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver also have star turns.)
” ’Dave’ is not exactly his favorite movie; ’Mr. Smith Goes to Washington’ is, but Chris wasn’t in ’Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,’ ” chided Margaret Carlson, the magazine’s Washington bureau chief and Mr. Matthews’ longtime friend.
It was quite a disconnect: food and chat in the museum’s august art-filled and wood-paneled “entertainment” room, at least 100 years old, with Phillips’ board chairman George Vradenburg in the welcoming role before the crowd moved to the new auditorium for the movie of the night. On the scene: Rep. Jane Harman (her fave, she admitted, is “Casablanca”) with husband Sidney Harman; Shakespeare Managing Director Nicholas Goldsborough and a heavy representation from the fourth estate that included Anne Fleming, Michael Kinsley, Jonathan Capehart, Ben Bradlee and Shelby Coffey III.
Next up in the fall will be Mrs. Harman and Sen. Susan Collins, who need to conference to reach agreement on a single choice.
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