Dan Gross: Kim Delaney: 'I had a bad week'

R OXBOROUGH native/actress Kim Delaney has finally spoken publicly about her strange speech at the National Constitution Center in September, when former Defense Secretary Robert Gates received the Liberty Medal.

Delaney, star of Lifetime's "Army Wives," told Entertainment Weekly that she had been having a "bad week."

"I wasn't feeling great, and there were technical problems," Delaney told EW's Lynette Rice about her freeze-up at the event, at which she struggled reading from a prompter and was escorted from the stage by a handler.

"I was prepared, but it didn't come out that way. It was like the perfect storm for something to go wrong. And then it goes viral! There's just nothing you can do but deal with it, right?"

Like her "NYPD Blue" character, Delaney has struggled throughout her career with alcohol abuse, which led many to wonder whether she was under the influence during the ceremony. Her speech was widely viewed and ridiculed online. The National Constitution Center has never commented about the incident.

Norristown native actress Maria Bello hosts an invitation-only fundraiser for her charity, We Advance, March 26 at the Merion home of Gail Slogoff, founder of beauty blog BeBlushing.com.

We Advance, based in the slums of Citi Soleil and Wharf Jeremie, Haiti, works to provide medical attention, education and advocacy programs there.

"Diva of Haiti" Barbara Guillaume, co-founder of We Advance, will perform at the party with Bello, whose NBC cop-drama "Prime Suspect" was recently canceled. Bello says she is "thrilled to be back in Philadelphia and honored by the support for a cause that is so close to my heart." For more information on the group, visit WeAdvance.org.

Earlier in the week, Bello will attend the Human Rights Campaign's 16th annual Equality Dinner Gala on March 24 at the Ritz-Carlton. For info, visit HRCPhilly

Dinner.com

It's that time of year again. You know, flowers in bloom, birds returning from the South and Delilah's (100 Spring Garden) Entertainer of the Year contest.

Top dancers from the gentlemen's club compete for more than $10,000 in prize money at the annual contest, beginning at 8 p.m. March 21. Helping to judge the contest, along with Your Humble Narrator, are Jen Carroll, a "Top Chef" alum and Daily News Sexy Single who will soon launch a restaurant called Concrete Blonde; celebrity interviewer and Daily News Sexy Single Arthur Kade; Philly2Night.com's Brian Nagele; Tara Kelly, state broker manager at Beam, Inc.; Irina Mitchell of Old City's Kaleidoscope Boutique; Jay Hall of the soon-opening Atlantic City hotel Revel; Smith & Wollensky GM Lane Kelly; Matt Rafferty, assistant GM at Hotel Palomar; and Sonya Bright, owner of the Tantini Tanning Salon. 

Over the weekend, tattoo artist Shane O'Neill celebrated his win last week as Spike TV's "Ink Master," with his wife, Jen, and some friends in Atlantic City. The gang caught the Dub Step Awards at House of Blues at Showboat and also had drinks at the Foundation Room.

Menswear designer John Varvatos, who can be seen at 9:30 tonight as a mentor on NBC's "Fashion Star," will receive Philadelphia University's 2012 Spirit of Design Award at the school's fashion show April 28 at the Academy of Music. (See Ellen Gray on "Fashion Star")

Chef Brett Hulbert of Portabello's, (115 W. State) in Kennett Square, will prepare dishes from "Weeknights With Giada" March 29 as the Food Network's Giada De Laurentiis signs copies of her new book at the Williams-Sonoma in King of Prussia. Event starts at noon.