US Attorney General Eric Holder has every reason to hate Rep. Darrell Issa, whose Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held him in contempt in 2012. But they were as thick as thieves after the White House Correspondents dinner.
At the Vanity Fair-Bloomberg after-party, they were having a nice chat, leading one politico to observe, “Normally you’d have food tasters, but it seemed very cordial.”
Most of the guests — including Sofia Vergara, Ronan Farrow, Tony Goldwyn, Freida Pinto, Anne V and the Winklevoss twins (Cameron and Tyler) — were unaware that Pussy Riot was in their midst.
Maria Alyokhina and Nadya Tolokonnikova, members of the group at odds with Vladimir Putin, were surrounded by curious well-wishers on the patio, where hunky “True Blood” werewolf Joe Manganiello was smoking a cigar.
Manganiello — who garnered good reviews in “A Streetcar Named Desire” at the Yale Repertory Theatre — said the Tennessee Williams classic might be brought to Broadway.
Meanwhile, Republican Georgette Mosbacher, on the arm of Democrat Robert Zimmerman, was appalled to learn she had just shaken the hand of Frank Rich, the left-leaning New York magazine pundit.
Host Graydon Carter outdid himself for the after-party this year by using the Villa Firenze — the 22-acre residence of the Italian ambassador to the US located deep in the woods of Rock Creek Park, 3 miles from the Washington Hilton, where the dinner was held.
The property — said to be worth $42 million — includes a 24,000-square-foot English Tudor mansion built in 1927 and purchased by copper magnate Robert Guggenheim in 1942. The Italian government bought it in 1976.
“The Germans are probably paying for it,” one guest joked. “Just wait until Angela Merkel finds out.”