Joe Robert, who died last year of cancer, is still raising money for kid’s charities: The bulk of the late millionaire’s rare wine collection — auctioned off Friday in Hong Kong — brought in $1.8 million for his pet projects. Twenty of Robert’s friends drank a few special bottles earlier this month at a pre-auction dinner in McLean, which created buzz for the event. An official with Zachys auction house told us all 380 lots sold; the top bid came for six bottles of Romanee Conti 1990 (a red burgundy) that went for $88,154. The rest of Robert’s cellar, estimated to sell for another $250,000, will be auctioned in New York June 7.

Karmen Bailey Walker didn’t see it coming. She and Anthony Brown had exchanged pleasantries at many Maryland civic events over the years as both raised kids and built careers, she in business, he in Democratic state politics.

• Garrison Keillor slipping quietly into Sunday morning services at tiny Episcopal Church of the Redeemer near Glen Echo — surprise, you assumed he was Lutheran, didn’t you? In town for “Prairie Home Companion” broadcasts from Wolf Trap this weekend, the radio humorist (jeans, button-down shirt, jacket) and a friend kept a low profile, didn’t stick around for coffee after services.

Cynthia Nixon married education activist Christine Marinoni on Sunday, People reports. Nixon’s spokesperson revealed that the actress, 46, wore a custom-made dress by Carolina Herrera.

It’s graduation season, which means commencement speakers trying so hard to be funny and memorable — and usually failing. (Remember your college grad address? Thought not.) Colleges fight for VIP speakers because they make headlines with their Life Lessons. And so we present the The Reliable Source’s annual, all-purpose keynote address (with input from our colleague Jenna Johnson) stitched together from the best lines of Commencement 2012.

• More trouble for Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Ball Tour in Asia: The pop star managed to insult fans in Thailand with a tweet Wednesday night: “I just landed in Bangkok baby! Ready for 50,000 screaming Thai monsters. I wanna get lost in a lady market and buy fake Rolex.” Unclear if mentioning the ladies or the knockoffs was more offensive, but some fans are calling for a boycott of her concert Friday, reports the Associated Press. “Welcome to the land of counterfeit products, love,” Thai fan Nont Armarttasn posted on Facebook. “I’m sure there are plenty of fake Gaga CDs, too.”

So this is odd: Brian Williams, Christiane Amanpour and former Secretary of State James Baker in a YouTube video promoting a new coming-of-age novel.

• Buzz Aldrin dining with what looked like a multi-generational array of relatives at Proof in Penn Quarter Tuesday night. The second man on the moon, a frequent visitor to D.C., is back again this week for the International Space Development Conference.

“It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. Harder than training for the Olympics. Harder than graduating from college. . . I’ve been tempted, I’ve had plenty of opportunities.”





— Lolo Jones, the model-gorgeous U.S. hurdler, on her decision to stay a virgin until marriage, in a new interview for HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” — which is, yes, the reason everyone was suddenly Googling the 29-year-old Olympic hopeful this week.

A federal bureaucrat slips away from the office a couple of days a week for an exotic out-of-town moonlighting gig — but don’t worry, no scandal here.

Because by all accounts, Ross Fletcher has been getting the job done — not only on his day shift as chief of staff for Washington’s Veterans Affairs Medical Center but onstage as well. For the past six years, the cardiologist has appeared off-Broadway and in theaters around the world in “Gatz,” a critically acclaimed, eight-hour adaptation of “The Great Gatsby.”

After years of discreet silence, Luigi Diotaiuti has finally gone public about his #1 celebrity customer: George Clooney. The chef/owner of Al Tiramisu, an Italian restaurant on P Street NW, issued an unusual press release Tuesday informing us that Clooney has been a regular at the restaurant for a decade.

“ I am constantly embarrassed by my own personality. ”

— Sean Penn addressing his temper, confrontational style and otherwise anti-social behavior in an interview on “Today” Tuesday. The actor/activist raised $2 million for Haiti’s earthquake relief at a Cannes fundraiser after blasting the “whole f------ world” for abandoning the country. (See video. . . . )