Morgan Freeman charms lawmakers at documentary dinner

SPOTTED: Morgan Freeman getting lots of laughs as he provided his own modesty-free introduction as an “iconic, legendary, Academy Award-nominated, Academy Award-winning” actor while holding court at an exclusive dinner Tuesday at Café Milano in Georgetown.

{mosads}Hosted by Impact Arts + Film Fund’s Kimball Stroud and Milano’s owner, Franco Nuchese, the intimate affair was held to celebrate and discuss Freeman’s new documentary, “The C Word,” which aims to “forever change the way we view cancer.” The filmmakers, who say they are fielding multiple offers from distributors, “expose systematic failings in our society, which reinforce the bad habits that predispose us to disease,” according to press materials.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) was seen mock-lamenting to Freeman, who served as “The C Word’s” executive producer, that clips of him were left on the cutting room floor.

“You don’t have this problem because you’d be the last person they’d cut!” Markey exclaimed to the “Shawshank Redemption” actor with a smile.

Freeman, clad in a button down shirt and jacket sans tie, appeared to forge a carb-filled bond with the lawmaker.

“Why did you leave the best part?” Freeman, 78, said to the senator, pointing to Markey’s plate filled with bread crust. After indicating he wasn’t going to indulge in the bread, Freeman reached over and treated himself from Markey’s plate.

When Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), co-founder and co-chair of the Congressional Cancer Prevention Caucus, excused herself from the table after a lengthy chat about the film, Freeman quipped with faux horror, “Where are you going?”

Saying she was heading home “to the man she loves,” — that would be former Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) — Freeman replied with a sly smile, “I can handle that.”

Also among the guests at the dinner: director Meghan O’Hara, producers Pascaline Servan-Schreiber and Lori McCreary, Laurie Knight, Rear Admiral Dr. Susan Blumenthal, Melissa Maxfield, Daniel Lippman, Eric Schwerin, and Don Graves.