Santa Monica, CA — It wasn’t Britney or Paris, but campaigning in the Los Angeles area Tuesday, Rudy Giuliani had his own celebrity sighting.

During a quick campaign stop at the “The Counter” diner, Giuliani met actress Kerry Washington. A D.C. native, Washington has starred in multiple recent hits including “Ray,” and “The Last King of Scotland.”

But the run-in was not at random. Washington said she planned to be at the Giuliani event as part of an ongoing, multiple-location fashion shoot that will eventually be published in the New York Times Magazine. The spread will feature the actress dressed in various labels at a number of political events.

Arriving at the diner wearing camera-ready makeup and dressed in a black, red and white designer suit, Washington stationed herself near the entrance alongside a photographer and was able to snag a couple quick photos with Hizzoner. (see video) It was clear that Giuliani did not immediately recognize the actress, greeting her like every other patron by posing for a photo, saying hello and immediately moving on.

After he took a few media questions inside the diner, Washington again tried to catch the former NYC mayor on his way out for a couple more photos, but Giuliani passed her by without stopping.

Campaign aides said they were previously unaware of the shoot and did not initially recognize the celeb–forcing Washington to introduce herself as an “actress” to staffers. (Full disclosure: I also did not initially recognize Washington.)

Don’t expect Washington to join Giuliani on the trail anytime soon however. The visit was strictly “business,” Washington said–telling me afterward that she is not a Giuliani supporter and was solely at the campaign appearance for the photo shoot.

And here is a piece of random trivia. It turns out that today was not the first time Giuliani and Washington have been at the same event this year. The politico and the actress were both guests of various media at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner held in D.C. this past spring.

San Francisco, CA – Haven’t seen much of Rudy Giuliani in recent weeks? Well neither have we—at least compared to some of his opponents (save Fred Thompson) who hold between five and seven events a day in New Hampshire and Iowa .

By comparison, the former New York City mayor has been participating in only one or two public events a day. One of Giuliani’s major priorities this month is raising the millions of dollars necessary to compete in Florida, the nearly two dozen February 5 primary states and go up against the personal fortune of rival Mitt Romney. We are here in California for the next two days where he will hold only two public events but plans to attend numerous private fundraisers. Now is crunch time for Hizzoner since there will be little time to fundraise once Christmas rolls around and he starts campaigning around the clock.

A crowd of several hundred Fred Thompson supporters gathered today at a retirement community in Laguna Woods, California, to hear the senator speak about such topics as national security and tax reform. But before Mr. Thompson addressed his audience, former talk show radio host, John Ziegler, took to the podium, poking fun at the senator’s opponents–among them, Hillary Clinton.

Referring to yesterday’s standoff at a Hillary Clinton campaign office in Rochester, New Hampshire–in which a man with a history of mental illness held five people hostage for nearly six hours and threatened to detonate an explosive–Mr. Ziegler made the following remarks:

“Yesterday was an interesting day in the campaign. I’m sure you all heard about what happened at the Hillary Clinton headquarters in New Hampshire. In case you missed it, some nut-job broke in there and took hostages and apparently threatened to blow himself up unless he got a chance to speak to Hillary. Now, I found this rather odd because I always feel like blowing myself up after hearing Hillary Clinton speak.”

Click here to listen:

Although Ziegler’s remarks were met with laughter by some, his comments didn’t sit well with everyone. One female attendee, who wished not to be identified by name, called them “distasteful” and “insensitive” to the mentally ill as well as to the Clinton volunteers involved in the incident. The seriousness of yesterday’s events–which caused local schools and businesses to lock down as well as Barack Obama and John Edwards’ New Hampshire offices to close–was “no laughing matter,” she said.

Senator Thompson and his wife, Jeri, were not present in the auditorium when the remarks were made. And for his part, Mr. Ziegler told the audience that his opinions were “not necessarily those of Fred Thompson, the Fred Thompson campaign, or anyone affiliated with the Republican party.”