Fawn Upstages Elite at D.C. Gala

The President and his wife and 2,000 of this city’s elite were upstaged Wednesday night by the mere appearance of a slender young woman in a strapless multi-colored dress.

Fawn Hall, the former secretary to Lt. Col. Oliver North, was easily the center of attraction at the jam-packed Washington Hilton ballroom at the annual dinner of the White House Correspondents Assn.

The mysterious blonde, who has been granted immunity from prosecution for telling what she knows about the Iran- contra scandal, attended the dinner as a guest of Baltimore Sun reporter Mike Kelly.

Other key figures in the White House drama showed up, too--among them former National Security Advisers John Poindexter and Robert McFarlane--but they proved to be supporting players to the evening’s leading lady.

Reporters and VIP guests alike gathered and stared wherever Hall and her layers of pastel ruffles went throughout the formal event. “Those are new shoes. She bought them just for this party,” speculated an intrigued former White House aide, eyeing Hall’s pink pumps.

Hall seemed completely at ease, pausing at one point amid a crush of hundreds of people to whisper directly into Poindexter’s ear for several minutes, then pulled back and smiled. Whatever was said remained their secret, as both Poindexter and Hall continued to maintain the public silence that has characterized their roles so far.

Hall also chatted with McFarlane, during what seemed to be a strange evening indeed.

When California comic Jay Leno got up to perform, everyone expected him to shred Hall and the other scandal figures to pieces. Instead, Leno had the audience roaring without making any mention of the scandal. Deviating from tradition, he devoted only a small portion of his monologue to poking fun at the journalistic and political pooh-bahs in the audience. Leno did tell Nancy Reagan that his mother was a big fan of her “Just Say No” campaign against drugs.

“But,” Leno said, “she feels it’s been misnamed. She thinks it should be ‘Just Say No, Thank You.’ She thinks children should learn good manners.”

With something less than reverence, Leno noted that the one-year anniversary of “Hands Across America” was coming up, adding that it typified the manner in which Americans try to resolve national issues.

“Could we try voting?” Leno said. “Do I really have to stand in a ditch and hold hands with Morgan Fairchild?”

Although he is a frequent guest on the major television networks, Leno took a swipe at them for peddling the same “silly” shows over and over.

“Although the illiteracy rate is low in this country,” Leno said, “the networks are worried that it’s not quite low enough.”

President Reagan was in good form, too, and he may have taken the most lethal political swipe of all when he told the audience, “A lot has happened since we’ve been on vacation in Santa Barbara. Texaco declared bankruptcy. Sen. Paul Simon declared for the presidency. Gary Hart declared both.”

Presidential Advice

To UPI reporter Norman Sandler, the incoming president of the White House Correspondents Assn., Reagan offered some advice on what to do as a president:

“Write down what you do on August 8th,” he quipped, referring to the day in 1985 on which Reagan is said to have approved the sale of arms to Iran. The President has said he cannot recall if he did or didn’t.

That was the only reference Reagan made to the Iran-contra matter, although earlier in the evening he endured an awkward moment, having to rise and shake hands with Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward as the journalist accepted an award for a story he wrote about the Administration pushing disinformation to the press.

At the podium, the President poked some fun at himself, scolding the reporters for bringing up his age during his recent prostate surgery.

“A lot of you tied that operation to my age,” Reagan said, “But I had that same operation when I was young, and it felt so good I wanted to have it again.”

Reagan said the Soviets had gone too far by planting a listening device in his hearing aid. But he had good news about a development in Star Wars research.

“They’ve now made a helmet I can wear to press conferences that will deflect questions,” he said.

Conciliatory Gesture

At the end of his talk, Reagan made a conciliatory gesture toward the press, saying, “I’m sure we get exasperated with each other, but that’s just the friction of freedom.”

He invited Nancy up to the microphone and said to her, “I know it’s late, dear, but it’s not often we have so many people here who write and broadcast about us. Is there something nice you’d like to say to them?”

Mrs. Reagan gave the audience a blank look and kept silent.

The President plied her twice more, finally urging, “How about one kind word?”

The First Lady replied, “I’m thinking! I’m thinking!”