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Christopher, left, and Peter Hitchens, in their forum on Tuesday. (Courtesy of the Pew Research Center)

It was a most unusual brother act: Christopher Hitchens and Peter Hitchens debating religion; the latter a believer, the former decidedly not. And while the British-born writers had aired their disagreements in public before, their Tuesday forum at the Pew Research Center in Washington was their first since the atheist brother -- Christopher -- announced that he is dying of esophageal cancer.

Has it changed their relationship?

"I don't have long to live," Christopher, bald and thinned by chemotherapy, said tersely, "and it's not something I wish to focus on in this argument."

Would Peter address it? "I thought we'd already done that," he said.

And so it went, a strangely cold yet emotionally fraught conversation, over the hum of video cameras and gentle clank of silverware, before a luncheon audience of riveted fellow journalists. They barely glanced at each other as they spoke, but shared an occasional laugh (Christopher chuckling when Peter described their late mother as "a bit of a snob").

Kind of an artsy shot, but we liked it: Clooney outside the White House. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

An occasional look at the A-listers who come to Washington to shine a light on their causes. Tuesday's crusader: George Clooney.

Venue: An overflowing auditorium at the Council on Foreign Relations office in downtown Washington.

Cause: Trying to prevent civil war in Sudan after January's election, which appears likely to split the country.

Bidding farewell to Sen. Lugar outside the Senate Foreign Relations room. (Hyungwon Kang/Reuters)

Bona fides: Longtime activist for Darfur who just returned from a week-long trip in the southern half of the country and briefed President Obama at a White House meeting and Sen. Richard Lugar on Capitol Hill earlier in the day. Lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations; inducted in June.

Activist wingmen: John Prendergast of the Enough Project, Tami Hultman of AllAfrica.com.

What he wants: International diplomacy and global pressure to prevent post-election violence.

How he looked: Dreamboat-wonky. Short salt-and-pepper hair, navy suit, white shirt, somber striped tie, full-wattage smile.

Quote: "There's an opportunity to prevent atrocities instead of mopping up months after they happen. As a policymaker, cameras tend to follow me wherever I go, so we figured let's bring them all to the south of Sudan."

Can't get enough Clooney? Read more at washingtonpost.com/celebritology.

Courteney Cox and David Arquette, 2010. (Reuters/Phil McCarten)

"After our 11th-year anniversary, she gave me a motorcycle and said, 'I don't want to be your mother anymore.' I got it."

-- David Arquette sharing what went wrong in his marriage to Courteney Cox in a phone call Tuesday morning to Howard Stern's Sirius radio show -- classy, huh? These days they usually just blast it out there on Twitter. Also volunteered that they haven't had sex in four months and that "she's the greatest woman I've ever met ... [but] she's got her issues."

J. Edgar and Clyde, back in the day. (File photo)

So they've finally cast the HBO movie of "Too Big to Fail," brazenly ignoring our star suggestions. Come on, Lyle Lovett as Tim Geithner? That was a brilliant idea! Instead, they're going with Billy Crudup. Also, Ed Asner as Warren Buffett. . . William Hurt as Hank Paulson. . . Paul Giamatti as Ben Bernanke. See the rest of the financial-crisis cast in Lisa de Moraes's column.

Meanwhile, Clint Eastwood has signed Leo di Caprio to play J. Edgar Hoover, a long-serving FBI director with a secret! However, Joaquin Phoenix will not, repeat, not play Hoover's aide and maybe-lover Clyde Tolson. Sorry.

And boom! "Transformers 3" shooting on the Mall gets off to an awesome start when a Hollywood Autobot hits a real-life cop car. Whoops. Go see the video at Dr. Gridlock.

Christina Aguilera and Jordan Bratman in happier times, specifically, 2007. (AP/Dave Allocca)

Split: Christina Aguilera, 29, and her husband Jordan Bratman, 33, who have separated, people within their camp confirmed to Us and People on Tuesday. Is there something going around? Third big show-biz breakup in three days, after the Laura Dern-Ben Harper divorce and the Courteney Cox-David Arquette separation. The platinum-selling singer and the less-famous guy (works in the music industry) wed in November 2005. One son, age 2.

Rahm Emanuel needs to keep his fingers closer together. (Reuters/Frank Polich)

With the midterm elections approaching, a key constituency of health-care professionals is expressing concern about the ability of our nation's political leaders to perform one of their most essential duties.

Handshaking: They're doing it wrong!

So warns the Bethesda-based American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), which gave us some guidelines on how politicians should put their best hand forward at all their fundraisers and meet-and-greets.

Hold your wrist straight; shake from the arm.

Sound obvious? Don't laugh! Cindy McCain ended up in a sling from a badly executed shake while campaigning for her husband in 2008. "The hand has very small joints," AOTA's Deborah Yarett Slater told us. "If you're shaking hands all day, constantly repeating the motion, you can get inflammation. And when the hands swell there's not a lot of place for the swelling to go."

Nancy Pelosi shakes hands with Wu Bangguo, demonstrates two-hand method. (AP/Harry Hamburg)

Slater is worried about Rahm Emanuel. (Note: The candidate for Chicago is missing half a finger on his shaking hand.) He does a good job of initiating handshakes, which helps maintain control, but keeps his fingers too far apart and allows his arm to stretch too far, she said after studying news videos. "A strong shake from a Chicago committeeman might sprain a finger."

Meanwhile, in Delaware, Christine O'Donnell has been allowing the shakers to control her hand -- very risky -- and bending at dangerous angles, Slater said.

The safest tactics: The two-handed handshake -- Nancy Pelosi does this very well, Slater said -- or the Clintonesque half-hug, arm flung around the shaker's shoulder. Really! We thought pols just did that to ingratiate. "It's an effort to distribute the force," she said.

About 12:30 a.m. Monday, the cops showed up at the Quinn Bradlee-Pary Anbaz Williamson wedding reception, after neighbors complained about excessive noise. Seems the tented backyard bash at the Georgetown home of the groom's parents was a little too rowdy, what with two bands and a guest list in the hundreds including plenty of FOTP (friends of the parents): Alan Greenspan, Andrea Mitchell, Jim Jones, Vernon Jordan, Maureen Dowd, Chris Matthews, Jim Lehrer, Christiane Amanpour, Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein (spotted dancing right next to -- but not with -- his ex, Nora Ephron), Barbara Walters and Phyllis George (and our boss; and his boss; and his boss ...). Party like it's 1989!

Former CNN Anchor Rick Sanchez. (Charley Gallay/WireImage)

The Rick Sanchez Apology Tour is now into Week 2, as the fired CNN host tries to explain why he called Jon Stewart a "bigot" and suggested the media are controlled by Jews.