‘John Adams’ hailed at Capitol

Never judge a book by its cover, the adage goes, although much surely can be revealed by a person’s dress.

Case in point: Tuesday’s 21st-century celebrity sartorial display at the U.S. Capitol party for “John Adams,” HBO’s miniseries about our second president, premiering March 16. Co-executive producer Tom Hanks wore conventional dark-suited Washington garb, as did author David McCullough, standing behind Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who thanked HBO Co-president Richard Plepler and his crew “for bringing John Adams back to D.C.”

Up stepped Paul Giamatti, tieless (in his best California-style open-collar black shirt and jacket) and looking decidedly lost in the august National Statuary Hall, a chamber adorned with statues of prominent Americans that was the original meeting place of the House of Representatives. The actor, who plays the title role, had received fresh applause and laughs at Mrs. Pelosi’s description of him as “an Italian John Adams.”

The witty Mr. Hanks, last seen on the screen portraying former Rep. Charlie Wilson, next had fun with L.A.-D.C. contrasts — rivalry? — when, just before the showing in the Cannon Caucus Room, he apologized tongue-in-cheek to the audience “for seating you on banquet chairs. We in Hollywood don’t understand this practice.” (The chairs were the conventional small, hard, straight-backed rentals hauled out for every public occasion in town.)

By that time, Washington celebrity pols such as Sens. Edward M. Kennedy, and Christopher J. Dodd, who were seen at the cocktail reception, had disappeared, presumably to return to the nation’s work. Not so Rep. William Delahunt of Quincy, Mass., the historic Adams family home, who claimed direct descent from the great man’s son and credited Mr. Hanks with being “on his mother’s side, a distant relative of Abraham Lincoln.” So maybe all was forgiven.

— Ann Geracimos