The Spy Who Got Out of the Cold

Sources say outed CIA agent Valerie Plame and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, have decided to watch their never-ending saga unfold from sunnier climes. D.C.’s second-most famous couple has understandably tired of the paparazzi camped in their driveway and are looking to relocate to laid-back Santa Barbara, we hear. 

According to a West Coast realty insider, the Wilsons have retained the suburb’s toniest real estate company, Sotheby’s, to find a new home for them and their twin daughters in the seaside enclave. Wilson, who wrote the June 6, 2003 New York Times Op-Ed debunking Bush’s claim that Saddam Hussein sought uranium from Niger, has long-standing ties in the area, having attended UCSB in the ‘70s. (A self-described former “beach bum,” he has joked that he majored in “history, volleyball, and surfing,” with a minor in womanizing and pot smoking.) While it’s uncertain precisely when the couple plans to make their move, friends say they're anxious to escape the Beltway microscope and the capitol’s haywire weather.

A rep for Wilson, Audrey Wolf, said she didn’t “have any clue” about her client’s Westward yearnings, and a spokeswoman for the Sotheby’s office in Santa Barbara declined to comment, saying, “We do not reveal the names of clients we work with unless they have given us permission.”