White House Correspondents Dinner Edition: DC’s Oscar Weekend

     Nearly 3,000 of the most influential leaders in politics, media, and entertainment will gather and glam up in DC this week for the annual White House Correspondents Dinner (WHCD).  The WHCD dates back to 1920 and honors exceptional journalism and awards student scholarships.  In recent years, the WHCD has evolved into a comedic roast of the media, the President, and the political establishment.  Each year, the guest list becomes more and more star-studded as Hollywood rubs elbows with Washington’s elite.  More than 100 paparazzi photogs will flood DC to cover the red carpet. 

       
    Seth Myers of Saturday Night Live will host this year’s WHCD on Saturday, April 30 at the Washington Hilton. Live CSPAN coverage on CSPAN at 6:45pm/EST. MSNBC will air the WHCD at 9:30pm/EST.

      The WHCD, pre-parties, and after parties might be harder to get into without an invite than Vanity Fair’s famed Oscar after party. In any case, be on the lookout for who you might see walkin through Dupont, dining at Old Ebbit, or hitting up monuments in the next few days.

     A classic WHCD moment: a parody of his last days in office by President Clinton:

WHCD Guests

      Each media organization tries to one-up the others with their VIP guests for the big dinner on Saturday.  Here’s some of who everyone snagged this year:

Politico

John Legend
Texas Gov. Rick Perry
Designer Tory Burch
Congressman Anthony Weiner
Secretary Hillary Clinton’s aide Huma Abedin
Joan Rivers
T. Boone Pickens
Cal Ripkin Jr.
UAE Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba
Melissa Leo
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer
Jeremy Piven
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowki
Democratic Governor’s Association Chairman Martin O’Malley (Gov. of Maryland)
Former RNC Chairman Michael Steel
Ambassador Nancy Brinker
Susan G. Komen

 

USA Today

David Arquette
Courtney Cox
Eliza Dushku

Rick Fox

Could be trouble?

Mother Jones

Sean Penn

Bloomberg

Brooke Burke (“Dancing with the Stars”)

Shaun White (Snowborder)

CNN

Paula Abdul

Lady Antebellum

Mila Kunis

The New Yorker

David Remnick

Jon Hamm ("Mad Men")

Joel and Ethan Coen

Zach Galifianakis

Adam Gopnik

Jill Lepore

James Surowiecki

Ryan Lizza

Newsweek

Anna Paquin ("True Blood")

Stephen Moyer ("True Blood")

Colin Powell

Barry Diller (Founder of the FOX Broadcasting Company)

Jon Favreau (Obama’s speechwriter)

Jason Sudeikis (“Saturday Night Live”)

Michael Kors

Diane von Furstenberg

Congressman Aaron Schock

Tina Brown (Editor-in-Chief of Newsweek and The Daily Beast)

People Magazine

Bristol Palin

Steven Tyler

Mindy Kaling ("The Office")

Chris Colfer ("Glee")

Chicago Tribune

Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel

Fox News

Kate Hudson
 

The Washington Post

Donald Trump

NPR
UN Ambassador Susan Rice
Ambassador Ian Cameron
Michael Stipe (lead singer R.E.M.)
David Byrne (founding member, Talking Heads)
Annie Clark (aka singer-songwriter St. Vincent)
Scott Z. Burns (writer/director/producer of The Bourn Ultimatum, Inconvenient Turth
Mike White (actor/writer/director School of Rock, Nacho Libre)

 

The Atlantic/NJ

David Axelrod (former WH advisor)
Former Senator Christopher Dodd (currently Chair & CEO of the MPAA)
Congressman John Dingell
Congressman Mike Pence
Congressman John Mica
Actress Maria Bello (Prime Suspect)
Actor Taylor Kitsch (Friday Night Lights)
Actor Ian Somerhalder (The Vampire Diaries)
Producer Mike Farah (Funny or Die)
   

ABC News

Eric Stonestreet (“Modern Family”)
Jesse Tyler Ferguson ("Modern Family")

Jane Lynch (“Glee”)

Paul Rudd
White House Social Secretary Jeremy Bernard
Senator Marco Rubio
Attorney General Eric Holder
Admiral Michael Mullen (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff)
Secretary Janet Napolitano

TIME

Senator Scott Brown
Steve Buscemi
Terence Winter (writer/executive producer of “The Sopranos”)
Tom Hooper (Academy Award-winning director of “The King’s Speech)
Designer Tara Subkoff
Jay Roach (Director of “Game Change”)
Danny Strong (Producer of “Game Change”)

Fortune

Evan Williams (Twitter co-founder)
Actress Mira Sorvino