Washington’s Oscar weekend begins May 9 as Hollywood and New York’s biggest celebrities come to town for an evening with the President, Vice President, official Washington and the media.
The Beeb is stepping up its game in the former colonies by getting into the After Party sweepstakes in the Washington, D.C., dinner season. All the top radio and TV correspondents will gather on March 17 for the RTCA dinner; President Obama is a no-show, but Vice President Biden will appear and he’s always been a favorite of broadcasters for his commentary.
BBC has hired top party guru Philip Dufour to capture the media stars, their guests, and the accolades for 2010.
Dufour also worked on MSNBC’s 2009 after party. The event, held at the Washington Historical Society, was unforgettable. The evening included a Starbucks “Morning Joe” coffee bar and a celeb mixologist, Rachel Maddow.
Check out WHCInsider’s coverage of the 2009 party.
Word on the street has it that The New Yorker has entered the pre-party, post-party sweepstakes, with a bash before the White House Correspondents Dinner on Friday, April 30. Gawker reports the event, “to which you’re not invited,” will be on the rooftop of the W Hotel.
Washington media members cheered the news of new competition for high profile guests on a night traditionally “owned” by Time and People magazines. Bloomberg is the undisputed king of the after party on Saturday (and hosts a private dinner at Café Milano pre-WHCD). Will Time Warner challenge Conde Nast? We’ll investigate, but in the meantime, give us your tips on party plans and guest lists as they develop.
In the meantime, check out some photos from last year’s pre-dinner receptions.
WHCInsider favorite Kevin Sheekeyannounced he’s leaving Bloomberg politics and returning to Bloomberg business this spring, after serving as one of Mayor Bloomberg’s closest advisers for 13 years.
A Washington legend through his work as chief of staff to New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Sheekey played a critical role in the development of the super-select Bloomberg after party following the White House Correspondents Dinner.
Kevin Sheekey and Rev Al Sharpton spoof Meet the Press in the Betsy Fischer birthday video last week.
As the story goes, when Vanity Fair stepped down from hosting the exclusive after dinner party, Sheekey made the Russian Trade Ministry an offer they couldn’t refuse. And when the cast of NBC’s “West Wing” TV show arrived on candidate John McCain’s bus, the Straight Talk Express, a new Washington monument was born.
It’s still more than two months away, but the White House Correspondents Dinner scramble for the best guests has already started to heat up. The Washington rumor mill is whispering that that ABC News has grabbed a top prize: Senatorial newbie Scott Brown. Check out FishbowlDC’s “Who Will Take McDreamy McBrown to Prom?”
Who else will show up on May 1st? Other top gets would be Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, anyone from the cast of Fox’s hit TV show “Glee,” and of course Sarah Palin. Todd Palin was Greta Van Susteren’s guest last year, seen here at the annual White House Correspondents brunch.
Greta Van Susteren with Todd Palin at the 2009 WHCInsider Garden Brunch
President Obama’s use of new media and social networking was widely praised during the campaign. That same focus a year into his presidency has some in the White House press corps grumbling, according to Howard Kurtz in today’s Washington Post:
“President Obama hasn’t held a full-scale news conference since July. Instead, he answered a dozen people’s questions last week on YouTube, most of the easily finessed and — extra bonus! — no annoying follow-ups of the kind posed by real, live journalists.”
Watch the president’s YouTube interview below:
“It’s a source of great frustration here … It’s important for us to hold the president’s feet to the fire,” CBS White House correspondent Chip Reid told Kurtz.
Greta Van Susteren with Todd Palin at the 2009 WHCInsider Garden Brunch
She may be big in prime time at Fox News, but Greta Van Susteren began her Washington career as a Justice Department intern and CNN contributor. Today she celebrates her 8th anniversary as the host of “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren.”
She is the only woman who has regularly delivered top ratings in primetime cable. She has traveled more miles and interviewed more newsmakers than her competition, while being the first prime time host to do a regular web show. Check out Fox’s full-page ad in today’s Wall Street Journal.
Before Rush Limbaugh became a Miss America judge, Van Susteren gained notoriety for making a pageant contestant pass out during her interview.
Click here for the video of Greta reflecting on some of her most memorable interviews.
Obama supporters received an email from the president’s top campaign leader, David Plouffe, thanking them for their participation in a survey about what they want to the President to do in 2010.
The email linked to a web video of Plouffe explaining the survey results and inviting supporters to watch a live strategy update and Q&A session with President Obama on February 4, at 5:45 PM ET, called “A Conversation with the President.”
As Republicans wonder whether allowing Obama’s exchange with GOP lawmakers to be televised was a wise political move, a campaign has started to demand more opportunities for the right and the left to ask some questions.
“[A] bipartisan group of bloggers, commentators, politicos, and Internet advocates—with a combined readership in the millions—has launched an online campaign urging President Obama, GOP House leader John Boehner and Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell to make Question Time—televised and webcasted—a regular feature of American democracy. You can join this call at DemandQuestionTime.com,” writes David Corn (@DavidCornDC) in an article in today’s Mother Jones.
Evidently, interest was overwhelming: the campaign website was down this morning.
Watch the video of the President’s appearance at the House GOP Issues Conference in Baltimore.
The White House announced in a blog post this morning that President Obama will “take questions from YouTube users next Wednesday at a live White House event,” according to Talking Points Memo. Christina Bellantoni reports the project, which was not announced through the usual press channels, is “another example of the Obama team circumventing the Washington establishment to communicate more directly with voters.”
There’s already a free White House iPhone app that will live stream the president’s State of the Union address tomorrow night.
Jay Leno’s back at the Tonight Show (in March) and back at the WHCD (in May), a venue he “headlined in 2004, 2000 and 1987,” according to Ed Henry’sreport this morning at CNN.
The WH Correspondents Association, which hosts the annual dinner to raise money for college scholarships and journalism prizes, invited the comic weeks ago when “he was simply the host of a prime-time show that was failing five nights a week. But when he appears at the [dinner] … Leno will be the guy who pushed aside Conan O’Brien,” writes Lisa de Moraes in today’s Washington Post.
Newly-elected Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown not only got more votes than Martha Coakley on Election Day, he had more Twitter followers (10,76 to 3,657), more Facebook friends (83,535 to 15,573), a bigger YouTube channel (675,208 views to 76,805).
Coakley’s campaign neglected to tweet details of President Obama’s Saturday rally to supporters, according to an article in Advertising Age.
“It was all old-school ways of getting people to spread the word. It felt like they were trying to win Ted Kennedy’s seat using Ted Kennedy’s techniques,” according to David Meerman Scott, a Coakley supporter and author of “The New Rules of Marketing and PR.”
400 Visitors Meet FLOTUS as White House Visitors Office Celebrates Successful Year
White House visitors enjoyed a special welcome yesterday – First Lady Michelle Obama and First Dog Bo in the Blue Room. It was the one-year anniversary of the Obama presidency, which began with President Obama promising “To open the White House to more visitors.”
Associated Press reports more than 614,000 guests visited the White House last year.
Visitors have commented on the lack of personal touches to the Oval Office and the absence of family photos. The spartan look was on dramatic display during NBC News’ unprecedented two-hour, behind-the-scenes special with President Obama in the White House.
Even President Obama’s Air Force One office has a noticeable lack of “stuff.”
But Obama has finally put his own touch on the Oval Office: fresh fruit has replaced cut flowers, family photos are now on display along with Native American pottery and some small technological devices from the mid-19th century on loan from the National Museum of American History’s patent collection.
He’s even added some tchotchkes, including a penholder that was a gift from Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Check out the photos and article by Erin Loechner of “Design for Mankind” on AOL’s ShelterPop blog by clicking here.
Carlos Allen, the alleged “third crasher” at the November State Dinner for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, insists he had an invitation, so says his lawyer in The Washington Post. Like Tareq and Michaela Salahi, Allen has a somewhat clouded professional history in the DC-area: his Mount Pleasant event space, his web site and other entrepreneurial ventures may not have current licenses or registrations.
Click here for the rest of Amy Argetsiner’s article.
“Anything that is useful to both dissidents in Iran and Martha Stewart has a lot going for it.”
For WHCInsiders who were out of New York Times range: on the first day of 2010 media maven and bestselling author David Carr declared, “Twitter has more raw capability for users than anything since e-mail.”
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The Beeb is stepping up its game in the former colonies by getting into the After Party sweepstakes in the Washington, D.C., dinner season. All the top radio and TV correspondents will gather on March 17 for the RTCA dinner; President Obama is a no-show, but Vice President Biden will appear and he’s always been a favorite of broadcasters for his commentary.
