At the White House Correspondent’s dinner this year, American Idol contestant Sanjaya Malakar was the guest of People Magazine. When NY Governor Elliott Spitzer approached him at his table to get an autograph, the clueless staffers from People initially told him that Sanjaya was eating and to come back later. “I’m the governor of NY,” he protested, and his request for an autograph was granted:

Sanjaya Malakar, the shy, slender, 17-year-old “American Idol” reject, was at his table when a tall, middle-aged man stopped by to ask for an autograph. The boy’s hosts, from People magazine, tried to shoo him away.

“We are trying to let him eat,” they explained.

The man protested: “But I’m the governor of New York.”

And so Eliot Spitzer got his autograph.

Spitzer is the father of three daughters, aged 12, 14 and 17, so he probably had a request or two from home for the unlikely Idol’s autograph.

There was a lot of drama at this year’s Correspondent’s dinner between Sheryl Crow and Bush’s malevolent Chief of Staff and all-around architect of evil Karl Rove. Crow and global warming documentary Inconvenient Truth producer Laurie David went over to Rove’s table and asked him to “take a new look at global warming.” The article mentions what happened next without stating it like a fact, although it sounds to me like he went off on the two and shut them down quickly:

“I am floored by what I just experienced with Karl Rove,” David reports. “I went over to him and said, ‘I urge you to take a new look at global warming.’ He went zero to 100 with me. . . . I’ve never had anyone be so rude.”

Rove’s version: “She came over to insult me and she succeeded.”

Things got so hot that Crow stepped in to defuse the situation and then got into it with Rove herself. “You work for me,” she told the presidential adviser, according to singed bystanders. “No,” was his response. “I work for the American people.”

News of the dust-up filtered quickly through the room. Some witnesses said David was very aggressive with Rove; a shaken Crow later said that Rove was “combative and unresponsive.”

It could be true that they were “aggressive” with Rove, but it’s not like he would have been nice to them even if they were timid about it. What do they expect from the guy, that he’ll listen to their irrefutable argument with a thoughtful look on his face? He’s not known for being a nice guy or for giving a shit about anyone’s opinion other than the fat cats who line his pockets.

I like that story about Elliot Spitzer asking for Sanjaya’s autograph. With a houseful of teenage daughters, he wasn’t about to go home empty handed.

Last year liberals were cheering and conservatives were cowering after Steven Colbert lambasted Bush at the Correspondent’s dinner. This year Rich Little told a bunch of safe jokes and the mood was a lot more subdued.

Here are pictures of Sanjaya with Petra Nemcova at the Bloomberg Party Of The Year in DC on 4/21. [via] The Washington Post notes that the dinner is usually “a three-day affair” with pre-parties and after-parties.