MUSIC REVIEW
An ailing Jonathan Biss valiantly
works his way through a program of
Beethoven sonatas. C3
KIDSPOST
Which new toys are out of this
world? Playmobil’s Mars Research
Vehicle and Harry Potter dolls. C8CAROLYN HAX
There’s no good way to ask the
bride with relationship issues
whether the wedding is on or off. C8BY DAN ZAKsimi valley, calif. — You smell it, or
think you do. Like a bonfire on a beach.
Then you see it in your headlights. Ash.
Or maybe insects? The signs are coy at
first, on the westbound 118 Freeway,
cleaving through sandstone crags that
are 70 million years old. The thunder-
head of smoke, a purple lesion on the
orange twilight, is mysterious but not
alarming. But you round a bend near
the Santa Susana Pass and the fire is
suddenly before you: ruby-red ribbons
of flame coiled around dark hills of
sagebrush and sumac, accented by the
snaking brake lights of Simi Valley
traffic. It is unnatural and natural,
simultaneously.
This is the Easy Fire, the one that
gnawed the perimeter of the Ronald
Reagan Presidential Library, and it
quickly disappears from sight. It’s
nighttime now, and the winding roadsBY LISA BONOSWhen you’re in the public eye,
it’s nearly impossible to divorce
in private.
Former congresswoman Katie
Hill’s divorce has spilled onto the
news pages as the California
Democrat acknowledged an im-
proper relationship that she and
her husband had together with a
campaign staffer, was accused of
having an affair with one of her
congressional staffers (which
she’s denied) and on Oct. 27
announced she would resign
rather than endure an ethics
investigation. Hill says her hus-
band, without her consent, re-
leased explicit images of her that
have been published on conser-
vative and British news sites.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) is
also going through a divorce
while weathering allegations
that she’s had an affair with a
political consultant. She’s not
publicly discussing her personal
life, though that doesn’t stop
reporters from asking.
And when Sen. Joni Ernst (R-
Iowa) and her husband filed for
divorce in January, numerous
media outlets broadcast the de-
tails in the court documents, in
which she claims her husband
assaulted her and subjected her
to years of emotional abuse. The
Iowa court later sealed most of
the couple’s divorce records at
the Ernsts’ request.
A messy divorce is hard
enough to weather when you’re
an ordinary person and rumors
are spreading as far as the car-
pool line or the church potluck.
It’s even harder if voters and the
media (including The Washing-
ton Post, let’s be honest) are
asking about and reporting on
every drip of information.
Hill is one of the few politi-
cians whose divorce has led to
revelations that forced them
from office. Now she finds herself
at the center of a fierce debate
about sexism, sexual orientation
(she’s bisexual) and revenge porn
(sexually explicit photos of some-
one shared online without their
consent).
Yes, she was facing an ethics
investigation, but some speculate
that if she were more established
in Congress — or a man — her
career might have survived a
nasty split. “Certainly this would
have a bigger impact on someone
of her demographic than a mid-
dle-aged white man,” Carrie
Goldberg, a lawyer who specializ-
es in sexual privacy violations,
told the Lily’s Caroline Kitchener.
There are higher expectations
for women in politics than for
men, said Debbie Walsh, director
of the Center for American Wom-
en and Politics at Rutgers Univer-
sity. “Women are put on a pedes-
SEE DIVORCE ON C3Estranged
bedfellows:
Politicians
and divorce
California burns. Always has.
Firefighters get one blaze under control, then another appears. Welcome to the Golden State’s war without end.
DAVID MCNEW/GETTY IMAGESand staggered hillsides perform
sleights of hand. A wildfire can be
hard to find and easy to lose. Hunting
for one, you stumble upon another.
Farther west in Somis, there is a soft
orange glow over a ridge. A sunrise
from the north. A newborn wildfire.
It’s so new that police officers —
mapping evacuations on the hood of a
cruiser on East La Loma Avenue —
aren’t sure of its name.
It will be christened Maria. Fingers
of flame clutch the top of the ridge,
then embers cascade over the near
side of the canyon. Parts of the hillside
resemble erupting volcanoes in minia-
ture. Helicopters roar overhead and
unleash curtains of water. The fire
stabs west, searing a path toward the
Santa Clara River, fueled by hissing
Santa Ana winds that drown out the
crackle. Trees spasm in the wind, then
catch fire. Smoke rolls like a fast-
SEE FIRES ON C2DAN ZAK/THE WASHINGTON POST
TOP: The Maria Fire burns on a hillside as it expands to 8,000 acres
on its first night Nov. 1 near Somis, Calif. ABOVE: Jim Moseley
demonstrates his fire-protection spray for best-selling author Dean
Koontz at Koontz’s house near Irvine.board, which is made up of
journalists. The journalists were
concerned about the ethics of
collaborating on a show with a
potential news subject, said Seib,
the Wall Street Journal’s Wash-
ington editor.
“He [diGenova] seemed to be
edging into a story we all cover,”
Seib said, referring to diGenova’s
involvement in advising Trump
about impeachment. As a result,
Seib said he asked diGenova to
“step back” from performing in
any more skits “until [the im-
peachment] storm has passed.”
In an interview, diGenova ex-
pressed disappointment about
his ouster but had only one
on-the-record comment about it:
“I’m very sad and I feel very sorry
for the club.”
The sidelining of diGenova —
which Seib stressed is tempo-
rary — is unusual for a club that
traces its roots to the 1880s and
SEE GRIDIRON ON C5BY PAUL FARHIIn Washington, even an ama-
teur singer can be a source of
controversy these days.
Exhibit A: The Gridiron Club,
the hoary Washington institu-
tion that has been home to
presidents and news media big-
wigs for more than a century, just
asked one of the performers in its
annual satirical show to step
aside because of his close ties to
President Trump.
Joseph diGenova, a prominent
Republican lawyer who has ad-
vised Trump and is one of his
frequent defenders on Fox News
Channel, was booted from per-
forming at the club’s next dinner.
Club members cited his promi-
nence as a newsmaker, not his
politics.
The Gridiron’s president, Jerry
Seib, said he asked diGenova not
to sing at the Gridiron dinner in
March at the behest of the club’sA Trump ally won’t sing
at the Gridiron dinner
BY ALLISON STEWARTIn January 2016, Prince flew
writer Dan Piepenbring out to Pais-
ley Park, his office-park-like com-
pound in suburban Minnesota.
Prince had decided to write a mem-
oir and was auditioning potential
co-writers. Piepenbring, a young
editor at the august literary journal
the Paris Review, and a lifelong fan,
had made the shortlist.
An abbreviated courtship pro-
cess followed with Prince doing
the courting. There were late-
night phone calls and invitations
to join his Australian tour, and a
private screening of “Kung Fu Pan-
da 3.” Prince was cheerful and
inquisitive, and occasionally
frosty when one of Piepenbring’s
answers displeased him. Piepen-
bring was awkward and nervous.
He soon got the job.
Prince had already settled on a
title, “The Beautiful Ones,” named
SEE BOOK WORLD ON C4
Glimpses of the man behind purple curtain
THE BEAUTIFUL
ONES
By Prince
Spiegel & Grau.
288 pp. $30BOOK WORLDJOSEPH GIANNETTIIn an image
from his
posthumous
memoir/
scrapbook,
Prince plays
his guitar
in 1978.KLMNO
Style
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5 , 2019. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/STYLE EZ SU C