Sideshow: 'Scandal' star was a 'goofy' kid

Elle magazine has declared Kerry Washington a bona fide star and an A-list celebrity! Finally!

The 36-year-old Scandal beauty graces the June cover.

Kerry tells the mag she didn't initially plan to go into acting.

"I imagined I'd be a clinical psychologist, with a focus on how performance shapes identity," says Kerry, who did a double major, in sociology and anthropology, at George Washington University.

"I'd figure out ways to use role-playing in the healing of people."

Seriously? As a kid, she never dreamed of being rich 'n' famous?

"I was not that girl," says Kerry. "I was a kooky theater kid, silly and goofy and academic." All the more reason to love her.

Country-rock crooners the Mavericks and British guitar god Richard Thompson will headline the 52d Philadelphia Folk Festival on Aug. 16-18 at the Old Pool Farm in Upper Salford Township in Montgomery County.

This year's bill also includes Texas swing band Asleep at the Wheel (fronted by Montgomery County native Ray Benson), modern jug band Carolina Chocolate Drops, ukulele wiz Jake Shimabukuro, David Uosikkinen's In the Pocket , Camden County vintage rocker Ben Vaughn, bluesman Otis Taylor, and gospel knockouts Como Mamas, among others. WXPN-FM DJ and folk godfather Gene Shay will emcee as always. Info and tix: 215-247-1300, www.folkfest.org.

- Dan DeLuca

There was nonconformist rock 'n' roll at the buttoned-down chi-chi at the Costume Institute Gala on Monday night at the Met in New York. Nicole Richie had a white-blue punk hairdo, Anne Hathaway was weirdly blonde, Jessica Biel paired her Giambattista Valli dress with a silver nose ring, and Julianne Hough had a spider-shaped ring on her finger. The highlight: Kim Kardashian and Kanye West played at being the perfect couple.

Suburgatory star Jane Levy, 23, has filed for divorce from Golden Helmet actor Jaime Freitas, E! News reports. Huh? Didn't know they were married? No one did: They kept their two-year marriage a secret. That sends a chill down my spine.

Chris Brown uses characteristic tact, understanding, and sheer poesy to explain why he decided to break up - yet again - with gf and onetime assault victim Rihanna. "I am always going to love that person," he tells Australian radio. "But . . . at the end of the day, she's a young girl. I can't really be focused on wife-ing somebody that young."

Brown, the awesomest role model since Caligula, adds, "I just need to . . . be a man and be the best Chris Brown I can be, instead of worrying about whoever else is going to be in my side pocket." Can't believe how many nice things he said about Ri-Ri!

New Jersey's celebrated Gov. Chris Christie will host the Today show on May 24, NBC said Tuesday. The show will be beamed from the Jersey Shore as part of Today's Great American Adventure road trip   .

What was the first thing Frasier alumnus David Hyde Pierce, 54, said when he heard he'd been nominated for a best actor Tony Award for Christopher Durang's Chekhov mashup Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike?

"Yum," Pierce tells USA Today.

Huh? "I was eating oatmeal for breakfast at the . . . exact moment when the text came through saying congratulations. I had just taken a big bite of oatmeal. So that was the actual word that passed through my head."