More on Petraeus, who’s starting to make lovers Ashton Kutcher and Bradley Cooper look like amateurs. Before America voted last Tuesday, Washingtonians sensed something was up. Naturally nobody figured what was up was Petraeus.
DC citizens couldn’t exactly sniff what aroma was in the wind, but knew something was. Events planned got suddenly unplanned. Reporters seemed newly kerfuffled. And then — hut, hut — came the Story.
The point is: A sex scandal involving the CIA in charge of spies and spooks and secrets and security and safety was something even garden-variety DC humans sensed, but our White House commander-in-chief of the military who supposedly commands the military’s generals — until after his election didn’t?
MORE. Delmar, NY, an Albany suburb. A Bethlehem Central High School class is discussing William Golding’s 1954 book “Lord of the Flies” wherein several boys’ leadership skills lead to chaos. As a comparison, English teacher Mrs. Terri Goldrich explains they should be aware of “the great leadership skills of one Gen. David Petraeus.”
The following day, but absolutely exactly the very next day, this skillful leadership swordsman, the D’Artagnan of the CIA, got hoisted on his own Petraeus petard. What the class is studying now, who knows? Maybe John Edwards’ yearbook.
WITH one election over, comes now the next. NYC mayor. Bill de Blasio, among the platoon of wannabes, came to visit with his wife. Together 21 years, married 18, he’s a 6-foot-5 Italian white guy. Columbia grad. Public advocate. Chirlane, with Caribbean and Ghanaian ancestry, is a good-looking black lady. Wellesley. Former human rights commissioner. When dating, he took her home for Christmas, she took him home for Kwanzaa.
He: “Because she’s found me, my life is protected. She hands cut-up fruit to me in a car when I’m spending the whole afternoon out.”
She: “I worked in City Hall every day but had never seen him.”
He: “I saw this girl gliding toward me wearing a bright orange-and-blue batik dress, head scarf and nose ring. Immediately I knew this was the One.”
She: “I only know my stomach was doing a gigantic flip-flop.”
Date 3, the first kiss, “outside Dojo, a Japanese joint.” One lived in Flatbush, one in Astoria. In ’92, they moved to Park Slope, Brooklyn.
She: “He took me to meet his family. I was nervous. But Bill, being adamant, gave me courage.” He: “I hoped the most important people in my life, my opinionated liberal Democrat mother, who’d never stop talking, and two sisters stayed hesitant. After the wedding, they all galloped into closeness.”
She: “I warned my family in advance. They were quite astonished. But, coming around quicker than his family, in a few days they called him Brother Bill.”
It’s talk of “chemistry . . . having politics in common . . . couples have challenges.” There are two children — Dante, 15, “cares about politics”; Chiara, 17, distributes “Vote for my daddy, he’ll do a good job” leaflets. “We’ve had meetings at the house so both know what it’s like to live in a fishbowl, but they want limits so it’s a real dialogue. We don’t push them to attend events. If they want to, they do. If not, not.”
And the feeling about going for mayor?
Him: “It’s intense. There’s a sting if there’s a low blow.” Her: “It’s exciting.” Him: “The conversation doesn’t begin and end. It’s constant. She has a literal veto. If she said no, I wouldn’t do it.” Her: “So far we’re not measuring Gracie Mansion’s drapes.”
HUGH Jackman’s missus says he’s becoming too muscular and “working out too much.” Currently filming his “Wolverine” role, he says: “I wouldn’t work out so much if I weren’t getting paid so much.”. . . “Annie,” “Virginia Woolf,” “Glengarry Glen Ross,” “Evita,” “Golden Boy,” “The Heiress” — hey, Broadway, how about something new?
HELPING Sandy victims at Madison Square Garden were raffles to win Carmelo Anthony’s jersey, Tim Tebow’s helmet, Eli Manning’s jersey. Callers specifically asked to speak to “Vinny” Guadagnino from “Jersey Shore” and Lil’ Jon answered phones with his trademark “Yeah!” scream.
JODIE Foster and Kiefer Sutherland believe in life on other planets. She donates to some Search for Extraterrestrials Institute . . . Mightn’t come up in ordinary conversation, but it’s said Christina Aguilera goes commando. No underwear. “I like to feel free.”. . . Heidi Montag: “I don’t miss fame, fans or the press. I didn’t save so the only thing I miss is the money.” . . . David Beckham: “Since our little girl Harper arrived, the whole house has turned pink.”
A lady exits a posh Park Avenue building. Her precious white toy poodle promptly nips a passer-by’s ankle. He yelps. She couldn’t care less. Pays zero attention. Doesn’t turn around, apologize, stare, nothing. Keeps walking. As a word of comfort, another person tells the bitee: “A dog starts biting people it usually means the person gets rabies.”
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.