“Ever wonder how Alan Greenspan managed to land a much younger babe like Andrea Mitchell?” the Reliable Source asks today. Um! We take issue with the premise of that question. The NBC correspondent referred to as a “much younger babe” has got to be a tongue-in-cheek joke, right? Like one of Perez Hilton’s backhanded compliments to the Olsen twins? Either that, or the column’s writers, Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts, are doing some major suckage of Mitchell’s dried up teats to try to get some dirty milk.

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Washington Post’s gossip column, The Reliable Source, is going into overdrive, and will now appear Monday through Friday. Monday used to be a break day for Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts. The move is widely seen as an attempt to better compete with blogger gossipers who’ve been frequently scooping the column.

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Yes, that was Washington Post Reliable Source columnist Amy Argetsinger schlepping around with a handheld video recorder at last nights “Grammys on the Hill.” And, while she’s a respectable journalist, her intentions were no different than the TMZ.com videographers who desperately want to snap a pic of Britney’s cooch or Lindsay Lohan with coke running down her nose.

Except Argetsinger’s target was of a different sort. She wanted to get a video of Sen. Ted Kennedy making an ass of himself as part of an “all-star” group sing-a-long of “We Are the World.” Well! Looks like she got her mark. But did she lose some dignity in the process?

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Lloyd Grove, one of the best WaPo tattlers who ever lived (there’s only been a handful, after all), has begun contributing a column called “The World According To…” to the much gossiped about Conde Nast business pub Portfolio. He must be on staff, too, since he’s got his own caricature on the site and everything. Fancy!

He’s holding his cards close to his chest regarding the Washington power players he’s bound to cover, telling Big Head DC that he “wouldn’t want to spoil the drama” by sharing any of his future column plans. (Maybe he’s just worried about how many columns he’ll be able to pen before Portfolio folds!)

One person you can expect Grove not to cover: His former gal pal Amy Holmes, a one-time Reliable Source source who went on to become a GOP strategist, a former aide to ex-Republican Senate leader Bill Frist, and a talking head often seen on FOX News. Boy, his back must have been sore after she stepped on it!

Good luck, Lloyd. But just don’t let them pull a New York Daily News-type trick on you!

Earlier: Lloyd Grove Was Sexier in Washington?

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Reliable Source is off the next two weeks “reading trashy novels and daydreaming about George Clooney,” according to Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts. No new Washington Post gossip, apparently, until after Labor Day.

We’ll be here, though!

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In-the-know Washingtonians may recall a sassy young lass named Julia Baugher, a former Georgetown University sex and dating columnist who disgraced the school’s student newspaper The Hoya because she plagiarized portions of a column from iVillage. But give the go-getter gal a few years in New York and, suddenly, she has a spiffy new name, “Julia Allison” and will now be earning upwards of 100K per year as the editor-at-large of the well-known Star tabloid/magazine.

“Maybe I’m just old-fashioned, but I remember back when being outed as a plagiarist carried the stigma of getting charged with rape,” a DC journalist familiar with Allison’s past misdeeds told Big Head DC. “It would ruin you. Now you have Baugher a budding celebrity…”

So, did Baugher change her name to avoid being known as a plagarist?

Perhaps fortuitously, there will be little journalistic prowess involved with Allison’s new job: “She won’t be editing or writing, but she will be appearing as a talking expert whenever TV comes calling for someone to go on air to comment on the latest celebrity gossip or scandal,” according to the NY Post.

Allison has said in the past that she much prefers doing TV to writing because it takes less effort.

Unless you just copy and paste, that is!

Bonus fun fact just because it’s Thursday: Back when Allison was still Baugher she had a scandalous relationship with politico Harold Ford, Jr., (and current FOX News talking head), which was first reported in WaPo’s Reliable Source column by the paper’s ex-gossip Lloyd Grove. Later, Allison had a not-so-discreet affair with - you guessed it! - Lloyd Grove.

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The Reliable Source featured an item this weekend about the heckling endured by the Redskins’ Chris Cooley after he showed up to an offseason practice last week wearing “snug, hipbone-skimming shorts.”

The always-sassy (and seemingly-horny) writers of the column, Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts, now wonder whether Cooley will help foster a comeback for the fashion statement, which went out of style sometime during the late 1980s.

“Get used to this look, fellas,” the gossip gals said with a hint of snark. ”Next summer, you’ll probably all be wearing it.”

But, really, can the sometimes stuffy Washington set pull this look off again?

If you spot any DC dudes sporting the look, be sure to send your pictorial evidence to tips@bigheadDC.com

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A follow-up appeared today redarding the great Courage Cup polo wars, and this time political corruption is suggested:

On one side: Greg Ball, the former Air Force officer who founded the Courage Cup in 2004 while living in D.C. On the other: two Washington women whom Ball handed the event off to last year — temporarily, he says — when he moved home to enter politics in Upstate New York.

But why did Ball, 29, now a busy freshman state assemblyman, even want to keep running a youthful charity party several hours from his home district? Perhaps because it helped him win his seat.

The Reliable Source found that a New York political action committee started by Ball — which later transferred its entire treasury to his campaign — netted as much as $10,000 by selling tickets to the 2005 Courage Cup. That’s four times the amount the polo match raised that year for its prominently advertised beneficiary, Work to Ride, a Philadelphia charity that teaches poor kids to play polo.

It’s unclear whether anything about the arrangement was improper. But it shocked several D.C. area Courage Cup ticket buyers, who said they had never heard of the group and were stunned to find their names in Ball’s campaign finance records.

“I thought the money was going to kids,” said Andrew McKenna.“I’d be pretty [infuriated] if I found out this was for a political race.”

Fear not, though, even with the controversy, this year’s show will go on. Andrea Rogers, the official President and CEO of The Courage Cup, announced today via press release that
the organization’s Meadow Matches will take place as scheduled at the Great Meadow Polo Club on Saturday. And she notes that tickets are still available.

Earlier: Clash of the Courage Cup Titans; Nasty Courage Cup Update

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From Rox and Amy: 

Getting hitched: Conservative pundit Andrew Sullivan and his partner of three years, artist-actor Aaron Tone. The New York Observer set off a blogger guessing game yesterday when it reported that Sullivan is making it legal with an actor appearing in Studio Theatre’s production of “The Pillowman,” whom it erroneously ID’d as simply “Eric.”

No big mystery: Sullivan, 43, and Tone, 31, have been domestic partners in D.C. for two years, and will marry in Provincetown, Mass., this August. The couple originally planned to wed last year until a “book crisis” postponed the event. “There’s no way to pull off a book and a wedding at the same time,” Sullivan told us. No word what role their beloved dogs Dusty and Eddy will play in the small ceremony, but they’re “definitely” in the wedding party.

MORE: Andrew Sullivan’s Lover is a Michigan Drama Queen!; Aaron Tone’s Blogroll: Madonna, Andrew Sullivan, Matt Drudge; Andrew Sullivan’s Lover Makes Art (But is That Andrew’s Butt???); Why Trust The New York Observer When You’ve Got The Reliable Source?; Andrew Sullivan’s Pocket Gay Revealed?; Will Andrew Sullivan’s Secret Eric Please Stand Up?

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Did you see how the Reliable Sourcettes described Geraldine Ferraro, the 1984 candidate for VP, today?

The former N.Y. congresswoman — who just reestablished herself in D.C. as a principal with the Blank Rome lobbying shop — was all silver-fox glamour in a slim-cut black pantsuit, daringly underbuttoned white blouse, Hermes-looking scarf.

They say that they’d have described ”Walter Mondale’s wardrobe too if he had ever dressed that sharp,” but c’mon, how many ways can you describe an old dude’s suit?

And where are the pictures of the flesh-flaunting Ferraro? You know we like to see a little 71-year-old skin every once in a while. Just ask our granny!

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