From Anne Schroeder Mullins’ “Shenanigans” coverage of the White House Correspondents Dinner in Politico:

The story about Pam Anderson is that the whole reason she attended was so she could get a meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff. She hoped that after meeting them they’d help advocate for PETA.

Let’s just say, we sure hope the Joint Chiefs have done away with their onerous dress code.

We learn this in the Washington Post today:

The schedule is coming into focus for President Bush’s second trip to the Middle East this year: He is planning to visit Israel next month to celebrate the country’s 60th anniversary. While in Israel, Bush appears likely to visit Masada, the desert fortress overlooking the Dead Sea where nearly 1,000 Jews committed suicide in the 1st century rather than be taken alive by the Romans.

He is also planning a speech to the Israeli Knesset, and will attend a giant celebratory conference being hosted by Israeli President Shimon Peres that is expected to feature such notables as Tony Blair, Mikhail Gorbachev and Henry Kissinger. But Barbra Streisand, the liberal singing and acting icon who had been tapped to sing the Jewish prayer “Avinu Malkeinu” (Our Father Our King), abruptly pulled out last week for “personal obligations.” Was Babs unhappy about the prospect of sharing the bill with Bush? We will never know.

Actually, that Streisand news should come as a relief to the already long-suffering people of Israel.  At least they’ll be spared Stresiand’s unique, cutting-edge, and breakthrough political commentaries and observations, such as the knee-slapping hilarity we see here…

From the Raleigh News & Observer’s Dome:

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole is heading to Wisteria Lane.

But she’s not going there to visit the cast of “Desperate Housewives.” Dole is going to raise money.

A Dome reader sent us an invitation to a fundraiser for Dole and U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, both Republican incumbents seeking re-election, on May 10 at a Mooresville home on Wisteria Lane.

Oh, I’m sorry.  Dole.  I thought they said Doll.

Exclusive, never-before seen video…

There was Richard Daley …

And then there’s Bruce Springsteen…:

Dear Friends and Fans:

LIke most of you, I’ve been following the campaign and I have now seen and heard enough to know where I stand. Senator Obama, in my view, is head and shoulders above the rest.

He has the depth, the reflectiveness, and the resilience to be our next President. He speaks to the America I’ve envisioned in my music for the past 35 years, a generous nation with a citizenry willing to tackle nuanced and complex problems, a country that’s interested in its collective destiny and in the potential of its gathered spirit. A place where “…nobody crowds you, and nobody goes it alone.”

At the moment, critics have tried to diminish Senator Obama through the exaggeration of certain of his comments and relationships. While these matters are worthy of some discussion, they have been ripped out of the context and fabric of the man’s life and vision, so well described in his excellent book, Dreams of My Father, often in order to distract us from discussing the real issues: war and peace, the fight for economic and racial justice, reaffirming our Constitution, and the protection and enhancement of our environment.

After the terrible damage done over the past eight years, a great American reclamation project needs to be undertaken. I believe that Senator Obama is the best candidate to lead that project and to lead us into the 21st Century with a renewed sense of moral purpose and of ourselves as Americans.

Over here on E Street, we’re proud to support Obama for President.

But neither boss holds a candle to Tim Russert….

Outstanding — but sad — reporting in today’s Yeas & Nays:

Twentieth Century Fox has begun filming its remake of the 1951 classic “The Day the Earth Stood Still.”

Keanu Reeves, who plays (what else?) a humanoid alien, stars along with Jennifer Connelly and Kathy Bates in the sci-fi tale of visitors from outer space who encourage the human race to shape up.

So given that the original contains one of Washington’s iconic celluloid scenes — a flying saucer settling down on the Ellipse — we’ll surely be seeing Keanu & Co. here in D.C., right?

Wrong. Sources with knowledge of the production say that while some exteriors will be shot here, most filming will take place in Canada, because the city didn’t have the right ‘look’ for this version.

Pity.  Gort and Klaatu could’ve been some serious superdelegates.  For Kucinich.

We had forgotten this part of the Charlton Heston biography:

Heston aroused great anger from the political left. Filmmaker Michael Moore’s Oscar-winning “Bowling for Columbine” (2002) tried to portray Heston as callous toward shooting victims. But Moore’s treatment of the visibly frail actor and what some reviewers contended were flawed facts might have backfired.

Al Gore told the New Yorker magazine: “I really appreciate what [Moore was] trying to do, but I wouldn’t have thought before seeing the movie that anyone could have aroused any sympathy in me for Charlton Heston. And yet he did.”

Better yet, we like how Stephen Hunter put it in today’s Washington Post:

Pilloried and parodied, lampooned and bullied, he never relented, he never backed down, and in time it came to seem less an old star’s trick of vanity than an act of political heroism. He endured, like Moses. He aged, like Moses. And the stone tablet he carried had only one commandment: Thou shalt be armed. It can even be said that if the Supreme Court in June finds a meaning in the Second Amendment consistent with NRA policy, that he will have died just short of the Promised Land — like Moses.

When remembering Charlton Heston, consider what he said about global warming.

And to think, it was Al Gore who won the Oscar.

We wondered yesterday who would play this guy in HBO’s upcoming movie “Recount” …

One loyal reader suggests the answer is obvious: Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who has the added benefit of not only deciding the Florida 2000 result, but also already has an IMDB entry set up.

We normally post only about politics and the media.  And we normally don’t relay content with filthy language.

But a loyal reader just alerted us to the following, and we couldn’t resist.  Warning: put in your earplugs and make sure there are no bosses or kids around.  Hint: The Departed.