PERSONALITIES

If actor Martin Sheen, activist for the homeless, has his way, Washingtonians are going to be surprised at the celebrities they'll see waking up on the heating grates March 4, Ash Wednesday morning. Sheen, in an open letter to be published in Friday's Variety and the Hollywood Reporter, calls on his colleagues in the entertainment world to join him in Washington to spend the night sleeping on heating grates.

Calling it the "Grate American Celebrity Sleepout|," Sheen wrote, "Spend one single night of your life in the very same condition as do our brothers and sisters who live outdoors on the streets of America all the time. By so doing, you will demonstrate solidarity with the homeless and active support for the urgent relief for the homeless bill HR 558 currently before Congress." The celebrities are advised to pay their own expenses and furnish a blanket or sleeping bag. A hot meal will be provided, Sheen said.

Mitch Snyder's Community for Creative Non-Violence is trying to get a congressman to write a similar "Dear Colleague" letter to invite members to spend the night of March 3 sleeping in the streets.

Lesley Stahl, Photographer

Maybe CBS News correspondent Lesley Stahl likes the fact that she has received her first photo credit. It was for the jacket picture of her husband Aaron Latham for a collection of his writings, "Perfect Pieces." Stahl hosted a book party for Latham at the Bristol Hotel Monday night. Latham said yesterday her first photo credit is "the smallest her name has ever appeared in print in the history of her entire career."

Among the guests were actors Albert Brooks and Lois Chiles, who are in town filming the movie "Broadcast News." Chiles is portraying a character in the film that is patterned after Stahl, and Chiles spent much of the evening as close as possible to the newswoman. Among the other guests were Watergate Judge John Sirica, Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke, former senator Paul Laxalt and playwright Larry L. King.

1988, Continued

By convention time 1988, political junkie Washingtonians will have predicted at least a dozen different players going for the big seat in the White House, and most of them won't come close. Last weekend CBS News Executive Political Director Marty Plissner and his wife Susan Morrison, director of the Washington Journalism Semester at American University, had one of their frequent parties for a group of political friends. And, as usual, for a bit of prognostication for 1988. The group, which included Republican National Committee Chairman Frank Fahrenkopf, former White House spokesman Jody Powell, former State Department spokesman Hodding Carter, U.S. News & World Report Editor David Gergen, direct mail fundraiser Dick Viguerie and Wall Street Journal bureau chief Al Hunt, voted 63 to 23 the Democrats would win in 1988.

Former senator Gary Hart, with 48 votes, and New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, with 20, were the leading contenders for the Democrats. Vice President George Bush and Sen. Robert Dole at 37 votes each were the choices for the top spot on the Republican ticket. The voting differed significantly at a similar party Plissner and Morrison threw last year when Bush was far ahead and Dole received only three votes. At that time Hart and Cuomo were only six votes apart. A surprise question on this year's list was: "Did he know?" The response was 55 yes; 29 no.

Out and About

The Beach Boys stopped by Potomac restaurant Sunday for dinner, and after looking on the spectacular site on the river said it might be a perfect spot for them to perform their July 4 concert, especially since they are no longer welcome on the Mall ...

Secretary of Commerce Malcolm Baldrige didn't quite look the same when he came back to work last month after spending several weeks -- part of that time in a hospital -- recovering from pneumonia. He had grown a beard, which he has since shaved, and retained a neatly trimmed mustache that is the subject of some debate at his office. As his administrative aide Helen Robbins pointed out, "I like it. I think he's going to let it grow a little more. I hope he'll let it grow back to the handlebar mustache he had during World War II." A handlebar mustache on a member of Reagan's Cabinet would indeed be something ...

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.