Tonight much of Washington, DC's glitterati will attend the Diamond Jubilee festivities saluting the reign of Queen Elizabeth II at the British Embassy. It will be packed -- all under the able management of Ambassador Peter Westmacott and his wife -- and his suffer-no-fools, knows-everyone social secretary Amanda Downes.
At the time of the Royal Wedding of William and Catherine, then Ambassador to the US Nigel Sheinwald and his wife Julia arranged for really tough-to-get premium label whiskeys and liqueurs as well as a cool photo backdrop so that guests could get souvenir pics making it look like they were 'there.' Will be interesting to hear what the Embassy arranges for the Queen's big cheer tonight.
For those who tilt a different European direction and are done with monarchs, there is Italy's National Day party being hosted by Ambassador Claudio Bisogniero at the spectacular Italian Embassy designed by Piero Sartogo.
Cafe Milano (the restaurant that could have been bombed allegedly by Saudi-targeting Iranian agents) owner and DC's leading Italian Franco Nuschese will be helping to keep the evening festive, high-powered, and tasty.
Another top option tonight is a gala dinner hosted at George Washington home Mt. Vernon, for the presentation of the annual George Washington Book Prize, a $50,000 award given to the year's best book on America's founding era. The dinner is organized jointly by the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College (founded in 1782 with George Washington a founding member of the liberal arts school's Board of Visitors), the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and Mt. Vernon.