As they get ready to co-chair a D.C. fund-raiser for Liberia next week, buzz is building that the billionaire philanthropist and the widow of Jordan's King Hussein share more than a passion for open societies.

More and more, you're apt to find Her Majesty at the side of the Democratic Party kingmaker. Last November, she turned up for a lecture he gave at Oxford on "The Consequences of the War on Terrorism." (They drove off together afterward.) Last February, she accompanied him on a four-day trip to Liberia.

Their commitment to that war-ravaged country led them to help organize a fund-raiser next Tuesday for the Liberian Education Trust. The guests of honor are Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and Sen. Hillary Clinton. (Mind you, Hillary's presence doesn't mean Soros is abandoning his primary favorite, Sen. Barack Obama.)

Soros, 76, and Noor, 55, have been friends and political allies for years. (They campaigned against land mines back in 1998.) But lately, a good friend confirms, "They have been dating. They seem very happy."

...when Mike [Kinsley] and I met her [Noor] --both of us a bit embarrassed--she made us a little more embarrassed. She still was a bit prickly about Mike's article. But I can't say that she wasn't hospitable, even gracious. Then we spoke about acupuncture (which was then not available in Jordan), and a friend who was with us suggested a Jerusalem acupuncturist to her.

Let's get to the point of all this. She was so much more hostile to Israel than King Hussein that it was, I felt, more than a bit embarrassing to him. You can see it in her last book.