Former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie and current RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman were almost front and center at WWE’s SummerSlam at the MCI Center Sunday night watching RAW and SmackDown! wrestling matches and videos of divas waxing a limo in a bit promoting Vince McMahon’s run for president. Why not? The boxing promoter, who learned the business from his own dad, Jess McMahon, lip-synched as he was surrounded by a bevy of bikini-clad beauties soaping his limo. Republican wrestler JBL, who by the way lives in NYC and is married to a stockbroker, came out delighting the crowd with JBL dollar bills that floated down from the ceiling onto the audience. Gillespie and Mehlman were caught by the WWE cameras on the big screen high-fiving each other – but no word as to the identity of the blonde White House staffer on Mehlman’s arm.
Graham: Not a Boy Scout
WMAL talk host Michael Graham has been fired by ABC Radio Networks for comments linking Islam and terrorism. A few weeks back, the Council on American Islamic Relations put pressure on the network to fire Graham after he compared the Boy Scouts to Islam and said Islam is a terrorist organization. “If the Boy Scouts of America had 1,000 scout troops, and 10 of them practiced suicide bombings, then the BSA would be considered a terrorist organization,” Graham wrote in his July 28 column, titled “The Tragedy of Islam,” in the Jewish World Review. “Some of Michael’s statements about Islam went over the line – and this isn’t the first time that he has been reprimanded for insensitive language and comments,” said Chris Berry, president and general manager of WMAL radio.” Berry told me he “asked Michael for an on-air acknowledgement that some of his remarks were overly broad and he refused.”
Kucinich ties the knot again
We hope there’s magic the third time around for Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, 58, who advertised unsuccessfully for a match on a political Web site in New Hampshire during his failed long-shot presidential campaign for the nomination. Now he has found someone, even if she couldn’t vote for him. Actors Shirley MacLaine and Sean Penn were among the 250 guests who attended Kucinich’s wedding to redhead Elizabeth Harper Sunday outside City Hall in Cleveland. Harper, a British citizen, works for a monetary policy think tank in Chicago.
Ferraro fights the good fight
Former Democratic vice presidential candidate and Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro and her husband, John Zaccaro, have been spotted summering on Fire Island, N.Y. She was undergoing treatment at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, and we’re glad to hear she’s doing better. Ferraro has put forth a lot of effort working with Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, to raise money for the Ferraro Blood Cancer Foundation Center at the National Institutes of Health.
Politician gets microchipped
I thought it was somewhat barbaric when I agreed to have my toy poodle Campari microchipped for ID purposes, but now we’ve learned that former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, 64, will have a radio-frequency ID chip – about the size of a rice kernel – implanted under the skin of his right arm near his triceps. Does that mean he’ll never hide from the press again? Thompson, a former Wisconsin governor, has joined the board of VeriChip, so we assume he’s setting an example. Now back in the private sector, he’s taken over as president of Logistics Health Inc., a Wisconsin company that wants to do more business with the Office of Homeland Security and the Defense Department.
Divorce made to order
Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston have found one way to keep their divorce proceedings and settlement details confidential. What will the tabs ever do? Pitt and Aniston are taking advantage of a quirk in the California justice system that allows couples to hire a private judge to settle their divorce, and the judge’s ruling is binding. They’ve hired Judge Jill Robbins to handle the matter. The couple, who once picked their wedding date and time, can now select the date, time and place of their divorce. (Word is, it’s set for Oct. 2.)That’s certainly convenient for celebrities who are busy with film calls.