Lloyd Grove wasn't the only gossip causing stares at Fox News' White House Correspondents Dinner. That honor goes to the Boston Globe Mark Shanahan, who, the Boston Herald gleefully points out, was 800 thread count sheets to the wind.

Sources say the buzz-cut Names columnist was woozy and bleary-eyed, with a drink in hand, at the recent Radio and Television Correspondents dinner in Washington, D.C., and that his behavior was “totally inappropriate” at the gathering of heavy hitters that included Fox News stars Bill O’Reilly, Chris Wallace and Alyson Camerota, former White House Chief of Staff Andy Card and ex-Homeland Security honcho Tom Ridge.

“He was like a fish out of water. He was wobbling, his eyes were glazed over,” said Someone Who Was There. [...]

Shanahan, our source said, had drinks at a Fox News pre-party and was observed drinking wine at the dinner that followed.

“At one point,” said another spywitness, “he knocked the bread basket into his lap and another person at the table had to help him put the bread back.”

Shanahan was seated with Card, Ridge and Camerota at the annual gathering of broadcast bigshots at the Hilton Washington.

We’re told he was rather attentive towards one female Fox personality who appeared “visibly uncomfortable.”

Reached on vacation with his family, Shanahan denied having too much to drink, said he was not drunk and did not behave inappropriately at all.

“I think that’s hilarious,” he said. “This is a hilarious conversation . . . this is really pathetic - and hilarious.”

When asked if he had been drinking at the event, Shanahan said “Of course I had a drink. And I paid for my drinks and my hotel.” [Boston Herald]