| “We’d love to have her go,” United Service Organizations spokesman John Hanson tells The Beltway Beat, referring to 20-year-old actress Lindsay Lohan, who says she wants to go to Iraq to entertain U.S. troops in the mold of Marilyn Monroe a half-century ago.
“She would be a great addition to any USO tour,” says Hanson, recalling Monroe’s memorable visit with American troops stationed in Korea in 1954.
“We heard Marilyn showed up in a flight suit, and she looked great, but she said the troops did not want to see her dressed (in military garb), so she actually changed into a cocktail dress and walked out on stage. There is an iconic picture of her appearance,” Hanson says.
Lohan tells the September issue of Elle magazine, which hit newsstands yesterday, that she’s been trying for some time to go Iraq in the company of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York Democrat, during which time she could entertain troops. However, she says Clinton considered such a trip to be too dangerous.
Lohan says: “It’s so amazing seeing (Monroe) just going somewhere, this beautiful sex kitten, who’s basically a pinup, which is what I’ve always aspired to be.”
Today’s urban battlefields are a far cry from previous wars and in many ways more dangerous.
“These are not garden spots,” Hanson reminds this column.
Still, an impressive list of celebrities from the entertainment and sports worlds have provided American troops with morale boosts during recent wars, including in Iraq.
RIGHT-WING DATING
“It sort of started with a boy that I had a crush on inviting me to his car to listen to Rush Limbaugh. It’s not traditional, but that’s exactly how it happened.” — Lisa De Pasquale, 28, conference director for the American Conservative Union, telling this week’s National Journal that her romance with politics was sparked under obviously unusual circumstances.
THEY’RE GR-R-REAT!
Forget everything you’ve read about this “do-nothing” Congress. Bills and resolutions are indeed getting passed:
“Resolved, That the Senate recognizes . . . the most famous and successful cereals and characters, including: (1) Tony the Tiger; and (2) Snap, Crackle and Pop.”
In all seriousness, the recent Senate resolution recognizes contributions of Will Keith Kellogg to the people of the world on this 100th anniversary of the creation of the first flaked breakfast cereal. Kellogg founded the Kellogg Co. in 1906 in Battle Creek, Mich.
FOLLIES OF THE LEFT
Northern California writer and blogger Keith Thompson is defecting from the Democratic Party, terminating a relationship forged as the nation’s youngest George S. McGovern delegate in 1972, and later as aide to former Ohio Sen. Howard M. Metzenbaum.
What began as a 2005 essay for the San Francisco Chronicle has led to a soon-to-be-published memoir: “Leaving the Left: Moments in the News That Made Me Ashamed to Be a Liberal.” Continued... |