Actress Jessica Alba met with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi Friday morning to talk about the importance of global education. Pelosi then took Alba to a conference room in the speaker's suite to address 18 members of the Democratic Women's Caucus about raising awareness of the issue.

"Jessica spoke very articulately and knowledgably about the need for greater emphasis on education," a House leadership staffer told Politics Daily in an exclusive interview Friday morning.

Alba, 28, the star of movies "Sin City" and "Fantastic Four," has recently become the U.S. co-chair of the group 1GOAL: Education for All, which advocates for the 75 million children worldwide (half in Africa) who are denied access to education.

"It's great to see Jessica Alba bringing her celebrity to promote this important issue of basic education to children in the developing world," said a policy staffer for Speaker Pelosi.

The actress was described by another staffer as "gorgeous," very skinny, with "reddish brown hair and huge lips."

For her meeting on Capitol Hill, Alba wore a black-and-white tweed suit, black tights and black patent leather Mary Jane Chanel heels. She wore her hair down and "very natural makeup." For D.C.'s autumn weather, the actress wore a black overcoat with a ruffle down one side.

Staffers said Alba appeared somewhat awestruck during her visit to the most powerful office in the Capitol. After the policy meetings, she went to the Speaker's Balcony and asked to have her picture taken with a personal camera with the impressive view of the National Mall and the monuments. She also spent time taking pictures with some of the key House staff who work on global education issues.

Pelosi's staffers say Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) has championed the issue of education in the developing world. Over the past several years, Lowey has pushed to increase funding for global education, and in the current House appropriations bill for Foreign Operations, Lowey was able to get $1 billion dollars for education initiatives worldwide.

Washingtonians never cease to be amazed at how much smaller movie stars are in real life. One of the staffers who saw Alba in person describes her as so small that her "whole body is the size of my arm."

Follow me on Twitter @EmilyMillerDC

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