Speaking of US political tragics, Kim Beazley was at Romanian-born judo champ Nicholae Bicher's power diner, Machiavelli Ristorante, on Tuesday. 
Our Perth-bound former man in Washington lunched with his wife, Susie, Nine television personality Lisa Wilkinson and her husband, Peter FitzSimons, who wrote the book on Kim (back in 1998) and is now the frenetic chairman of the Australian Republican Movement.
And speaking of defenestrating the Queen, Nine's newish chief executive, Hugh Marks, is the Human Bandana's latest recruit to the Republican. FitzSimons signed him up the other week.
And speaking of signing things, Marks recently signed up Wilkinson to continue as the co-host of Nine's breakfast show, Today. We gather she got a tidy pay rise too - as you would expect with Today nipping at the heels of Seven's rival breakfast show, Sunrise.