Sen. Feinstein won’t see new gay rights film, ‘Milk’

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) lived through the 1978 murders of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, and will not see the film that depicts the story.

Seeing the movie would be too difficult for Feinstein, who was with Milk moments after he was shot, San Francisco press accounts reveal. After Milk was shot, Feinstein reached for his hand to take his pulse and her finger slipped into the bullet hole.

In the film, Feinstein, with a bouffant hairdo, appears in a live NBC News segment at the time of the murders.

In other scenes, she is played by actress Ashlee Temple, whose movie credits include the 2000 film “Building Bombs.”

Feinstein’s office had no comment.

Prepare to cry: ‘War Child’ hits Washington Friday

Hip-hop star Emmanuel Jal thinks he’s 28, but he can’t be sure.

“I don’t know when I was born, exactly, because of the war,” said Jal in a phone interview with ITK from London, where he lives. “We ran away from our home. There’s no birth certificate. Everyone got lost and my father wasn’t around.”

“War Child,” the movie that tells Jal’s story of being a former child solider who lived through Sudan’s brutal civil war, hits the screens at Landmark’s E Street Theater this Friday for a one-week special engagement.

Jal’s story is rough. He says it was even difficult for him to watch the film.

“You know, it’s not an easy life,” said Jal, who learned to use an AK-47 when he was 8 years old. “My country was at war and we had to run around, see people dying. To me, the world was ending.”

At the same time, it was a thrill. “We were trying to defend our land,” he said. “It was exciting. You’re being taught how to learn to fire [a gun]. The training is hard. A couple of kids died in the training.”

The rap artist-turned-actor says his music has helped him heal his emotional wounds and the many nightmares he has had. He was rescued from war in 1992 when he was smuggled to Kenya by a British aid worker.

“I’m representing the pain of the Sudan,” said Jal, who recently performed at Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday party.

Learn more about Jal by visiting: www.emmaacademyproject.com and www.gua-africa.org .

Barhopping with Santa on Capitol Hill

There’s nothing better than a drunken Santa around the holidays.

On Saturday, hundreds of Santa Clauses will inundate Capitol Hill for — what else? — a bar tour sponsored by Lindy Promotions and Miller Lite to benefit Toys for Tots.

The Santas will crowd along Pennsylvania Avenue and barhop among seven popular Capitol Hill hangouts between 1 and 9 p.m. Venues include the Hawk ‘n’ Dove, Bullfeathers, Pour House, 18th Amendment, Tune Inn, Thai Roma and The Ugly Mug.

Those who attend will enjoy $2 Miller Lites, $3 Miller Chills and $3.50 Sparks. The first 500 participants will receive Santa hats.

Sixth annual Mistletoe and Cocktails

With the guest list reaching 500, the place to be Thursday night appears to be Paper Moon in Georgetown, where the infamous bipartisan “Mistletoe and Cocktails” holiday party with lobbyists, Hill aides and transitioning administration types will transpire.

The invitation (as shown below) is obviously racy. “Both women and men continually say they love the invite,” says Tripp Donnelly, a party founder and organizer. “A lot of friends and folks around town have said that it marks the beginning of the holiday party season for them when they get it … just seems to put a smile on people’s faces.”

Donnelly, a former White House aide to President Clinton who runs RepEquity, an online reputation and brand management company, described the party as one “where politics is checked at the door, but aggressive holiday gear and festive frivolity are not.”

Donnelly assured ITK that all party guests will be fully clothed, but he stressed, comedic, holiday attire is urged.

One-term former congressman beats colon cancer

Former Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), who served in Congress for one term between 2004 and 2006 before losing his reelection bid to Democrat Patrick Murphy, is winning the most challenging battle of his life — stage-three colon cancer.

On Thanksgiving, Fitzpatrick’s hometown newspaper, the Bucks County Courier Times, wrote about the 45-year-old’s plight with cancer for the past year.

“I ignored the symptoms from about, let’s see, January,” the father of six told the Times.

Finally, in May, his wife insisted he visit the doctor, at which point the cancer was discovered. Chemotherapy and radiation began soon thereafter. By mid-October he received the news — the tumor had vanished; no surgery was needed.

Some things in his life, however, have changed. He used to set his alarm for 5:30 a.m. Now he lets the birds wake him up. He no longer smokes cigars. He spends more time with his children and insists on driving them to school each morning.

Fitzpatrick, who practices law, knows the cancer could return.

“I’m not counting on it, though,” he said.