Asking the wrong person to dance when drunk

 George Brown, then UK foreign secretary, was a notorious drunk and famed for his gaffes. The best one remains the incident when the worse-for-wear foreign secretary was rejected by a gorgeously attired Peruvian whom he had approached for a dance at a diplomatic reception, on the grounds that he was drunk, the music being played was the Peruvian national anthem, and his prospective partner was the Cardinal Archbishop of Lima.