Reliable Source

A close-up of text in Deb Jansen's Artomatic exhibit. (Amy Argetsinger/The Washington Post)

Is it possible that Mark Sanford made a secret trip to Artomatic?

The super-confessional South Carolina governor might have learned something about the art of over-sharing from Deb Jansen. In the D.C. show's most-talked-about exhibit, the Alexandria textile artist, based at the Torpedo Factory, lays bare the gory details of her marriage and recent divorce with a wall-size "thank you" letter to the other woman -- handcrafted voodoo dolls on the side.

(Actually, if Sanford had seen it, he might have been too scarred to ever stray.)

"Thank you from the bottom of my heart for [sleeping with] my spineless narcissist of a husband. But he was my husband -- not yours. You had no right," begins the lengthy text, dubbed "Catharsis & Karma." Jansen calls her ex an abuser and his new girlfriend a "chubby, boring ... jan brady wanna be." She discloses bedroom stuff and her own Lyme disease. She exults that, without him, she finally has "my life back."
All this wrapped around a blown-up photo that Jansen says shows the other woman ("her ex gave it to me"). The eyes are obscured.

(Amy Argetsinger/The Washington Post)

Even on a quiet weekday, the exhibit draws steady traffic. "Oh, my God," said one woman, lingering to read the fine print. "That is great!" Comments in Jansen's guest book are a mix of cheers and creeped-out; from "go, girl!" to "get a life."

"All the therapy in the world wasn't going to do me any good until I did this piece," Jansen, 49, told us.

She assumes her ex and his new lady have heard about the exhibit, but Jansen hasn't heard any reaction from either. "I left out the stuff which could have really gotten them in trouble," she said. (Though in the border of the exhibit -- 15 shrunken pages of anguished notes she found in her then-husband's belongings -- we made out the other woman's name. Said Jansen: "I thought I was the only person in the world who could read his handwriting.") After the community arts extravaganza closes Sunday, "Catharsis & Karma" will move to a month-long "Best of Artomatic" show at Fraser Gallery in Bethesda.

Compelling stuff ... but is it art?

"If art is something that channels right out of your soul, and if creativity can heal," said Jansen, then yes. But, "no, I wouldn't want it over my couch, either."

President Obama checks his clubs prior to playing a round of golf at Andrews Air Force Base in April. (Kevin Dietsch/Pool via Bloomberg News)

The president is headed to Camp David this morning ... maybe to practice his putting? Golf fans have been saying (okay, praying) that Obama might drop by Congressional Country Club to see Tiger Woods and other pros play. Woods invited the president to the tournament in April; the White House declined to release Obama's schedule for today.

But the president has clearly turned into a serious duffer. Almost every weekend he's in town, he heads to a local course (Andrews Air Force Base, Fort Belvoir) for nine or 18 holes with administration pals, including Joe Biden on Father's Day. His scores are a closely guarded secret, although Obama admitted on CBS's "The Early Show" last week that he's "terrible" -- but gets to spends six hours outside, shoot the breeze with friends and "almost feel normal. ... There are a whole bunch of Secret Service guys, but they're sort of in the woods."

2000 S St. NW (Marissa Newhall/The Washington Post)

Yes, "Real World" filming has officially begun. And, uh, it's not real interesting yet.

That didn't stop a group of 15-25 gawkers today outside 2000 S St. NW, the MTV show's latest home base. Soon, photos of a petite, suitcase-toting blonde -- making her way to the house, cameras in tow -- popped up on antirealworlddc.blogspot.com.

"I watched three cameras follow one girl taking one box from a car," blog contributor Adam Rosenberg told our colleague Marissa Newhall.

Rosenberg, one of 11 contributors to the blog, says he lives close enough to take in the action from his living room. "I'm not a curmudgeony 28-year-old," he told us. "I just don't really feel like living next to a dorm."

See anything? Tell us at realworld@washpost.com.

Matthew and Andrew Fenty, here watching TV at home in 2006. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)

Baseball fans at the Harford County Summer Classic last weekend were a little surprised to find one player's name on the Bethesda-Chevy Chase team roster: Andrew Fenty.

Yup -- the 9-year-old son of D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty and his wife, Michelle. The question buzzing around the field: Why was the mayor's son playing for a Maryland team? Why not one from the District?

The short answer: Like their dad, Andrew and twin brother Matthew are jocks who want to play serious baseball this summer -- something, it turns out, that is hard to do in D.C.

Despite the best efforts of their parents, the boys occasionally become players in the grown-ups' game. This winter, a District employee said he was fired after accusing the twins of playing in the wrong (i.e. easier) youth basketball league -- and now, the Fentys have passed over D.C. baseball for more competitive suburban teams.

"Little League in the District is really a different world," explained Paris Inman, administrator for D.C. Little League. He said he's trying to rebuild the local program but is hampered by limited resources and parents who steer their kids to football and basketball instead. There are also strict rules about geographical boundaries, which makes it harder to build strong rosters. "Little League says you have to play where you live," Inman said.

The Fenty boys played for a D.C. team this spring, but gravitated (along with other players from their Northwest neighborhood) to B-CC baseball this summer -- with better fields, facilities and equipment. The independent league has no residential restrictions: Kids from D.C., Virginia and Maryland all play side by side, mostly on Montgomery County fields; Andrew is part of the travel team, which boasts the best players.

The mayor's office declined to comment on the boys.

Jessica Simpson sings the national anthem at an opening ceremony for Tiger Woods's ATT National golf tournament yesterday. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post)

Jessica Simpson sang the national anthem yesterday at the celeb-studded pro-am that kicked off Tiger Woods's AT&T National golf tournament at Congressional Country Club. The singer accompanied her Dallas Cowboys QB boyfriend, Tony Romo, who, while playing a round with Woods and John Boehner, drew boos from the D.C. crowd. Our colleague Dan Steinberg asked her if she encountered any Redskins fans. "Oh, I heard them," she said. "I heard them."

Quincy Jones with Michael Jackson at the 1984 Grammy Awards. (AP Photo/Doug Pizac)

"Are you kidding me? He bit a hole in my daughter's hand! Rashida's hand. Rashida Jones -- did you see 'I Love You, Man'? That's my daughter. She was a little girl. And Bubbles bit her hand."

-- Quincy Jones, when asked by Details magazine if he ever met Michael Jackson's chimp Bubbles.

Kevin Jonas: Off the market. (AP Photo/Peter Kramer)

Engaged: Kevin Jonas, 21, to his girlfriend of two years, Danielle Deleasa, 22, People reports. The eldest of the purity-ring-wearing pop juggernaut Jonas Brothers met the former hairdresser while both were vacationing with their families in the Bahamas; he detoured from a concert tour to surprise her at home with a ring yesterday.

Gov. Mark Sanford; his mistress, Maria Belen Chapur; and his wife, Jenny. (AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain; AP Photo/C5N TV; AP Photo/Alice Keeney)

Did you think Mark Sanford had already told us everything he possibly could about his extramarital affair? Wrong! Turns out the South Carolina governor, in last week's meandering, melodramatic press conference/soliloquy (from details of his high school hiking trips to misty memories of "that whole sparking thing"), was just warming up for yesterday's epic overshare session with the Associated Press.

New revelation: "This was a whole lot more than a simple affair, this was a love story. A forbidden one, a tragic one, but a love story at the end of the day."
Our take-home: He's really not just some sex-crazed jerk like all those other politicians!

New revelation: He "let his guard down in all senses of the word" with other women -- while he was married, before he met Maria Belen Chapur -- but "didn't cross the sex line."
Our take-home: He's a sex-crazed jerk who doesn't go all the way.

New revelation: These casual encounters with other women happened outside the United States while he was on trips to "blow off steam" with male friends.
Our take-home: Sex doesn't count if (a) you're drunk, (b) with the guys, (c) in a foreign country. (To paraphrase George Segal in "A Touch of Class": "I'm never unfaithful to my wife in the same city.")

New revelation: His relationship with Chapur sparked on a dance floor in 2001, and turned intimate during a government trip to Brazil and Argentina in June 2008. That's when he started freaking out: "Now I am frightened," he said, describing his state of mind at the time. "It was, before, safe. But now it's not safe. We gotta put the genie back in the bottle."
Our take-home: You can't put the toothpaste back in the tube, either.

New revelation: He saw her more than he originally disclosed -- five times in the past year, including two romantic, multi-night assignations in New York (one in Manhattan, one in the Hamptons). He flew coach, paid for hotels in cash and told his staff he was reachable via cellphone. "At that point I was very careful, everything was paid for in cash."
Our take-home: The lovesick puppy somehow had the presence of mind to cover his tracks, avoid incriminating receipts and otherwise conduct his trysts without leaving a trail.

New revelation: First lady Jenny Sanford discovered the affair in January when she found a letter from her husband to his mistress; the couple went into counseling. (Jenny told AP that he asked her for permission several times to visit Chapur. She refused.)
Our take-home: Marriage counseling is not going well if your husband keeps begging to see his girlfriend.

New revelation: After his wife found out about the affair, he dashed to New York to break up with Chapur -- chaperoned by his spiritual adviser. The governor, mistress and adviser went to church and had dinner together.
Our take-home: What grown-up needs a "chaperone" to break up with his girlfriend? Here's who: a guy who doesn't want to give up his hot Argentine lover.

New revelation: Chapur is his "soul mate," but he's trying to fall back in love with his wife.
Our take-home: Run, Jenny, run! Trust us, you do not want to spend the rest of your life waiting for someone "trying" to fall back in love with you.

So is that a "no"? In Monday's news briefing, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs seemed to rule out the possibility of putting D.C.'s "Taxation Without Representation" plates on the presidential limo.

In an exchange being closely parsed by D.C. voting-rights folks (okay, by Mark Plotkin, anyway), Gibbs told an ABC reporter who asked about the plates that "rather than change the logo around the license plate, the president is committed instead to changing the status of the District of Columbia." What about the symbolism? Said Gibbs: "Ask people in Washington whether they'd like to have that status changed or that symbolism screwed onto the back of a limousine."

Pressed by reporters further, Gibbs said President Obama supports legislation that would give D.C. a vote in Congress, and "what could be more important?" So why not take the plates, too? "It's endearing that you're equating the two," said Gibbs before moving on.

Sounds like a "no."

Reese Witherspoon's done working in the District for now. (Johnny Gibbon)

Say goodbye to the famous pretty people with cameras trailing them ... and say hello to the unfamous pretty people with cameras trailing them. The Mount Rushmore of romantic comedy that took over D.C. in June -- Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Paul Rudd, Jack Nicholson -- packed its bags after shooting final scenes for the still-untitled project near the Georgetown waterfront and McPherson Square last weekend. So refocus your gawking: Neighbors report intensified activity at the Dupont mansion where the next season of "The Real World" is expected to start shooting any day now. E-mail your sightings to reliablesource@washpost.com.