The region’s most exciting and intelligent Jazz composer, Marcus Johnson is a true renaissance man.

By Adoria Doucette

CEO, Artist, Renaissance Man: Marcus Johnson

Marcus Johnson is quite popular and the first choice of many people in the area and around the world when a well-rounded entertainer is needed. Mr. Johnson and his wife Rhonda are the quintessential Washingtonians. Highly educated, professionally successful and culturally active, this power couple exudes purposeful movement.  Johnson has 11 albums all of which have made their way to the top of Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz chart, evidence that he possesses immeasurable talent. Read the full story

Michael Moore excoriates Wall Street, Italians celebrate their unique heritage.

By Janet Donovan

Michael Moore with Kandy Stroud at the opening of “Capitalism: A Love Story.”

MOORE THAN THEY BARGAINED FOR

You have to love someone who stands on Wall Street and screams into a megaphone demanding his money back while surrounded by New York’s finest. But that’s exactly what Michael Moore did in his latest flick: “Capitalism: A Love Story.” Hey, we all want our money back and you know New York’s Finest want theirs, too. Much of the controversy is due to the bailout of the big financial houses.

Long considered a weirdo in some circles, Moore may have finally come into the mainstream by exposing the greedy wonder boys of the financial world and the problems of unemployment, housing, and medical care in America. He wants President Obama to get tough, really tough, especially on health care reform. That played out on Saturday in the House of Representatives where the bill narrowly passed. It now heads to the Senate where it faces a filibuster by Democrat-turned-Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman.

Turhs out Moore is not so misguided; perhaps it was his megaphone that orchestrated the cry for help on universal health care. Someone must be listening.

He arrived at his Uptown Theatre premiere in his trademark cap and glasses and was affable and laid back as he strolled the red carpet to accommodate the reporters waiting patiently for his very late arrival.

After a brief Q&A he joined guests at the Irish pub next door where he graciously engaged in photo ops with Christina Sevilla, Terry Robinson, David Corn, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, among many others.

All were grateful that food and drinks were on the house – because somebody else is spending our money.

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The National Italian American Foundation celebrate in style with their lavish annual gala

By Janet Donovan

Connie Britton with Carla Gugino. Photograph by Betsy Spruill Clarke

 Where was Gina Lolobrigida? The longtime perennial star of the National Italian American Foundation’s annual gala was nowhere to be found this year. You can’t help loving someone who has been quoted saying, “I studied painting and sculpting at school and became an actress by mistake … I’ve had many lovers and still have romances.” (She is 82.) We missed her. Another favorite, Yogi Berra, was also MIA. That did not, however, stop Cafe Milano proprietor Franco Nuchese from hosting a lavish gala eve dinner where Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi starred as the nation’s most powerful Italian-American woman. Moving graciously between guests, she and her husband, Paul, enjoyed a bit of down time after most of the other guests were gone and after lots of hand shaking, chitchat, and photo ops.

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Peter Barris, Ted Leonsis, Joe Robert, Thomas Hale Boggs Jr., Walter Isaacson, Tom Friedman David Rubenstein Bob Woodward, Placido Domnigo, Katherine Bradley,

By Ann Geracimos

Some men, and some women, are born with power, to paraphrase the old adage, while others have it thrust upon them. This seldom is the case these days. The majority of people on Washington Life’s selective list of the most powerful have earned their status the hard way. They would be first to admit that a sense of power is in the eyes of the beholder—that projection often is the key to how power is best applied.

Such a concept was part of the infamous list entrepreneur Bill Regardie contrived someyears ago to define the term and its relevance to the Washington scene. His “rules” perversely eliminated anyone drawing a government paycheck, which at canceling theidea that titles automatically confer prestige. (They often do so, but empty suits are all too common a sight among posturing strutters in our public office.) Another Regardierule stated that wealth doesn’t necessarily beget power, which means that many hoping to claim advantages based on inheritance or a talent for acquisitiveness have to prove otherwise. Money is easy; it’s power that is hard — hard to get and relatively easy to lose.

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