If this election season has blurred the line between politics and entertainment, then Saturday night’s annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner completely erased it.
Once dubbed the “nerd prom” for the wonky press corp, the glitzy gala has become Washington’s Oscars, where Hollywood and political elite mingle at swank embassy parties around town before and after walking the red carpet to the dinner.
The festivities kicked off on Thursday with a tech-heavy bash hosted by well-connected cable exec and former talent agent Eric Kuhn. The party was so successful that the sleepy Spanish ambassador asked guests to leave so he could go to bed.
On Friday night, HBO and odd bedfellow Google got together to celebrate “Breaking Bad” actor Bryan Cranston’s new effort, “All the Way,” in which he is transformed into President Lyndon B. Johnson.
The party was held at the Renwick Gallery where guests pondered modern art installations and the improbable rise of Donald Trump as Republican frontrunner.
“It’s impossible to be a political pundit these days,” said MSNBC commentator Luke Russert, whose late father Tim Russert was a Beltway legend as host of NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Russert, now a force in his own right, noted that not long ago, Wisconsin’s Republican Gov. Scott Walker was the presumed Republican nominee.
Walter Isaacson, a former head of CNN, Steve Jobs’ biographer and the author of “Benjamin Franklin: An American Life,” chatted with journalist Maureen Orth (also the mother of Luke Russert) and PBS’s Jim Lehrer.
We hear Lehrer is angling to moderate what will likely be the highest-rated debate of the year: the expected face-off between Hillary Clinton and Trump.
All the news networks will also be looking to get their choice for moderator in front of the Federal Debate Commission, headed by former Bill Clinton aide Michael D.McCurry and Frank Fahrenkopf Jr.
They will likely decide in June after the final primaries. The process has been harshly critiqued by those on the TV news side of the business. Lehrer is even a board director at the commission.
Meanwhile, top news producer Tammy Haddad hosted brunch for hundreds of folks on Saturday at the former Georgetown home of Katharine Graham, the legendary publisher of the Washington Post.
“She would turn in her grave if she could see what this (weekend) has become,” said one person at the party who knew Graham.
The venue played host to guests including former CNNer Peter Hamby, now head of news at Snapchat, along with Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and his newest board member, Arianna Huffington, who was handing out her latest book on getting enough sleep. An appropriate topic for the weekend.
“She would turn in her grave if she could see what this has become…”
- An insider speaking of Katharine Graham, iconic publisher of the Washington Post
The Vanity Fair/Bloomberg post-dinner party was the gathering spot for those with ego, power and money. Among them, our spies spotted venture capitalist investor Peter Thiel and TPG’s David Bonderman, who was seen in the corridor of the French embassy chatting with Kalanick and CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
Also listed in the correspondents’ dinner program for the Presidential roast were Twitter investor Chris Sacca and Warner Music boss Len Blavatnik.
This being Washington, where everyone works 24/7, the parties also followed the same pattern. Democratic political operative and founder of Media Matters David Brock held an unofficial “after-after party” that was still going at 4 a.m. Sunday morning.
There, CAA talent agent Olivia Metzger barred CNN’s Don Lemon from getting in, according to sources. He had just switched agencies three weeks prior.
In Washington, one never knows which foe will be holding sway of the invitation list.