Socialites by the barrel, Wilson’s Washington fetes and holiday cheer redux.

By Donna Shore

Eleven ambassadors and their wives were among the guests at Giorgio and Anna Maria Via's party honoring the Mexican ambassador.

There would have been no Charlie Wilson’s War without the dramatic trip to Afghanistan taken by Joanne Herring, a Houston socialite and talk show hostess; yet it never got into the screenplay. Neither did the humanitarian soldier-of-fortune and sometime Houston visitor Charlie Fawcett, whose smuggled note said: “Come immediately. Bring film equipment. The world doesn’t know what’s going on here.” She went, disguised as a man and packed into a barrel.

Washingtonians who were attending balls and embassy galas twenty-five years ago, remember well the fun and laughter, gowns and jewels of this curvy ZsaZsa Gabor, blonde (played by Julia Roberts, in the movie). She gave lavish parties here and in Houston; one such welcomed Prince Bandar , to Washington as the Saudi Arabian ambassador.