Sean Penn Channels Plamegate and Three Stooges

Sean Penn holds up his Oscar for best actor for his role in "Milk" backstge at the 81st Academy Awards in February. (Reuters/Mike Blake)

From Harvey Milk to Joe Wilson to Larry of the Three Stooges, these sure are busy times for Sean Penn. And loads of fun for Washingtonians who stumbled upon a classic Hollywood-on-the-Potomac moment at NBC News's Washington bureau Thursday when Penn reenacted one of the more famous episodes from the Valerie Plame saga.

Penn, playing Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, in the movie "Fair Game," was at NBC filming the real-life moment when Wilson appeared on "Hardball." Cameras continued to roll as Penn walked out of the NBC building and into the exact make and model Jaguar that Wilson was so often seen driving around town.

By all accounts, not surprisingly, this year's Best Actor Oscar winner looked convincing in the role.

To bring the Hollywood-meets-Washington nexus full circle, one person who Penn ran into at NBC yesterday was none other than the estimable David Corn.

Corn was the first reporter to write that the outing of Plame as a CIA operative might actually be a federal crime. Corn later co-wrote a book about the whole story. (The Sleuth has plenty of copies of the tome her basement.)

Corn and Penn chatted briefly outside NBC and, according to Corn, Penn said he had just finished reading the book as part of his prep for the movie.

Meanwhile, Penn is gearing up to star in an entirely different role, one void of politics. He has signed on with MGM to play Larry in the Farrelly brothers' upcoming film "The Three Stooges."

Benicio Del Toro is being considered to play Moe and the Farrellys are close to snagging Jim Carrey as Curly (a role for which we're told Carrey would gain some 40 pounds).

Washington lobbyist and all-around nice guy Gerry Harrington, who knows Bobby and Peter Farrelly from Rhode Island and played a bit role in their zany comedy "Stuck on You," says he hopes to be "lucky enough" to get a minor role in "The Three Stooges." (Harrington played hockey with brother Bobby and the third Stooges screenwriter, Mike Cerrone, at Andover.)

"Will try and leverage my screen credit as Martha's Vineyard hockey coach in 'Stuck on You'! Harrington joked in an email.

The Stooges screenplay is still being written, Harrington says. Production is set to begin this fall with a 2010 summer release date.