My ideal dinner party would take place with everyone lounging medieval-Sephardi-style on giant patterned pillows on comfortable benches - people say things when they are semi-recumbent that they do not say when seated upright. I would want to have Locke and Thomas Paine there to get their views on the Patriot Act - and I would want Emma Goldman because I would like to hear about what a liberated woman's love life was like at the very beginning of the sexual revolution - and Kate Winslet because "she is so cool" as my daughter puts it and I agree. Cherie Blair because I admire her balancing act and to try to get an off-the-record glimpse of the players. Hugo Chavez to stir things up and Barak Obama so we could say we hung out with him before he was president. And Jude Law for decoration.